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Why Barbarian Director Zach Cregger Is Perfect To Reboot The Resident Evil Franchise

Published 10 hours ago3 minute read

has now existed in some form for nearly 30 years. The series The games focus on an environment inhabited by zombies or other non-human and mutated creatures. Six years after the release of the first game, the Paul W.S. Anderson movie adaptation of Resident Evil was released. It starred Milla Jovovich in the lead role and had several sequels. The most recent installment, 2021's Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, rebooted the franchise.

At the beginning of this year, another Resident Evil reboot was announced. The film is set to be directed by Zach Cregger, who is best known for his horror film Barbarian. It later set, making it roughly one year away. The movie is also reportedly eyeing Austin Abrams as one of its main stars. While there is a lot of information still to come regarding the Resident Evil reboot, the team has made the right choice with its director.

In many ways, Cregger is a huge risk for the franchise. Though he is releasing Weapons later this year, This movie, Barbarian, was also made on only a $4.5 million budget, whereas the Resident Evil film will have a much higher budget as a more mainstream horror movie. Cregger is reportedly being paid $20 million for his work as a writer, director, and producer on Resident Evil, which is over four times Barbarian's entire budget.

Instead, the films leaned a lot more heavily on their action elements, focusing instead on creating thrilling set pieces that also happen to feature zombies.

However, there are plenty of reasons for the studio to take this chance on Cregger. With Barbarian, the director showed not only that his films had the capacity to turn a large profit, but that. Barbarian really delivers on its horror promise, maintaining a sense of mystery while also being genuinely terrifying. Cregger's upcoming film Weapons also looks scary based on the trailer, which further speaks to the director's propensity for strong horror.

Barbarian earned $45 million worldwide, with $40 million coming domestically.

The original Japanese video game series was always heavily focused on the horror elements of Resident Evil. The movies, however, lacked this sense of fear, despite including the constant threat of zombies. Instead, , focusing instead on creating thrilling set pieces that also happen to feature zombies. Cregger is unlikely to tone down the violence and gore of Resident Evil, but his ability to create genuine fear will give the movies something they have been missing.

The Mother roaring in Barbarian

Though it keeps its antagonist secret for much of the film, Barbarian does feature a monster character as its main villain. Played by Matthew Patrick Davis, this character is The Mother. Living in the tunnels beneath a Detroit rental house, she is a deformed and violent woman. While this monster is ultimately a human character, unlike the antagonists of Resident Evil, . Her rotting teeth, thin hair, and filthy body make The Mother unsettling, really showing what Cregger is interested in monster-wise.

A monster like this would be perfect for Resident Evil. and thus have to have some human qualities while still being warped in some significant way. Both the video game and movie franchises have existing models for what the zombies might look like, but Cregger has the opportunity to make them his own. If he designs the zombies to look anything like The Mother did in Barbarian, audiences are in for a treat in the reboot.

Resident Evil 2026 placeholder poster
Resident Evil

September 18, 2026

Zach Cregger

Zach Cregger, Shay Hatten

01650358_poster_w780.jpg
Barbarian

September 9, 2022

102 minutes

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