Zach Cregger is taking Resident Evil in a very different direction.

The filmmaker behind Barbarian and Weapons has repeatedly stressed that his new movie isn’t an adaptation of one particular Resident Evil game. Instead, Cregger has created an original story inside the universe while attempting to translate the experience of actually playing the games to the big screen.

With the film arriving in theaters, here are some interesting details about Cregger’s approach to Resident Evil.

They built a 2,000-pound practical monster

Cregger leaned heavily on practical effects for the film’s creatures, including one enormous puppet weighing approximately 2,000 pounds.

In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Cregger revealed that the creature was designed by Shane Mahan and Legacy Effects and required four people to operate.

“There’s one puppet that [Mahan] built in LA that’s like 2000 lbs and takes four people to operate,” Cregger said.

The creature was built in Los Angeles before being disassembled and shipped to Prague for filming. Even some monsters that ultimately received digital enhancements were first created and filmed practically.

Rotten Tomatoes has also released a video of Cregger discussing the 2,000-pound puppet and the film’s practical effects.

Cregger cut a lot of the humor after test screenings

Cregger’s background is in comedy, and humor has remained an important part of his horror films. But early test screenings convinced him that Resident Evil initially had too much of it.

Cregger told The Hollywood Reporter that audiences liked the movie but thought it was “too funny.” He responded by stripping out as many jokes as possible as testing continued.

The changes didn’t just improve the response from test audiences. Cregger said he ended up liking the movie more as well.

“A little bit of humor goes a long way in a horror movie,” Cregger said, adding that he doesn’t miss any of the jokes he removed.

It’s the highest-rated live-action ‘Resident Evil’ movie on Rotten Tomatoes

Cregger’s film has also received a dramatically stronger critical response than previous live-action adaptations of the games.

As of September 16, Rotten Tomatoes lists ‘Resident Evil’ at 96% from 74 critic reviews, making it the highest-rated live-action movie in franchise history.

That number could change as additional reviews are published, but the film has opened to substantially stronger reviews than the previous live-action movies.

Cregger wanted the movie to feel like playing ‘Resident Evil’

Rather than simply retelling the plot of one particular game, Cregger wanted to translate the experience of actually playing Resident Evil to the big screen.

In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, the film is described as Cregger’s “love letter” to the games, shaped by the thousands of hours he has spent playing them.

His focus is on recreating the survival-horror experience: moving deeper into increasingly dangerous environments, watching resources dwindle and never knowing what’s waiting in the next area.

That philosophy also influenced how Cregger shot the movie. He has said the third-person perspective used by the games became the film’s predominant visual language, although he moves between third-person, first-person and more conventional perspectives depending on the scene.

The result is a movie designed to feel like Resident Evil without simply recreating one of the games beat-for-beat.

Cregger deliberately avoided major characters from the games

Despite being a longtime fan of the franchise, Cregger chose not to center his movie around established protagonists such as Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield.

Instead, the movie follows Bryan, an original character played by Austin Abrams, who works as a medical courier and becomes caught in the outbreak around Raccoon City.

Cregger has been particularly direct about that decision. Discussing the different kinds of Resident Evil fans, he told The Hollywood Reporter that his movie focuses more on the experience of playing the games than their detailed lore.

“I’m not putting any of the legacy characters into this movie,” Cregger said.

In a separate interview about the decision, Cregger discussed the criticism surrounding the absence of characters such as Leon and Chris while explaining why he believes his approach remains faithful to the games in other ways.

That distinction sums up Cregger’s approach to the adaptation: use the world, mechanics and feeling of Resident Evil without simply retelling a story fans have already played.

Cregger already knows who he’d cast as Lady Dimitrescu

Lady Dimitrescu may not appear in Cregger’s Resident Evil, but the director already has an actress in mind if the Resident Evil Village villain ever makes the jump to live-action.

When asked by Pedestrian TV who he would cast in the role, Cregger named Mad Men and Good Girls star Christina Hendricks.

“That feels about right to me,” Cregger said of the casting.

Lady Dimitrescu made her debut in 2021’s Resident Evil Village and quickly became one of the franchise’s most recognizable characters. While Cregger’s current film deliberately avoids major characters from the games, his answer gives fans an idea of who he could envision playing one of the series’ biggest recent additions in a future live-action project.

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