Zach Cregger’s “Resident Evil,” in a little more than two weeks, has already amassed nearly $200 million at the global box office.
Instead of a straight adaptation of the long-running video game series (or an extension of the already-existing film franchise), Cregger chose to tell a new story within the world of the games – a story that follows a hapless medical courier named Bryan (played by Austin Abrams), who is sent on a desperate mission to the heart of Raccoon City during a zombie outbreak. It is an all-gas, no-brakes rollercoaster ride that is carried along by Abrams’ performance – vulnerable, hilarious, inquisitive, the perfect audience surrogate. Even when things get weird, really weird, Abrams’ oddly emotional performance keeps us engaged.
Abrams said that Cregger first mentioned the project while the two were working on “Weapons,” which would go on to be a box office hit and an unlikely Oscar winner. But Cregger didn’t say anything specific about Abrams joining the project. “It wasn’t until he was in post-production for ‘Weapons’ that he called and wanted me to read the script basically,” Abrams said. He hadn’t played the games (“Other than seeing it and being too afraid to play it”) but once he got the part it emboldened him to play horror/survival games that had a similar spirit.
Whereas “Weapons” was an ensemble piece, with Abrams portraying an unforgettable character (a junkie/thief who stumbles upon the mystery of a missing classroom of kids), with “Resident Evil” he would take center stage. The movie is him. And that left him a little nervous.
“You never know if you can do something until it’s done. It’s huge question marks. I feel personally like we’re going to be interested enough in watching this person,” Abrams said. “Not that everyone could feel that way. Or are they going to be like, I don’t really care about this guy that much. I don’t really want to watch this movie? It could happen. There’s a lot of feelings of the unknown came up.”
While shooting the movie, Abrams started to get the impression that it was going to be okay. “You catch the vibe of the people around you and they’re seeming to be into the character and that helps. You’re not getting like red lights. You keep going,” he added.
And while Abrams knew that he would be the audience stand-in, crafting a character through physicality rather than dialogue (“It feels good being in the body and using it as a tool,” he said) there were still some pretty radical changes to the final film, like when Cregger admitted that, after a test screening, he went through the movie and pulled out most of the jokes.
“There were some asides where I was like, ‘Are you going to keep that?’ Or ‘maybe check that out again.’ There was a bunch of stuff like that where we would take it to a place that was too far, really for our own enjoyment. And you never really know, until you get in the edit, how much you’re going want or not,” said Abrams. ”Especially for like this, where it’s a straight shot and there aren’t all these other characters that you’re interacting with. You want options. I don’t think it would be as enjoyable to watch if it was just straight through. If there wasn’t any laughs in it, I think it would be too unrelenting. Adding comedy, which is what I think Zach is so smart about too, really helps the enjoyment of it and relieves some of the pressure.”
One thing scarier than zombies or plague-infested monsters was the response of the die-hard Resident Evil fans to Cregger making a movie that eschewed the classic characters and established lore of the series. They were very upset about his approach.
Abrams was sympathetic. “I read a book that I love and then they’re going to do another one or make it into a different one. You don’t want someone to f–k it up. You have a personal connection with it. I get what that feeling is like. There’s that passion there,” Abrams said.
He said that he and Cregger “did the best job we could.” “We had a strong base of love and I think our best shot at making something that they would enjoy,” Abrams said. Cregger is a huge fan of the games and has played them all, including this year’s Resident Evil: Requiem. Their approach? “Make what you dig and then hope that other people dig it,” said Abrams.
Fan service was not something that they were interested in (Abrams said it doesn’t work in “a meaningful way”). “If you’re going to end up making something that feels fresh, I think that’s the best shot you have making something interesting,” he said. But still, he said, “I only send love to all those people.”
Before he started working with Cregger, Abrams was a fan of “Barbarian,” his debut feature. He remembers thinking, I love whoever’s made this movie, because they have guts and extreme talent and skill, and a comedic understanding that is really rare and that I relate to. Meeting him, Abrams found that they were perfectly in sync.
“We connect on many other levels, aspiring for the same thing and we have a similar level of what we deem to be the work that we want to make,” Abrams said. “I think that helps us to push each other. We both understand what it is we’re trying to make and have a similar sensibility.”
“He is a total dream to work with. I mean, truly a dream, and he is a beautiful, kind person. And he’s such a formidable actor. He’s so good at whatever he tries to do. I have yet to see him find his limit. That guy’s range is miraculous,” said Cregger. “When it was time to go and put this one together, it was like there wasn’t even a decision. There was not a moment of like, Well, who else could we? No, it’s Austin.”
There isn’t a role for Abrams in Cregger’s upcoming sci-fi freakout “The Flood” (which just cast Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role), but when we asked Abrams if he was the Kurt Russell to Cregger’s John Carpenter, he smiled wide and said, “Hey, you said it. I didn’t say it.”
When it came to – spoilers ahoy! – Abrams’ monstrous transformation towards the end of the film, he said that he actually found the motion-capture process enjoyable.
“I was shocked at like how minimal they needed to be able to capture everything,” said Abrams. “It’s all those other guys. You see them in a room, just imagining all this stuff.”
And given the open-endedness of the movie (and the fact that the video game series has been running for so long), we had to ask if Cregger had said anything to him about coming back for another installment. Another entry seems more and more likely, especially as its box office tally continues to grow.
“We’ve had the smallest of discussions. I also don’t want to go into it too much at all because I don’t know how things would play,” said Abrams.
Still, it’s very clear – if Cregger has an idea for how to bring Bryan back to snowy Raccoon City, Abrams would be there. In whatever shape – monstrous or otherwise – that would take.
“Resident Evil” is in theaters now.
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