Comedy was horror boot camp

Cregger spent years with sketch group The Whitest Kids U' Know, where half their ideas failed spectacularly. That constant push for weirdness trained his brain for horror.

“I went to the gym for horror the whole time I was doing comedy.”

Barbarian launched his horror career

His 2022 film about a double-booked AirBNB became a breakout hit, establishing Cregger as a premiere voice in American horror.

Weapons earned $270 million

The 2024 split narrative about missing children grossed $270 million and won Amy Madigan an Oscar for playing villain Aunt Gladys.

His first film bombed hard

Cregger made a movie in his 20s that was poorly received. He thought he was in movie jail and focused on acting for nearly a decade.

Nobody was thinking about him

After years of modest acting work, Cregger realized nobody cared whether he wrote or directed. That realization was liberating, not disappointing.

“I don't matter. Nobody's thinking like, 'There goes that failure, look at him.' They're not thinking about me at all. So, I get to start over.”

He wrote Barbarian in Fiji

While shooting a show for three months, Cregger spent nights in his bungalow writing. He fell in love with the process again.

Producer Roy Lee found the money

After writing Barbarian, it took a couple years before Cregger got it to producer Roy Lee, who secured funding for the low-budget horror film.

He wrote a Batman script

Henchman follows a pharmacist in Gotham City accidentally caught in a power play between Batman and The Joker. It's tied to expensive IP he may never make.

Austin Abrams has that thing

In Weapons, Abrams played a thieving junkie who never does anything noble, yet audiences loved him. He's now leading Resident Evil for Cregger.

“There's something about him that is, 'We want to be his friend. We want him to be our friend.'”

Each film teaches new lessons

Barbarian taught him how to make a movie. Weapons taught him about production and editing. Resident Evil taught him about his own fortitude when things get hard.

He cuts most jokes out

Cregger's first assembly is goofier than the final film. He tries to cut all humor out in editing, leaving only the absolute minimum.

“If you have a horror movie and people laugh four or five times throughout the course of the horror movie, they walk out of the theater and they're like, 'That's pretty funny.'”

Resident Evil is one giant sequence

Cregger describes his take on the video game franchise as a non-stop thrill ride. The whole movie unfolds as one massive sequence.

Brainstorming deaths is the fun part

Coming up with gruesome ways for characters to die is exciting for Cregger. Aunt Gladys's demise was an instant 'aha' moment.

“It's just like, 'What disgusting crazy thing can we cram in next?' and then you get an idea and then you get really excited.”

Aunt Gladys prequel is in progress

The first draft is written. It's a character study exploring who Gladys was before she became a monster, with Amy Madigan returning to the role.

The Flood is a sci-fi departure

His next film isn't really horror. It has a bizarre narrative structure and disturbing scenes, but asks big questions like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“That movie is about something in a real way that's important to me.”

Philip Seymour Hoffman is his dream

If Cregger could cast any performer, living or dead, it would be Philip Seymour Hoffman. He finds the late actor miraculous in every role.

He finished Resident Evil last week

Cregger completed the film less than a week before this interview. He's exhausted and has no perspective on it yet.

“I'm tired. I don't think I'm able to have any perspective right now.”