Release the ‘Resident Evil’ Comedy Cut, Zach Cregger

Thanks to Barbarian and Weapons, we know that filmmaker Zach Cregger loves to walk the line between genuine horror and freaky absurdity. Just picture Aunt Gladys clumsily racing away from a pack of children bewitched by her own sinister spell—you don’t know whether to scream, laugh, or do both—and you’ll get what we mean. But the director and co-writer recently revealed that his latest film, Resident Evil, may have drifted too far into the humor column early in its process.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Cregger reflected back on the edits he made after getting feedback from Resident Evil‘s test screenings.

“I learned that people really liked the movie, but they thought it was too funny,” Cregger told THR.

“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. 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. So that perspective was really helpful.”

We get it. Resident Evil is based on a video game more known for yucks than yuks. And Cregger had existing fans of the franchise in mind while he was making his feature version—to a point.

“There are different kinds of Resident Evil fans,” he explained. He mentioned “fans like me who love the experience of playing the games and think there’s never been a movie that has represented what it feels like to play Resident Evil,” but also “fans of the games who specifically love the lore and the characters and the nitty-gritty details of the backstory.”