Zach Cregger says test screenings for his upcoming Resident Evil movie convinced him to cut back on the jokes after audiences felt the horror film was too funny.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Cregger said viewers were responding positively to the movie overall, but one reaction kept coming up during testing: the balance had tilted too far toward comedy. Rather than treating the screenings as a rejection of the film, he used the feedback to reduce the amount of humor.

Cregger said he gradually stripped out jokes as the testing process continued. The change appears to have been about tone rather than eliminating levity altogether, preserving some humor while allowing the survival-horror side of Resident Evil to carry more weight.

That distinction matters because Cregger’s previous horror films, including Barbarian and Weapons, have mixed unsettling material with moments of comedy. Resident Evil appears to have gone through a similar balancing process, with the director deciding that the first cut pushed the lighter material too far for the story he wanted to tell.

Sony Pictures describes the new Resident Evil as a complete reinvention built around an original story rather than a direct adaptation of one of the games. Austin Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier who is pulled into a rapidly escalating fight for survival during a single disastrous night.

Cregger directs from a screenplay he wrote with Shay Hatten. The film also stars Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser. TriStar Pictures, Constantin Film and Davis Films are behind the project, with Sony Pictures setting the U.S. theatrical release for September 18, 2026.

The movie has already drawn attention for how Cregger is approaching the franchise. He has said he wants to retain recognizable survival-horror ideas from the games without turning the film into a direct retelling of an existing Resident Evil storyline. That makes tone especially important: too much comedy could undercut the tension, while removing every lighter moment could also erase part of Cregger’s filmmaking style.

For now, the test-screening changes suggest the director is still refining that balance ahead of release. The key point is not that audiences disliked Resident Evil. According to Cregger, they liked the movie but thought it was funnier than it needed to be, prompting him to scale the jokes back.

RESIDENT EVIL – Official Trailer (4K) | Sony Pictures

ARTICLE CREDIT:

News story written by Mike Lima.

Source/Further reading:

Primary source/reference link: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/resident-evil-filmmaker-zach-cregger-test-screenings-1236697134/