Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil movie has undergone a significant tonal adjustment after test screenings revealed that audiences felt the horror film leaned too heavily into comedy. The director, known for Barbarian and Weapons, explained that he responded to the feedback by removing a substantial amount of the humor before the film’s theatrical release on September 18, 2026.
Cregger discussed the changes during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter and explained that the initial response to the film was largely positive. The recurring criticism, however, was that the movie made audiences laugh more often than Cregger intended for a survival horror story.
“I learned that people really liked the movie, but they thought it was too funny,”
Cregger told The Hollywood Reporter.
“So over the course of my testing, I stripped out as much of the jokes as possible.”
The director said the decision ultimately benefited both the movie and his own experience watching it. After removing the jokes, he found that audiences responded more favorably, while he personally became more satisfied with the final cut.
“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,”
Cregger said.
That approach could be particularly important for Resident Evil, a franchise built around creating tension through isolation, limited resources and encounters with terrifying creatures. Cregger’s previous work has also demonstrated his interest in mixing horror with comedy, making the adjustment an interesting example of how test audiences influenced his filmmaking decisions.
Cregger has also acknowledged that his movie will not focus on familiar game protagonists such as Leon S. Kennedy. Instead, the new film follows Bryan, a medical courier played by Austin Abrams, who becomes trapped in an outbreak and fights to survive against mutated creatures.
The filmmaker understands that some longtime fans may be disappointed by the absence of established characters, but he has chosen to prioritize his own interpretation of the franchise. Cregger explained that Resident Evil has different groups of fans, including those who primarily love the games’ characters and lore and others who are more interested in the experience and atmosphere of playing them.
“If I tried to please everybody, I’d end up pleasing nobody,”
Cregger said.
The director has also said the movie draws from the visual language of the games rather than attempting to reproduce their story directly. The result is intended to be a fresh survival horror film that uses Resident Evil as its foundation while allowing Cregger to develop his own story.
Resident Evil arrives exclusively in theaters on September 18, 2026, with Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry and Kali Reis among its cast.
