For decades, renowned directors in Hollywood have treated video game adaptations like a curse that’s doomed to fail before it ever even starts. Frankly, it’s hard to blame them given the reputation these films have earned.
It’s all too easy to forget because of recent releases like “The Last of Us” and “Arcane” that, before the 2020s, most of these movies and TV shows were honestly awful. These projects have spent years being linked with bad writing, truly bizarre creative direction that plays fast and loose with the source material and directors who seem to resent the games they’re adapting as if they stand in the way of ticket sales from the general audience.
The industry is slowly changing. The clearest example of this is the upcoming “Resident Evil” film from celebrated horror director Zach Cregger. This film is probably the clearest example of the quality an adaptation can have when handled by a director who truly loves the source material.
Cregger, the director of “Barbarian” and last year’s surprise hit “Weapons,” has assured fans repeatedly that he is a “lifelong fan” of “Resident Evil.” He’s spoken about the movie being centered around recreating the experience of playing “Resident Evil” instead of just borrowing its character names, setting and monster designs. That may sound like a minor thing, but it is what separates a good video game adaptation from all the others.
I myself played through the “Resident Evil” series earlier this year to get caught up for “Resident Evil Requiem,” the ninth mainline entry in the series, and can confidently say that they represent the best the horror genre has to offer. The in-depth resource management is excellent, the creature design is truly unpleasant, the horror can be very frightening and the stories are consistently compelling despite (or maybe because of) the outlandish plots.
The series is special to me and many other fans because of the one element that Hollywood has consistently failed to include: these horror games are actually really funny.
The specific brand of humor is part of why these games are so special. It’s not funny the same way sitcoms are funny, or the way Marvel seems to believe it is. Its humor works in a similar way to a really good B-grade movie: it takes itself so seriously that the exaggerated ridiculousness creates comedy.
In the first 10 minutes of “Resident Evil 4,” protagonist Leon S. Kennedy faces off against a swarm of plague-infected villagers in the remote Spanish countryside. When they abruptly stop attacking and all leave the village, Leon looks around the abandoned village and asks, completely straight-faced, “Where’s everyone going? Bingo?” Cue the title sequence. It’s so wonderfully corny and memorable. There are moments just like that scattered throughout the entire series. Moments like that are what fans remember, just as much as, if not more than, some of the iconic scares.
“Resident Evil” is unfortunately no stranger to film adaptations. The previous six-film series that released from 2002 to 2016 were, to be very generous, not exactly a good representation of what makes the games so beloved. At all. This new film, however, seems to be taking a very different approach. Its trailers present an experience that looks to be expertly made, pretty gross, dark and occasionally really funny. There’s a clear interest in recreating the series’ signature blend of over-the-top action with helpless horror sequences. Not only that, it takes accurate elements of the game’s world to create an original plot that occurs within the bounds of established events from the games without taking unnecessary liberties with the plot (that we know of). Most importantly, it seems to understand that the story can be equal parts horrifying and ridiculous. There’s no need to choose one and go all in without showing any attention to the other.
It’s strange to think that the secret formula to a good adaptation has always been something that should be considered common sense: create with the intent of respecting what is being adapted. One may think that this shouldn’t even need to be said, but the six prior “Resident Evil” movies speak for themselves in showing that’s not the case. The dense lore, environmental storytelling and character writing of many story-focused games should have been a gold mine for film adaptations set in these universes from the very start, but for years these IPs have been treated as names with boxes to check to clear the bare minimum standard to be considered an adaptation.
After years of bad movies and TV shows, it seems that the medium is finally gaining respect and being viewed as a legitimate source of adaptation by filmmakers. “The Last of Us” managed to function as a high-quality prestige TV series while maintaining the identity which made the game famous (more so in the first season than the second). “Fallout” thrives as a series entirely because it leans into the weirdness of its source material as opposed to sanding it down to make it more palatable for the mainstream. Even the two animated “Super Mario Bros.” movies, while by no means masterpieces, still capture the fun and upbeat worlds of the “Super Mario” games that made them stand out from the very start. Even projects that take massive creative liberties are still received well because they manage to capture what makes the games special and understand why audiences love them.
That’s a very important shift in direction for these projects. No adaptation needs to accomplish a shot-for-shot adaptation of the game’s story. The worlds are vast enough that, in a lot of cases, that’s not necessary. Not just that, but it’s also impossible and unfair to expect a film to perfectly recreate the feeling of actively controlling progression through a story at your own pace. It has to be able to stand beside the source material as a high-quality companion piece, not a replacement for members of the audience who have no interest in video games. To do so, it needs to properly understand why audiences are drawn to the game in the first place.
That should be true of all adaptations too. The “Lord of the Rings” trilogy is so beloved because it managed to translate the spirit of Tolkien’s work into a different medium. Video games deserve the same treatment. There are few games that are entirely incompatible with film. It only feels like a disconnect between mediums because there have been far too many projects made by people with little to no proper understanding of what they are adapting.
If this new “Resident Evil” film succeeds, it will join the growing list of projects that succeeded because of a director who made the movie they always wished they could have seen. Maybe that’s all these movies ever needed.
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