// BBC ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS — MODA & SOCIETÀ
Resident Evil movie director says he was not prepared for fan backlash
Zach Cregger's Resident Evil follows Bryan - a courier having a very, very bad day at work
One of the hottest horror directors on the planet adapting the world's most popular scary video game series?
On paper Zach Cregger and Resident Evil are the perfect unholy alliance.
The film-maker was widely praised for his original, imaginative work on horror hits Weapons and Barbarian and is a long-time fan of the video game series.
But in the lead-up to the film’s release, Cregger’s spent a lot of time defending himself against complaints he’s cashing in on the Resident Evil name.
Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, the director says he was "not prepared" for what came his way.
The original Resident Evil game was a smash-hit when it came out in 1996
First launched in 1996 on the original Sony PlayStation by Japanese developer Capcom, Resident Evil was a sensation.
Rather than casting players as super-powered characters, as was the case with most video games in the 90s, it forced them to survive with limited resources.
Thanks to smart reinventions and remakes, the series has managed to stay relevant, selling a total of 213 million copies since its debut.