Those Resident Evil movies weren’t so good, huh? They started out somewhat strong but fizzled as time went on and just became progressively sillier. I can’t even really remember much about them after the second one.
The worst part about the RE movies is that the source material is perfect for a great horror adaptation. I loved these games when they first came out and they had quite the effect on me and many other young horror hounds. The first few Resident Evil games are some great zombie horror. There’s the claustrophobic sense of dread, the gore, the building mythology about a shadowy corporation and the hideous scientific monsters they’ve created. Movies based on that would be great. Movies based on Milla Jovovich doing karate and shooting guns in slow-motion 3D? Not as good.
So let’s hope this recently announced Resident Evil TV series from Netflix is a faithful adaptation of the games. It’s being billed as an expansion of the RE universe but we don’t know how much of a reboot it’ll be. Will it feel like the movies or will it feel like the games? Will it contain crazy backflips and gunplay and zombie dogs or dark hallways, immense amounts of gore and...well, okay, probably some zombie dogs? I’m really hoping this series is a clean break from the films and gets back to what made the first video games so great. Give us classic zombie terror and a deep, layered mythology. Make it scary, not action-packed.
“Quick, do a backflip.”
I’m probably getting my hopes up because Constantin Film, the studio behind the movie franchise, is still involved. But maybe they too want to get back to the roots of Resident Evil. That’s my hope because the next great horror TV series could be waiting if they play their cards right.
Of course if this doesn’t work out we can pin all our hopes on that film reboot of the series that was also recently announced. Maybe that will be a proper faithful take on the game series. Or maybe it won’t be. Or maybe they both will be! We just don’t know what we are getting and that’s the scariest thing of all.