Sony‘s new Resident Evil movie hit tracking today, poised for a franchise record domestic opening — and with that, Zach Cregger is back.
Coming off the Academy Award-winning Weapons, after a breakthrough moment with the 20th/New Regency horror film Barbarian, Cregger recently kicked off screenings for his latest, sharing only a select 30 minutes with the media to avoid spoiling all the surprises he has in store.
The footage suggested that Cregger may have delivered his best work yet. No less an original, in his mind, than his past films — even if it comes with the trappings of hot video game IP — this Resident Evil is an intensely propulsive and compelling tale following a medical courier played by Austin Abrams, one of the stars of Weapons.
While driving through the snowy darkness one night, the courier comes face to the face with the results of a contagion — the Umbrella Corporation’s infamous T-virus — and chaos ensues. The creative challenge with Resident Evil, Cregger says — which comes in at a lean and mean 95 minutes — was to “floor it at minute six and not take my foot off the gas,” driving the viewer straight into hell.
Ahead of his film’s September 18 debut in theaters, Cregger spoke candidly with Deadline about a wide variety of topics, from the brutal conditions that birthed his Resident Evil to the star quality of Austin Abrams, Mikey Madison casting rumors, “elfing” scripts, and why he’s “not going to go tackle any other franchises” — though perhaps he has a romantic comedy in him.
Casting new light on the inception of his next film, the outer space-set Warner Bros. sci-fi thriller The Flood, Cregger also touches on his Weapons prequel Gladys, the tonal inspirations of the forthcoming dark comedy Little One, on which he’s a producer, the film that had him “laughing my ass off” in theaters this year, Obsession/Backrooms mania, and more.
DEADLINE: You’ve talked in the past about a creative writing technique you’re partial to called ‘elfing,’ where you pretend that a stupid elf you’ve paid $10 is penning your first draft. It’s a way of transcending the intimidation of the blank page that’s proven helpful for you. Did you do that with Resident Evil?
ZACH CREGGER: You know, there was not really an ‘elfed’ version of this script. This was a different process altogether for me because it came about [when] I was on the set of Barbarian. I was in Bulgaria and my producer, Roy Lee was like, “Is there any video game franchise you would want to adapt?” And I was like, “Only Resident Evil.” But I mean, yeah, good luck, right? Because at that time, Barbarian hadn’t come out; I didn’t have any juice whatsoever. And he was like, “Well, you should think about a take. You should think about what it could be.” I couldn’t help myself; I was thinking. And then Barbarian came out and it was a success. And so I figured, okay, I can go knock on their door and pitch this idea.
I’d come up with the concept — the conceit? [Laughs] What a pretentious prick I’ve become. I’d had the concept for the movie. So I had lunch with Constantine and I was like, “Here’s what I would do. I would like to just bring this to survival horror. I’d like to make a movie that feels like it feels when you play a Resident Evil game. So, gritty, horror first, medical courier, blah, blah, blah.” I kind of mapped out the whole story. It took 30 seconds — it’s a very simple story — and they dug it. They were down, and so I was able to go start writing where I had the beginning and the middle and the end in my head already.
I wrote it with my buddy Shay [Hatten], and it was a really fast writing process where it was just basically me being like, “Okay, so basically you go here.” And it was one of those things where you have too many ideas. There was never a moment where I was like, “God, what should happen?” It was always just like, “Oh! Then they’ll jump off the roof.” So it was just easy.
I was still not thinking, by the way, they were going to let me direct it. I was thinking they’re going to hire some big shot to make this movie, obviously. It’s their most valuable property; it’s like a household name, and that’s fine. I don’t give a sh*t. And so I wrote it really free, really careless, which is a healthy way to write. And by the time I was done, I loved it and I was like, “I hope I get to do this thing. That’d be cool.”
So then, it was Weapons time, and then on the other side of that, I was able to do it.
DEADLINE: You reteam with Austin Abrams here after giving him an incredible role in Weapons. Between that film, Resident Evil and Whalefall, you and Brian Duffield have given him a major opportunity — the chance to show that he’s a movie star. When did you first see that quality in him?
CREGGER: Oh, well, when I was doing Weapons, it was obvious to me. I mean, first of all, I’ve got to say, I was an Austin Abrams fanatic from the time he did Brad’s Status. I remember seeing Brad’s Status, that Mike White movie, and just being like, “Okay, who is this guy? Who is this kid that is just absolutely bulldozing his way through this movie and doing nothing?” I was like, “I can’t believe the nerve of this kid to be starring with Ben Stiller, and it’s a two-hander, and just absolutely slaying with no energy expenditure.” It was one of the most courageous performances. I mean, he was 19 years old or something when he did that, and it is so restrained and he makes it look so easy. That is the kind of performance that masters of acting will spend 60 years prepping and then finally be able to deliver a performance like that — and Austin just did it.
So I was immediately like, “I am all in on this kid.” I was even trying to figure out if I could get him in Barbarian. That’s how in on Austin I was. And so then we’re making Weapons and everything I thought about this guy is true. And he’s awesome. We got along so well. We just make each other laugh. He’s such a good energy on set. I was like, “This is it, dude. This is my guy.” And so when it was time to put Resident Evil together, there was not even a second choice.
