The director Zach Cregger knows very well that he is under the spotlight for his film based on Resident Evil (in theaters from September 17), despite a solid reputation as a rising voice in American horror cinema, following the successes of Barbarian and Weapons. To botch the adaptation of one of the most popular video game sagas in history, thirty years after the first chapter published by Capcom, can cost him dearly. Chatting with Hollywood Reporter he demonstrates he has the right attitude: to build a shield and take it philosophically, remembering that he himself is a video game fan.
Resident Evil and Zach Cregger’s pragmatic approach to the cult video game
Will there be too much humor? But why isn’t the adaptation of a story drawn from the games? These are some of the questions crossing the Resident Evil fandom on the eve of the film’s cinema release by an author-celebrated name like Zach Cregger. The director and screenwriter proposed the project himself as a pure fan, so he puts himself in their shoes: “There are different kinds of Resident Evil fans. To those like me, they like to play and think that there has never been a film that conveys the sensations you feel while playing Resident Evil. I am among them. Then there are fans who love specifically their own characters and the minute details of the narrative’s past, but my film doesn’t waste too much time on these things, I haven’t put historic characters. If that’s what you love, you’ll say: here’s another Hollywood film that still hasn’t put Leon and all the other characters I wanted to see! I understand the perspective, but at the same time I can’t let myself be influenced by it. […] If I tried to please everyone, I would end up pleasing no one. […] I must accept that people express their opinions, I am an adult man. When I embarked on this, I knew what I was getting into. It would be ridiculous for me now to pretend to be surprised or upset by what I already knew would happen later.”
A proposed note on nerdiness, how did he handle the use of two viewpoints, first and third person? “Without rules. I chose, moment by moment, the best angle to honor the specific moments. The matter for me ended there. I tend to think that the third-person perspective used by the games is very effective, so it is the film’s dominant visual language. But there wasn’t a rule.”
Comments