The upcoming Resident Evil movie is quickly becoming divisive. The problem with Resident Evil is not Zach Cregger, it’s video game fans.
Sony recently unveiled the official trailer for Resident Evil. The footage introduces fans to Austin Abrams’ Bryan, a medical courier hired to make a special delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. When a deadly outbreak surfaces, Bryan’s journey becomes a fight for his life.
Cregger has been very upfront about his intentions with Resident Evil. He is not remaking one of the Resident Evil movies starring Milla Jovovich. Instead, Cregger’s inspiration comes from the video games, specifically Resident Evil 2. However, Cregger is not making a shot-for-shot remake. To make a better movie, Cregger is taking creative liberties, such as giving Bryan an iPhone and setting the movie in the snow.
“I am not doing exactly a one-for-one Resident Evil 2 adaptation,” Cregger said via Discussing Film. “There are differences between this movie and the game. So I just want to acknowledge that. I don’t think it makes the movie any worse. I think it looks really f***ing cool to have a horror movie set in the snow.”
Creative liberties don’t mean Zach Cregger is abandoning Resident Evil
There are some Resident Evil fans upset with Cregger’s approach to his adaptation. One X user said these creative liberties are “lame” and accused Cregger of using “the name and references of Resident Evil to tap into the existing audience of.”
Another user wrote, “It’s especially silly coming from a talented director with a successful movie under his belt,” in regards to Cregger’s changes. “Literally name it anything else.”
Filmmakers should be allowed to take creative liberties when adapting a project. Their job is firstly to make a good movie. Only then should they take steps to honor the source material’s audience.
Cregger is clearly a massive fan of the Resident Evil video games and wants to tell a new story in its world. Cregger does not want to retell something that already happened, which is why Leon, a fan-favorite character, is absent from the movie.
“To me, I would feel like there’s kind of no winning there if I were to tell Leon’s story, because the games do such a great job. It would just be kind of redundant, and ultimately, I think, disappointing,” Cregger said about Leon’s absence. “So I would rather just kind of celebrate everything I love about the games by telling the story that could exist on the sidelines of one of the games.”
Paul W.S. Anderson directed several somewhat faithful adaptations of Resident Evil. That doesn’t make them good movies, especially when they became more about fan service and less about telling a compelling story. The most recent movie, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, might honor the video games the most, and it failed as a movie.
Cregger deserves creative freedom for his Resident Evil movie and should be allowed to make his own decisions. It worked on Barbarian and Weapons. It will likely work on Resident Evil, too.