Resident Evil director Zach Cregger says early test audiences loved the movie, but thought it was way too funny for a straight-up horror movie.
“I learned that people really liked the movie, but they thought it was too funny. So over the course of my testing, I stripped out as much of the jokes as possible,” Cregger told The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
The trailers seem much more scary than funny, though it’s worth noting that Cregger has a background in comedy and rose to fame with comedy collective Whitest Kids U’Know. The long-running TV show, which aired on both Fuse and IFC, got pretty dang dark with the humor… so it didn’t surprise me as a fan when Cregger made the switch over to horror. His second movie, the Oscar-winning Weapons, even included a touching throwback to a WKUK sketch that featured the late, great Trevor Moore.
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Resident Evil, based on the extremely popular horror video game series of the same name, stars Austin Abrams (Euphoria, Weapons) as a medical courier who is in the process of making a delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital when an outbreak forces him to fight for his life. Cregger directs from a screenplay he penned with frequent Zack Snyder collaborator Shay Hatten. Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser also star.
Resident Evil hits theaters on September 18. For more, check out our guide to upcoming horror movies, or, check out the ever-growing list of video game movies.
