Out of all the blank checks that writer/director Zach Cregger could cash after the success of Barbarian and Weapons, Resident Evil feels like a particularly interesting choice. Throughout the last decade or so, the trend for creatives is to leverage intellectual property as a jumping-off point for their own independent ideas. But Cregger joins the growing ranks of filmmakers like Nia DaCosta or Chloé Zhao to do the reverse, tackling a big-name property after the success of a few indies—and man, does the first trailer look awesome.
Resident Evil, set to release September 18, draws inspiration from the classic games while telling a brand new story. The brief teaser sets up the premise succinctly: a medical courier named Brian (Austin Abrams, reunited with Creggor after his scene-stealing turn in Weapons) ends up stranded in a monstrous nightmare of unknown origin and is left to fight for his survival. One description from Cinema Con hailed the movie as “Mad Max: Fury Road, but horror”
Cregger has made it known that he’s looking to translate the experience and tone of playing the games rather than straightforwardly adapt them. While recent installments of the gaming franchise and the Paul W.S. Anderson movie adaptations have skewed more action-heavy, the earlier games were more of the survival horror genre. Dropped in with limited resources, gamers were often controlling characters whose main goal was to survive the night, not save the world. Cregger has said that while he’s using the Resident Evil name, the story would be wholly original, telling a similar tale of one man’s quest to make it through the movie alive.
The trailer gives a bit more context on what Cregger is looking to do with his narrative, in addition to recently published set visit reports. Cregger describes Brian as a “hapless everyman,” dropped into an extraordinary situation while the movie lives in “the world of the Raccoon City games…happening without necessarily breaking the universe of the story the games are telling.” While early-game protagonists were often police officers or special forces members with weapons training, that won’t be the case with Brian, who sounds like he’ll have more in common with this writer than with the rocket launcher-wielding Leon Kennedy.
While Cregger’s story will be unique, the games will serve as a direct influence in terms of how the movie looks and feels. Cregger talked about filming from a perspective with a wide lens where you’re perched on the shoulder of the character, moving when he moves. That’s to say, the audience probably won’t see the scares coming ahead of time, making it both more cinematic and spookier in equal measure. The director is also looking to draw upon silhouettes of monsters made famous throughout the early installments of those Raccoon City games (i.e., Resident Evil 1, 2, and 3), while finding ways to put his own spin on new, horrifying creations. (To my fellow game fans: there’s a strong hint we’re going to get zombie dogs.)
For those hoping that a franchise adaptation will still have room for Cregger’s distinct sense of dark comedy, rest assured: Cregger specifically shouted out Sam Raimi’s absurdist horror-comedy classic Evil Dead II as a reference point.
While fans of the game may have wanted something hewing closer to the source material, and fans of cinema may have wanted Cregger to keep delivering wholly original ideas, it certainly looks like Cregger found a way to serve both bases and run spooky season once again.
Source:
www.gq.com
