"Resident Evil movies? I've never seen one." That is Zach Cregger, the director behind two of the most talked-about American horror films of the decade, explaining his unlikely new job: resurrecting the 30-year-old Resident Evil video game franchise on screen.

Cregger's rise has been rapid and unconventional. Raised on punk, alt-comedy and the church, he arrived at horror through a sensibility closer to David Lynch than to the genre's usual commercial playbook. When Barbarian, his debut as a solo writer-director, opened in 2022, it grossed $46m, drew strong reviews and generated real buzz among horror connoisseurs.

His second film, Weapons, released in 2025, did even better. Mounting industry buzz around the project crystallised into a fierce bidding war before production. Jordan Peele was reportedly desperate to produce it and, incensed by his failure to secure the rights, allegedly fired his managers. Those rumours went viral, producing a wave of what the film's backers could only describe as incredible PR. Weapons wildly outperformed box office expectations and won an Academy Award — for Amy Madigan's blunt-fringed, bonsai-pruning turn as Aunt Gladys, an instantly classic villain that earned her best supporting actress.

Even without a box-office smash that crossed over into awards contention, there would be an atmosphere of hushed expectation around Cregger's next move. Both Barbarian and Weapons addressed hot-button issues — sexual assault and school shootings, respectively — while resisting easy interpretation. Both films also started out seemingly heading in one narrative direction before thrillingly careering off elsewhere.

That track record is exactly why his pivot to Resident Evil has caused a storm among the franchise's protective fans. With just two features, Cregger had established a reputation for totally terrifying, utterly unpredictable and — most importantly — genuinely original movies. A director known for defying genre conventions taking on a 30-year-old video game property is a bet that surprises on both sides.

Cregger, for his part, appears untroubled by the weight of the franchise's screen history. A filmmaker who has never watched a single Resident Evil movie will now define where the series goes next — and given his record of steering stories off their expected course, nobody can confidently predict what that will look like.