Chandler Riggs on BIOHAZARD: How He Brought Resident Evil 7 to Life

[00:00:08] Chandler Riggs, thank you for joining me today on Pop Culture Unplugged. Absolutely. Thanks for having me Elias. Appreciate it. Congratulations to BIOHAZARD, man. This was insane. I watched it a few times. Oh, nice. Yeah, I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, yeah. It was a fun time. I'm blown away by the reception so far. It's been incredible. I mean, you spent years working in horror, but this time around, you're the one that brings the nightmare to life. You know, like for you, what was it about Resident Evil 7 that you wanted to turn this into your own fan film?

[00:00:38] Man, you know, I... Resident Evil 7 was, you know, I played Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 5. I didn't play 6. But RE7 was the first time that I played, you know, a Resident Evil game and I was like, Oh, dude, like this is really, really awesome. And I'm just absolutely loving it every second. And I just love that it's such a success story for Capcom, you know, it's like a huge just turning point

[00:01:03] for the series for them. And so, yeah. And so I felt like there wasn't a, you know, true to the game at a live action adaptation of Resident Evil just in general. And so I was like, yeah, you know, I would like to try to do it, you know, let's like, let's see if we can do it. And I had written the script for it with some buddies of mine. And we, I just kind of put on the shelf because I was just way too expensive to be able to do. But yeah, and then I was talking to the film commissioner for

[00:01:31] Tampa Bay and he's a huge, you know, gamer and loves RE7. And immediately it was like, all right, let's incentivize it. Let's do it. Let's get the ball rolling. I'm like, all right, great. I can, you know, I still have to, you know, put a lot of my own money into it, but it's at least, you know, a doable venture now. And yeah. And so we made it happen. We put together the cast, the crew and we did it. And yeah, I, it's, it's, um, I'm just, I'm so happy with people just enjoying it. And, and, you know,

[00:02:01] I was really nervous about a lot of different aspects of it. We were breaking a lot of rules, you know, like going third person instead of first person going, um, doing Ethan's RE8 outfit instead of his RE7 outfit. And a lot of things we're breaking just, you know, because of, you know, time costs, money costs, or to storytelling in general reasons, um, that I was really hoping that we would get some leeway from the diehard RE fans for or from, yeah. For you, like you took a lot of responsibilities for this film, you know, both front of the camera,

[00:02:30] I mean, behind the camera, the writing, you know, for you, like directing, what was like the biggest challenge of balancing all those roles? And what did you think you learned from this? Yeah. There were, there were a couple of really big challenges. One of them was bouncing back and forth because I had done directing before, but I hadn't done solo directing and acting, you know, at the same time. And so that was, that was a tough one for sure, because of bouncing between like, all right, you know, I'm thinking of, um, okay, we got this coverage. We got this

[00:02:57] coverage. We need this insert still. Oh, I got to tell my AD that we need to grab this thing. We only have an hour left on this setup and piece here for the next thing. We need this thing. So I got to go talk to the PD about this and pictures up. All right. I'm getting the character. All right. I'm missing Mia and I'm scared for my life. I'm trying to get out of here and action. You know what I mean? It was like, it's a lot of like that for the whole day. And as soon as they say cut, I'm like, all right, back in director mode, let's get this here. We can move on. We, I got that piece. So it was, um, and also I did all the editing for it too. So there was a lot of like, you know,

[00:03:25] going through and sitting through sifting through all of this. And the biggest fear that I had when editing it was everyone on set did such an insanely good job. Now I have to make sure that the edit doesn't suck that I have to like do a good job in the edit as well to make sure that, you know, everyone's work is showcased in the best possible way. And, uh, and that was, that was another, another tough challenge to overcome. And, and I think my first cut was like,

[00:03:51] so I got a well over 20 minutes and I had to find a lot of things to cut and shorten down and, and, and fine tune and moments to piece together and fix. And there was one moment actually from the short that I had to completely reedit because as we shot it and as scripted, it just wasn't working. And so I just had to totally reedit the, um, like when, when he's in under the house and like slowly like, you know, the jump scare with, with Evelyn in the basement, it was as we shot it,

[00:04:17] just a slow reveal of Evelyn, you know, the light, you slowly see her, but I was cutting it together. I'm like, this is terrible. Like, no, it's gotta be like a, it's not scary if she's just there just looking at him the whole time. And so then when I was like, all right, let me, maybe I can like have it like the, the match, you know, just fade out as if the match has died. And then, you know, I can, you know, just fade in as if he's striking the match again to like illuminate her and then come back to him. And then the match goes out. So it was things like that where I was like, all right,

[00:04:47] I have to make this work and make this, you know, better than, than what we did. Um, you know, better than just live up to what everyone else did. Right. So like for you, like, how did you approach bringing Ethan to life on camera? What was like, what, what went behind that? Yeah. So, I mean, a lot of it, I just had to keep like making sure that the driving force was Mia because that's, that's the driving force in the game. You know what I mean? It's like,

[00:05:12] it's a, it's a, you know, isolated story, small like location. It's just a guy trying to find his wife at the end of the day, you know? And that's, that was the main thing that I wanted to make sure got in and stayed that through line was still there was that it's all about finding Mia and getting out. That's, that is the goal here. So, um, that was what I tried to base all of it around. And, you know, I, I tried to make sure that I left room for some levels for Ethan of like,

[00:05:40] you know, at the, at, when, you know, you see him sitting at the dinner table, like he's tied to this thing, he's freaked out, but he's not scared for his life until he's watches Jack cut off Lucas's arm. And then all of a sudden it's like, okay, the stakes are high. Now these guys are, might actually kill me, you know? Um, and so it's, uh, you know, I tried to play with that a bit of like, okay, let's, let's play with the levels here of Ethan's level of like confidence of like, okay, I can, I'm, I'm in a situation that I can get out of. And then a situation of, I don't know how to get

[00:06:08] out of the situation at all. Um, and just try to try to play with that and make sure that it's, um, you know, at least kind of feels close to the game. You mentioned the dinner table. I wrote here in my notes, like, what was one of the biggest challenge in recreating that atmosphere for biohazard? Yeah. I mean, one of the hardest things was, was the grossness of it, right? Because, you know, in the game, it's all like slimy and disgusting. It's all these things, but you know, when we're on set, it's like all these practical stuff, like we got to make sure that it looks as gross as possible.

[00:06:37] And so we actually brought in, uh, live bugs to be crawling around and we were kind of hoping that they were going to stay on top, but they ended up kind of like sneaking into the, you know, the inside they were perfectly safe. It was the one that was crawling on my hand. It was like bugs like that. Um, and then we had live maggots for a couple of like a couple of money shots of the dinner, like thing itself. Like we have some maggots like crawling around and, um, yeah. So a lot of, a lot of things like that, that was, that was challenging. It was making sure it looks,

[00:07:06] you know, really gross. And honestly, what did the most heavy lifting in aside from just the visual of it, of, you know, making it just look disgusting was the sound was making it sound disgusting. So like, you know, Jack goes in and takes like a, a bite of it. You hear the, you know, like it just sounds disgusting and nasty. So, um, and that came in post-production, you know? So it's all these things just add up to, to try to, to make it as, as, um, as close to the game as we could.

[00:07:33] You mentioned Jack, he's played by Jason, correct? I want to make sure of that. Right. Yep. Yep. Uh, what was your experience working with Jason Douglas? What did he bring to the character that you weren't expecting? Oh, I mean so much like there was, uh, I mean, so I worked with him a bit on walking dead and I knew that he, he had that, that what, what Jack really is the guy before all of this, the just kind, good natured blue collar, Louisiana,

[00:07:59] you know, guy like Jason Douglas had that like in the bag, like that was, he could eat, play that just playing as himself. Um, but he's also a voice actor and I know he can get to that voice. And as actors, we'd love opportunities to go off the wall and go crazy and try something totally new. And I was like, I think he would actually love to sink his teeth into something like this. And so that shit to him, he was all in. And every day, like after every take, we were just absolutely,

[00:08:29] like completely blown away by his performance and everything. It was just incredible. And there were things, there was one time he was like, he was, uh, he was ad-libbing and he was like, oh, you got the Rougarou spirit in you. And I asked him, I'm like, what the dude, what is a, what is a Rougarou? Like, what are you talking about? And he's like, oh, it's just like Louisiana. It's like, it's like a folklore thing in Louisiana. It's just like, you know, um, cryptid creature type thing. That's like, you know, um, uh, I can't remember what it was, but it had a certain like

[00:08:57] personality about it. That's like wild and like crazy. And, um, and it was just awesome to have him throw that in there and, and, uh, you know, add to the character in such a cool way that I could have never come up with. How about the garage confrontation with Jack? That was intense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was nuts. A lot of it was, we were like really not sure if we were going to be able to do it. If we're going to be able to get a space that was big enough for us to

[00:09:24] be able to do all this stuff, but didn't feel that big, you know, that was the important part. And it still ended up looking pretty big, you know, in the short, but you know, we just kind of take, take what we can get there. Um, but, uh, but no, it was awesome. And our, our budget was like $500 for the car, which was like, that was one of the hardest things of the whole short was trying to find a car for $500. Um, and yeah. And so it was, uh, but it turned out so great. We had our stunt

[00:09:49] drive, stunt drivers there. We get to actually crash the car into a wall, you know, um, all of course, all the stuff going through the windows, all VFX, but like we did actually drive a car into, into a wall. And, uh, yeah, it was just, um, it was just so, so awesome to get to be able to, um, yeah, do all have us have a space like that to do all of that. And just goes to show like, you know, the people of, of Tampa Bay were just the coolest and kind and like, yeah, you can,

[00:10:18] you can do some donuts in, in this, uh, in this space here. Yeah. We're taking down this wall here. So go ahead and just smash your car into it. Like, all right, sounds good. Yeah. So yeah, it was, it worked out great. Did I read somewhere you said Tampa was this built like in a, in a cigar factory or something like that? Is that where you felt? Yes. So the, um, the Baker family house, that whole set there was, uh, the garage was a different location, but the rest of it was,

[00:10:43] um, was in an old cigar. It was Arturo Fuente's old cigar factory, which, um, he's a very famous cigar maker. And, uh, yeah, her granddaughter owned the location and let us use it. She was going to, you know, tear down like most of the space. So it was like, she was like, yeah, paint the walls, do whatever. All this is coming down. It's like, great. Sounds good. We'll just go nuts. And, uh, yeah, yeah, it was, it was so, so cool. I'm doing a making of biohazard video.

[00:11:10] And so I, I get down there and show a little bit more of the cigar factory and show where like, you can see the chalk writing from Arturo Fuente where he was like delineating the different males of like the things of tobacco, where all that went. So it was so cool. Yeah. So what's your plan with this now? Do you want, do you want to try to make this a bigger film or like even a couple other parts to it down the road? What are you thinking about? I would love to expand this if I, um, you know, in any sort of like official capacity, I I'm not,

[00:11:39] I'm not holding my breath for Capcom or Constantine to call me, you know what I mean? But, um, but of course, of course I'd be down. Like I love playing Ethan and would love to do it again, especially with the team that we, we put together for this. I think it's, it's, um, you know, I, it's something that I've always wanted as a fan and, um, you know, I, I feel like if I were in, in, you know, in their shoes, I might, might, might take, it might take a look. It might have, might at least start a conversation, but you know, it's, um, yeah. So, but, um, yeah, I mean,

[00:12:08] look, I, the, the intention was to use this as a launching board for whatever my first feature is. Whether that's, you know, something original or an existing IP or whatever it is, then, um, you know, that's, that's, uh, mission accomplished there. Would you want to ever tackle another video game? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's so many games that I would, I would kill to adapt. I think like, you know, um, man, there's one that I, I haven't figured out how it could be done,

[00:12:35] but like Soma would be so much fun as an old, as an indie game from like 10 years ago by the guys who made Amnesia, which also that would be awesome. Any of those games, um, Outlast, you know, those are awesome games. It'd be fun to adapt. Um, I think Bioshock is just waiting for a killer adaptation. You know what I mean? I don't know if I could do it, but like, you know, it's just waiting for someone to like really do a great job with it. So I, there's so many games out there that I would, I would love to adapt or at least love to be a part of the process and, and whatever it is, if I'm, if I'm not the creative force behind it,

[00:13:04] I would love to just be on set and collaborating with cool creative people that care about, you know, making something, making some cool art. What was your reaction? Like when you saw that, uh, the director, uh, from the Resident Evil 7 posted on Instagram about this? Absolutely. Like top one of life's top moments, honestly, because like truly, you know, the, the success story behind RE7 is so amazing. I have so much respect for all of the developers at Capcom

[00:13:31] and him, especially like just so incredible for, um, for him to, to show support to our short fan film in such a, such a kind way. And yeah, it was, it was just one of the coolest things ever to get, you know, the, the, the seal of approval from the guy who made the thing is amazing. Now I know this is available on YouTube, but like, are you planning to push this like on like any type of festivals or anything like that? Or what's the intention was always just straight to

[00:14:00] YouTube. So I'm, I'm not planning on doing any film festivals, but I am doing, uh, we have two live screenings and Q and A's over the next couple of weeks, which I'm really excited for it. We have one in Tampa, actually the Tampa theater is a part of their nightmare on Franklin week next, uh, Thursday, October 29th. And then we have another screening and Q and A, this is all with cast and crew cast anchor are going to be there. Um, uh, one at LA comic-con next weekend on November 1st. And, uh, yeah, again, screening cast and crew are going to be there for Q and A and yeah, I'm,

[00:14:28] I'm super excited. Amazing Chandler, uh, tend this, uh, anything else going on with you that you're allowed to tell us about down the road, uh, keep an eye out for anything. Yeah. I mean, this, this was the what's next thing for the longest time up until a week ago when I hit export. Um, but, uh, but yeah, I mean, I've got a, you know, a, a sci-fi drama that I, that I started in that's doing the film festival run right now. It's playing at a film festival in Austin next weekend that I'll be there

[00:14:53] for. Um, I've got a horror film that's in post-production. I've got a action adventure film that's in post-production. I've got a Western in post-production. So there's a lot that I have. Yeah. A lot of those, there's a lot that's, um, that has yet to come out that I've, I've been a part of. So, um, so yeah, lots, lots of stuff coming up. Amazing Chandler. I want to thank you for giving me a few minutes today. Good luck with this. You know, just that it's getting, uh, from what I've been reading everywhere, it's beginning and good, uh, good feedback. Thanks Elias. I appreciate it.