Warning! Light spoilers for Weapons ahead

Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil movie is in danger of repeating the franchise’s past, but the game series itself presents some amazing opportunities for the horror director’s style to flourish. After the critical success of Weapons, Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil promises to adapt the beloved Capcom horror survival video game series better than ever before.

However, some alarming news suggests that Cregger’s Resident Evil may be suffering from the same pitfalls that kept the Milla Jovovich Resident Evil movies from ever ascending past endearing cult films with a moderate fan base.

While doing press for Weapons, the director recently confirmed to Inverse that his new Resident Evil movie will be an original story. He was adamant that he’s a big fan of the games and will adhere to the franchise’s rules, but the film’s central characters will be entirely his own. He isn’t interested in retelling a story that already exists in video game form, which fans wanting to re-experience can just play again.

This invites plenty of caution against the idea of getting too excited about the new film. The previous Resident Evil movies already demonstrated how far removed from the franchise’s appeal things can get if the director is allowed to explore an original idea. It’s not a stretch to call the news a disappointment for those hoping for a faithful movie adaptation at long last.

It’s also a far cry from Cregger’s original implication that, while the new Resident Evil won’t completely obey the lore, it’ll still at least take direct inspiration from one of the most popular Resident Evil games in particular. Sadly, it seems as though the franchise will yet again merely be borrowing proper nouns from the games, like Raccoon City, the T-Virus, and the Umbrella Corporation.

The real shame of this news is that two Resident Evil games in particular would be amazingly suited to Zach Cregger’s unique storytelling sensibilities. Namely, the two most recent mainline installments in the series, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village.

Zach Cregger’s Affinity For Creepy Houses Would Be Perfect For Resident Evil VII

Zach Cregger could have been the perfect person to truly put the “Resident” back into Resident Evil. After all, the series got its name from the first game’s setting, a spooky mansion crawling with zombies and all other sorts of unspeakable creatures. Resident Evil VII returned the series to its roots by largely limiting itself to a single estate.

If there’s one thing both Weapons and Barbarian have proven, it’s that Cregger excels at crafting particularly terrifying houses. In Barbarian, the ᴅᴇᴀᴅly Airbnb setting holds disturbing secrets, including a labyrinthine network of underground tunnels containing the mutated evidence of a despicable serial killer’s horrific crimes against humanity.

Weapons‘ supernatural horrors are also concentrated in a single house, though not as much time may be spent directly within its walls. Alex’s family home is a looming location shrouded in mystery for much of the runtime before its ghastly contents are finally explored.

This clear affinity for houses containing disturbing secrets would be perfect for an adaptation of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, where players take the reins of Ethan Winters. In the search for his missing wife, Ethan finds himself stranded on a hostile family plantation nestled in the Louisiana bayou, where horrific evils have taken root in a family of lunatic killers.

Resident Evil VIII Would Be A Perfect Fit For Cregger’s Sense Of Humor & Interwoven Storytelling

Before his horror career, Cregger was known for his time in the sketch comedy series The Whitest Kids U’Know. This explains his love for inserting jokes in the middle of his tense horror, which would work well for Resident Evil Village‘s occasionally shocking and hilarious developments.

Resident Evil Village expands Ethan’s journey overseas, where he encounters all manner of terrifying threats inhabiting an Eastern European village. The game includes delightfully ghoulish takes on all sorts of typical horror tropes, including vampires, werewolves, possessed dolls, killer robots, witches, and even Lovecraftian aquatic nightmares.

Not only would this rotating cast of monsters give Cregger plenty to play with, but it would allow him to flex his ability to juggle multiple narratives. Both Weapons and Barbarian unfold through multiple perspectives, and Resident Evil Village pulls a similar trick with Ethan, his daughter Rose, and series regular Chris Redfield.

All that being said, it’s all the more unfortunate that Zach Cregger will once again be dashing any hopes of seeing a Resident Evil game faithfully adapted. Cregger’s love of comedy, shifting perspectives, and terrifying houses would have made him the perfect director to adapt either of the two most recent Resident Evil games into movies.