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It’s October! Spooky season is upon us! A season for candy, jack-o’-lanterns, and, of course, horror! We have talked about horror games on this site quite extensively. Classics such as Clock Tower, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill are all quintessential titles. That being said, these titles, in the wrong hands, may suffer a fate worse than death: the dreaded video game movies based on them.
These movies are EXTREMELY hit or miss, with the vast majority being absolutely abysmal. However, there has been a SLIGHT turnaround in recent years. There have been adaptations that are surprisingly decent and a few that are genuinely good. Let’s take a look at the five best and the five absolute worst.
5 Best. Resident Evil (2002)
Milla Jovovich stars as Alice, who awakens in the Arklay Mansion with amnesia, only to discover that the place is crawling with the undead. Sure, it’s not particularly accurate to the source material, but the movie looks slick, the creature effects are great, and the soundtrack is slamming. While far from perfect, it does a solid enough job of telling a story and being entertaining. However, this wouldn’t last, as it would lead to what are, without a doubt, some of the worst sequels ever made. Speaking of which…
5.Worst Resident Evil Sequels( ALL of them)
I don’t know why the director of the first film was only able to strike lightning in a bottle once, but the sequels are some of the most inept, poorly conceived, written, paced, acted, and directed slop I have EVER seen. In fact, the continuity between the films is so poor that each installment could be a standalone sequel to the first one. Alice originally went from a reluctant hero to basically a god-tier superhero with some of the dumbest and most inconsistent powers imaginable. Fan favorites like Leon, Claire, and Chris Redfield are relegated to the sidelines with no meaningful impact. How this series lasted as long as it did is scarier than any outbreak.
4 Best. Five Nights at Freddie’s
Considering the popularity of this title, it’s quite bizarre that it took as long as it did to make its way to the big screen. We all know the story: a down-on-his-luck man named Mike takes a night-shift security job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, only to discover that there’s more going on than just watching security monitors. Matthew Lillard does a phenomenal job, the puppets and animatronics are top-notch, this is a fun and light hearted gateway into the genre for younger audiences.
4. Worst. Return to Silent Hill
This might be a shock, but I dare say this is even worse than Silent Hill: Revelation. Return to Silent Hill was an incredibly ambitious adaptation of Silent Hill 2, which is considered the gold standard of the series. With the director of the original Silent Hill film back in the chair, you would think this had all the makings of a smash hit. WRONG! This film does a huge disservice to its source material. Eddie, who is a main character with a significant role in the game, is reduced to a glorified cameo. James is now an alcoholic artist with a completely pointless subplot involving his therapist. Maria is basically just composite character of 3 in 1. While the film looks fine, its pacing and writing are absolutely horrid, making it, bar none, the worst film in the franchise.
Full article on the franchise as a whole here.
3 Best. Silent Hill
A loose adaptation of the first game, the film follows Rose Da Silva, who, instead of Harry Mason, searches for her daughter in the town of Silent Hill. It takes some liberties with the source material, but it manages to keep things fresh and offers a unique spin on the story. What it gets right to the nth degree is the look and feel of the games. Silent Hill is a beautiful and expressive film. Every still from this movie would look great framed and hung on a wall.
3 Worst. Doom
If you smelllllll what The Rock is cooking, it smells freaking rotten!This is an ugly, uninspired, dull, and flat adaptation in every sense of the word. This movie was so boring that I actually thought the DVD’s behind-the-scenes feature was more interesting. Without a doubt, the worst part of this movie is when they tried to shamelessly film a scene in first-person view like the game. When you have monsters, guns, and arguably the biggest action star of the 2000s, and is still this boring, you’ve messed up. BADLY.
2 Best. Detention
An unexpected and welcome adaptation of the Taiwanese horror game of the same name, Detention follows Wei, a high school student who is trapped in a world of terror as her school is engulfed in unimaginable horrors. Detention is a brilliant and beautiful mix of Taiwan’s tragic history and folklore. The ghosts in this film are simultaneously horrifying and gorgeous, all set against the backdrop of the Taiwanese White Terror. Out of all the films on this list, this is without question the most genuinely scary.
2 Worst. Until Dawn
This film was so terrible that it’s barely worth mentioning. It basically drops everything from the game in favor of a Groundhog Day-style time loop. Not only is it inaccurate to the game, but it also commits the worst sin of all: it is BORING!
1 Best. Resident Evil(2026)
This is it, the gold standard. The cream of the crop, right here! This is a film that looks back on all the mistakes of the previous entries in the series and actually learns something. Some might find it disappointing that it features an original character instead of series mainstays like Chris or Leon, but the rest of the film is so good that it washes that disappointment right out of your mind. Bryan is a medical delivery man given a special task: to deliver a mysterious package to the pharmaceutical company Umbrella. What is supposed to be a standard delivery quickly devolves into a nightmare of the most grotesque proportions. This is a movie that knows its audience and is packed with fan service. Finding weapons, ammo, health items, and keys with specific shapes? It’s ALL here! This is truly an adaptation that knocks it right out of the park with a home run.
1 Worst. House of the Dead
In 2003, Uwe Boll came in swinging with what might be his worst film ever. Every single thing you can think of is done wrong here: a nonsensical plot, hilariously bad acting, absurd action scenes, and transition scenes that actually use footage from the games. Despite its budget of $12 million, it has the production quality of a Sci-Fi Channel movie or a Goosebumps episode.This is not only the worst video game adaptation ever made, but also one of the worst films in general.
Happy Halloween!
As we’ve said before, games and films have a complicated relationship. While things have steadily improved, the industry still has a long way to go. Do you agree with our list? Are there any films you think should have made it? Good or bad, let us know in the comments!
Thank you, and Happy Halloween!
