Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Reboot Puts Comedy Front and Center, Early Review Finds
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Reboot Puts Comedy Front and Center, Early Review Finds
Zach Cregger, the filmmaker behind this summer’s horror hit Weapons, has taken on Capcom’s long-running survival horror franchise with a new Resident Evil film — and according to an early review from The Verge, the result is a movie that treats the material as comedy first and terrifying nightmare second.
The reboot marks a notable tonal shift for a series with a complicated cinematic history. When Paul W.S. Anderson launched the original Resident Evil film franchise in 2002, video game adaptations were still fighting for legitimacy in Hollywood. Successes like Mortal Kombat and Tomb Raider had shown commercial potential, but high-profile misfires — most famously the 1993 Super Mario Bros. — kept the genre on the margins.
Anderson’s films, while commercially successful overall, drew criticism from devoted fans of Capcom’s games for straying far from the source material. Cregger’s version, per the review, is framed as a return to the fundamentals of the franchise, though its sensibility leans unexpectedly humorous.
The film arrives at a moment of renewed momentum for game-to-film adaptations, with studios increasingly treating gaming intellectual property as reliable source material following a string of recent box-office wins across the industry.
Markets
In related technology-sector trading, Block, Inc. (XYZ), the payments and financial services company behind Square and Cash App, closed at $79.40, down 1.0% from its previous close of $80.20. The company, which operates in the software – infrastructure industry with a market capitalization of roughly $47.7 billion, was not involved in the film’s production.
What to watch
- Opening weekend box-office performance for the new Resident Evil film.
- Response from longtime fans of Capcom’s game franchise and whether the comedic tone proves divisive.
- Any sequel or franchise expansion announcements tied to the film’s reception.
- Block’s next quarterly earnings report for updated guidance on its Square and Cash App segments.
Source: original release