The director of the upcoming Resident Evil movie says it was a lot funnier until test screenings convinced him to change this.
The latest Resident Evil movie, due for release on September 18, is set during the events of Resident Evil 2 but tells a completely different story featuring new characters.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Zach Cregger – whose previous horror movies Weapons and Barbarian were critically acclaimed – was asked if there were any changes made to Resident Evil after test screenings.
Cregger replied that test audiences thought the film was too much of a comedy, so in response he removed amount of the comedy from the film. The result, in his opinion, is a better film where the few jokes that remain hit harder as a result.
“I learned that people really liked the movie, but they thought it was too funny,” he explained. “So over the course of my testing, I stripped out as much of the jokes as possible.
“I then found that not only did the audience enjoy the movie more, but I also liked the movie a lot more. A little bit of humor goes a long way in a horror movie, and there’s not a single joke I took out of this movie that I miss. So that perspective was really helpful.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Cregger said he wasn’t worried about Resident Evil fans reacting badly to the fact that the movie doesn’t revolve around characters from the games, because he had to focus on making the movie he wanted to make, instead of pleasing everyone.
“Tere are different kinds of Resident Evil fans,” he explained. “There are fans like me who love the experience of playing the games and think there’s never been a movie that has represented what it feels like to play Resident Evil. That’s how I categorize myself as a fan.
“Then there are fans of the games who specifically love the lore and the characters and the nitty-gritty details of the backstory. But my movie is not spending a lot of currency on those things. I’m not putting any of the legacy characters into this movie.
“So if that is what you love about these games, then you’re going to feel a certain way about it – ‘here comes yet another Hollywood movie, and they’re once again not doing Leon and all the characters I was hoping they were going to do.’
“I understand that perspective, but at the same time, I can’t let that affect my output. I have to make the best version of this movie that I’m capable of making and devote myself entirely to it. I cannot be worried about whether I am pleasing enough of every spectrum of fandom. If I tried to please everybody, I’d end up pleasing nobody. That much is obvious.
“I just have to be okay with people voicing their opinion. I’m a grown-up. When I took this on, I understood what I was walking into. So it would be weird for me to act surprised or bent out of shape that the thing that was obviously going to happen is now happening.”
