18 Years Later, Dead Space Needs a Zach Cregger Reboot More Than Resident Evil

Dead Space came out in 2008, set in what appears to be an environment that seems tailor-made for a horror movie. Set in a mining spaceship that had fallen silent, the video game revolves around Isaac Clarke, an engineer who is sent to repair the ship. To his horror, he soon discovers that all crew members are either dead or turned into grotesque monsters called Necromorphs (not to be confused with the Alien franchise’s Xenomorphs) whose sole aim is to devour him. The game and its sequel make great use of lighting to make their creepy corridors feel occupied, even when Isaac (and we) can’t see what’s lurking in them. Almost 18 years later, the USG Ishimura has yet to be featured in a Hollywood adaptation, and that’s a shame.

With the new Resident Evil movie, director Zach Cregger took on a game series Hollywood has revisited repeatedly but to mixed effects. And that is if we are being charitable. Dead Space has been waiting for close to two decades for its first venture into live action. Cregger, having directed Barbarian, Weapons, and now Resident Evil, is one of our best horror directors today. But more than that, he is uniquely suited to handle the horror of those poorly-lit and cramped corridors.

Dead Space Has Never Had a Live-Action Film

Dead Space has been adapted before, only not in live-action. Downfall arrived as an animated feature in 2008, followed by Aftermath in 2011. Both expanded the games’ lore, but they were not at all successful in capturing that vicariously awful feeling of being chased by pale shambling nightmares.

Resident Evil, meanwhile, has had eight live-action films (counting Cregger’s). Admittedly, there is still room to do something new with it. His original story about a medical courier caught in an outbreak demonstrates. But now is the time for a Dead Space movie.

It won’t be cheap to make. The Ishimura needs sets, creatures, spacesuits, and convincing views into the vacuum beyond its walls. Yet Dead Space would gain little from treating every deck as a showcase. Isaac Clarke is an engineer trying to stay alive and find his girlfriend, Nicole. A film could follow that thread through a handful of rooms, letting the ship’s scale register in what Isaac cannot see or reach.

That approach would also leave room for the game’s most unsettling idea: the Ishimura was a workplace before it became a nightmare. Isaac understands those systems well enough to fix them. And there’s the irony. The place he knows how to navigate is the place he cannot escape.

The Ishimura Is Built for Zach Cregger’s Brand of Terror

Cregger is good at making a location feel less trustworthy each time we see more of it. The Ishimura offers him a giant entire spaceship that works on the same principle: open one door, learn what happened there, and dread what that discovery says about the next room.

The Necromorphs would give him more to work with than an endless supply of jump scares. Their contorted bodies make them more interesting than zombies. Shooting one in the chest or even the head does little good. You have to target the limbs to immobilize them. And the gore is uncomfortably realistic, particularly in the Dead Space remake. This makes every encounter a tense exercise in looking closely at something you desperately want to turn away from.

Sound might matter even more. A scrape in a ventilation shaft could follow Isaac for several rooms without revealing its source. Cregger would have space to build fear through waiting, interruption, and the awful possibility that Isaac has mistaken a corpse for a living person.

He has said that what drew him to Resident Evil was the feeling of moving through changing environments while danger escalates (via PlayStation Blog). The Ishimura can provide that journey within one connected place, from its medical deck to its machinery and crew quarters. Each section has a purpose Isaac understands and evidence of how badly things went wrong.

Would you want Cregger to direct a live-action Dead Space film, or would you prefer some other director? Let us know in the comments.