Resident Evil director Zach Cregger says he’s cut most of movie’s jokes, after test audiences apparently found the film “too funny.”
Capcom loves including the occasional quip or witty one-liner in its Resident Evil game series — typically something cheesy from Leon S. Kennedy about going to bingo — so it’s not surprising that Cregger also planned to include humor in his adaptation.
Cregger himself is known for mixing horror and dark humor to great effect, as seen in his previous projects Weapons and Barbarians. But you can also have too much of a good thing, the director has said.
“I learned that people really liked the movie, but they thought it was too funny,” Cregger said of the film’s test screenings, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “So over the course of my testing, I stripped out as much of the jokes as possible.
“I then found that not only did the audience enjoy the movie more, but I also liked the movie a lot more,” he continued. “A little bit of humor goes a long way in a horror movie, and there’s not a single joke I took out of this movie that I miss.”
Ahead of Resident Evil’s arrival in theaters next week, Cregger has been busy discussing his process making the film, and also dealing with fan expectations. The director has said that he feels like he’s been on something of an “apology tour” after having to explain some of his decisions, particularly around his choice to focus on an original character and story. Indeed, Cregger has even suggested that this will now be the only franchise he ever tries to adapt — though after promising signs of how the film will perform, has not ruled out working on a sequel.
In the meantime, Resident Evil releases on September 18 — just don’t expect too many jokes.
Tom Phillips
News Editor
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
