Capcom’s remake of Resident Evil 4 is a masterful reimagining of a classic horror video game. Its release could not come at a more pertinent time for the horror genre as a whole. Remakes have drawn some ire by those who see them as the capitalization of nostalgia. However, Resident Evil 4’s remake brings to light the ways horror has developed since the original in 2005. And while Resident Evil 4’s remake feels like the more mature older sibling to the original, they still bear the same campy DNA that boldly rejects the recent trend of prestige horror. 

Resident Evil 4 chronicles Leon S. Kennedy six years after the events of Resident Evil 2. Now a battle-hardened secret service agent, Leon travels to Spain on a mission. In order to rescue the President’s daughter, Ashley Graham, he has to fight a cult called Los Illuminados. The original Resident Evil 4 introduced a more action-oriented feel to the Resident Evil franchise. Beyond just the game’s third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective that departed from the earlier games’ fixed camera angles, Leon S. Kennedy’s swaggering action man bravado and emo pretty boy looks brought a new type of masculinity to the franchise. The game is as committed to campiness and B-movie aesthetics as it is to its terrifying scares. 

Over the past ten years, people have used prestige horror to describe cerebral, arthouse horror films. These include movies like The VVitch, Hereditary, Annihilation, and The Lighthouse. The term largely exists to differentiate these films from the genre’s perceived “lowbrow” fare. For some, prestige horror films address serious human topics like grief, trauma, and alienation, making them worthy of critical attention. While many prestige horror films are great, the term itself is both condescending and ignorant of the genre’s history. Horror cinema has always addressed heavy human subjects; films like Get Out have just made it impossible for mass audiences to ignore it. 

Another facet that differentiates prestige horror from “regular horror” is the effect that it has on the audience. While films like Scream, Halloween, and Malignant all have an element of fun to their scariness, devotees of prestige horror are drawn to films that are traumatizing because of their “grown-up” subject matter. This isn’t to say that traumatizing horror is lesser than any other type of horror. There’s room at the table for everyone, and this diversity within the genre is why fans like myself are so passionate about it. But prestige horror has made it more difficult than ever for “fun horror” to get the critical recognition that it deserves. 

Resident Evil 4’s remake is here to change that. While the graphics, gameplay, and sound design have all been reimagined, Capcom has largely left the campy but terrifying tone of the original game intact. Leon Kennedy still delivers delightfully schlocky one-liners such as:
“Where’s everybody going? Bingo?”
“Nighty-night, knights.”
“Adios, you son of a bitch.”

Resident Evil fans know that the game is ridiculous–it’s why it’s the preeminent video game horror franchise in the first place. And Capcom’s embrace of its shameless fun seems at once charmingly retro and a defiant rejection of prestige horror. As wonderful as it was to see a game like The Last of Us get its due with a faithful HBO adaptation, the silliness of Resident Evil 4 is a reminder that horror should always leave room for laughter and artifice. 

It’s the humor of Resident Evil that gets at a larger truth about how fear works in horror. Fear is perhaps one of the oldest part of our brains, something that reminds us that we are animals. In some ways, we are also ashamed of this fact, because of how intrinsically connected fear is to our baser instincts. The way that we talk about fear, and the types of fear we privilege over others, is indicative of this fact. Perhaps one of the most frustrating parts about prestige horror is that it often doesn’t give space for accepting fear as a recurrent part of existence, just like humor. Fear doesn’t always need to make us feel bad. Sometimes we need to say something silly like, “Whoa! Goddamn, you’re a big boy!” to get through the horrors of everyday life. 

Still, this isn’t to say that Resident Evil 4’s remake is completely devoid of human topics – quite the opposite. The player comes across a diary entry written by a foreman unknowingly infected by Los Illuminados’ parasite. In just a few words, the game sets up the humanity of this character as he slowly loses his own autonomy. He apologizes to his daughter for not having been a better father. The game succinctly makes Los Illuminados’ leader, Saddler, all the more evil when the player finally reads the foreman’s last diary entry. It’s a mindless, dateless profession of how much of an honor it is to serve Saddler. Like any other Resident Evil game, RE4 remake chronicles how capitalism turns people into monsters, literally. But it doesn’t stop the game from being fun.

One of the most satisfying parts of the remake is its new vision of Leon S. Kennedy. He looks and feels every bit as exhausted and traumatized as he would. He survived the zombie apocalypse on his first day of work! Instead of feeling like an action figure like in the original game, actor Nick Apostolides’ Leon is emotionally intelligent (when he chooses to be) and empathetic to those who are at their most vulnerable. He’s a badass softie without the emotional constipation of The Last of Us’ Joel or God of War’s Kratos. Leon’s openness with both his own fear and his strategies for pushing through is an encouraging sight. In 2023, that feels, frankly, incredibly necessary. 

The remake’s impeccable gameplay, gripping sound design, gorgeous visuals, stellar performances, and perfect pacing has once again made Resident Evil 4 one of the greatest games of all time. But beyond the satisfying synthesis of its parts, the game is a triumph because of how it reframes what makes a piece of horror media “good” in 2023. As terrifying as the game’s Regeneradors are, Resident Evil 4’s remake doesn’t leave the player speechlessly traumatized. By definition, video games provide us with the opportunity to safely immerse ourselves in dangerous situations. The same has been said about horror as a genre. In an increasingly uncertain and terrifying world, games like Resident Evil 4’s remake provides us with an outlet to safely scream our heads off. And that’s exactly the type of energy I need right now.

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The Resident Evil 4 remake will release this March. And slowly, fans are learning all about what they can get excited about when it comes to this shiny new version of the beloved horror game. Capcom has noted that it’s not interested in starting from scratch with this remake. But instead, it intends to make everything better, “turning it to 11.”

You can check out our latest look at the game with a newly released trailer from PlayStation.

Additionally, recently we learned a whole lot about the game’s new features. Speaking to Game Informer, the developer noted what players can expect from the remake, including the addition of sidequests, the removal of quick-time events, tweaks to the character of Ashley, knives that wear out, and new enemies.

Sidequests help to enrich the world of a game. They can sometimes even be the most fun part of the whole experience. You never know where you might have to go or who you might meet. And players can now expect them in the Resident Evil 4 remake. According to Game Informer (via IGN and Bloody Disgusting), in-game blue flyers will mark sidequests in the game. These quests could range from finding snake carcasses to solving puzzles to hunting down specific enemies. Completing sidequests will result in the ability to obtain rewards in the Merchant’s shop. And the original game’s blue medallion will return. Very intriguing.

Additionally, quick-time events, in-game action prompts that limit gameplay, have been removed from the Resident Evil 4 remake. Many players found these to be a distraction, and their elimination signals the remake’s attempts to modernize.

Another gameplay evolution is the advent of knives that you can wear out. Leon’s old reliable can now break if you use it too much. However, a player can now carry multiple knives. As to who you’ll fight with your now fragile knives in the Resident Evil 4 remake? Well new enemies will appear. Capcom teases these, but doesn’t reveal too much about them yet. But apparently, one of them is “a Ganado wearing the decapitated head of a bull like a mask and carrying a huge hammer.”

Finally, when it comes to Ashley, Capcom recognizes your pain. In the Resident Evil 4 remake, Ashley will “feel more like a natural companion and less like a second health bar to babysit.” She’ll have downed states after she takes damage, but she can be killed if attacked in those states. She’ll also have greater in-game capabilities. Ashley can, for instance, go through crawlspaces to open locked doors.

Resident Evil 4 Remake screenshots (part 2) pic.twitter.com/p3H8LFpxEO

— Okami Games (@Okami13_) January 31, 2023

Will all these aspects help to get the Resident Evil 4 remake up to an 11? We’ll have to wait for the game to release on March 24 to find out.

Originally published on February 1, 2023.

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Kevin McCallister learned that sometimes a dream can become a nightmare. Every little kid imagines not having to deal with demanding parents and annoying siblings would be amazing. But Home Alone showed that having the house entirely to yourself isn’t all fun and games. Sometimes bad people want to get in. Of course, there are far more terrifying villains than the Wet Bandits—especially if you decide to spend the night alone in Castle Dimitrescu. That’s what Macaulay Culkin’s iconic Christmas character does in this new crossover video. This mashup video turns Resident Evil Village into a holiday horror.

The YouTube channel eli_handle_b․wav is back with a new mashup, which we first saw at Geeks Are Sexy. It sends everyone’s favorite Christmas loner far from his family’s house in an idyllic Chicago suburb. This year he accidentally took a plane to Eastern Europe and ended up at a sinister locale. Monsters from Resident Evil Village call this dark and spooky land their home.

But the real terror begins once Kevin gets inside the castle. He’s in trouble since he doesn’t have home field advantage in this fight. (In that way this is really more like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.) There he must evade and fight demons and ghouls on their own turf, only without the ability to re-spawn or restart.

His time inside the Castle ultimately brings him face to face with the biggest threat he’s ever had to deal with, the giant Lady Dimitrescu. We don’t care how crafty Kevin might be, we’re taking her 100 times out of 100 in this showdown.

But in the end things work out for the same reason they always do in Home Alone: Catherine O’Hara shows up. Too bad that doesn’t happen when we play Resident Evil Village all by ourselves in an empty house. Now that’s scary!

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Listen here, nerds; gaming discourse always seems to go in the same direction. Everyone always talks about the best characters, weapons, abilities, or levels; never do I hear a brave soul venture to discuss one of gaming’s most ubiquitous features. I, of course, am talking about the health bar—an often underappreciated work of art.

I’ve come across many health bars in my old, decrepit, mid-twenties age. There’s something to be said for games that are able to craft their own unique health bar creation. A health bar can be remarkable for many reasons, ranging from how well it represents the general aesthetic of the game, to how informative it is in regards to your health-related concerns, to sometimes for just how irresistibly bizarre, and goofy, it looks. 

Health bars have long wished to garner the respect they so rightly deserve. I—being the oh-so merciful ruler (i.e. the biggest nerd)—will oblige. Here are seven picks for health bars that are truly the epitome of remarkable. 

Super Mario Sunshine (2002)

Kicking off the list is a somewhat controversial title, since some consider it to be the black sheep of the mainline 3D Mario titles: Super Mario Sunshine. Not to get overly political or anything, but I’m an anti-summer and anti-beach person. Super Mario Sunshine is the rare exception to this rule. 

This includes the game’s pleasant-looking, sun-inspired health meter, which looks like the sort of cartoonish sketching you’d jot down in your textbooks as you try to brave through the perils of math class.

Resident Evil (1996)

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Resident Evil series, which is hardly a joyous or upbeat experience. While these kinds of games aren’t my cup of tea, the health bar of the Resident Evil franchise deserves praise for simply how unique it is. 

The game uses an ECG (electrocardiogram) to measure the status of your character; it’s the most appropriate thing that I’ve ever seen in anything. Like, nothing—not even the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool—can hold a candle to this magnificent decision.

Pac-Man World Series (1999-2005)

Don’t tell anyone, but one of my core beliefs is that the Pac-Man World series deserves an HD remaster. There are plenty of aspects about this underrated platformer series I cherish deeply, including its simple health bar that makes me giggle with how perfect it is every time. 

Making a health bar that wasn’t based on the legendary pie design would’ve been an insult to our thick yellow boy, so this health bar is an example of when people do their one job and do it well.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (2003)

Is there anything more befitting of the sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea? With the remaster just recently being released, I got to thinking: Has any game ever used underwear as a main commodity as much as Battle for for Bikini Bottom? 

Before any nerds reference, like, some obscure Commodore 64 game, let’s just say it’s not every day you see underpants used to tally hit points.

Kingdom Hearts Series (2002-Present)

I’m not even going to attempt to begin to explain Kingdom Hearts, but I will say that the health bars serve, in a way, as the perfect symbolism for the convolutedness of the series. This monstrosity is actually kind of hilarious to look at.

The health bar also serves as one of the better visual representations of growth in an RPG that I can think of. Seeing your tiny wedge grow into an entity longer than the equator line is immensely satisfying. 

Spider-Man on GameBoy Advanced (2002)

Not only is Spider-Man my favorite character fictional character in existence, but I remember playing this game a ton. When my mom would drive me to school, I’d spend some time trying to beat whatever level I was stuck on; I swear the boss fight against Shocker was impossible.
The health bar came in the form of a literal red web that would see chunks of it disappear. Despite how arbitrary the amount of damage you took seemed, the thing was just plain rad.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day (2001)

This should be pretty self-explanatory for anyone that enjoys good things (i.e. chocolate, which is an extremely good thing). While a lot of the jokes and crudeness of Conker’s Bad Fur Day don’t exactly age well, the boldness and “how in the world is this game real?” sentiment of the game can’t be understated. 

Honestly, I’d put forth a bill to the senate to have more games use chocolate—or any number of other delectable treats—as their health bars. 

Originally published September 3, 2020.

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Evil is the name of the game. And it wouldn’t be much of a show if “nothing eventful ever happens in the peaceful New Raccoon City.” Netflix’s first teaser trailer for its upcoming Resident Evil series promises this next addition to the franchise will be an eventful one. And it also finally gives us the release date for the series.

As we already know, Netflix’s Resident Evil is a new story, not one that comes directly from any of the franchise’s iconic games. Instead, the series will focus on Jade, Albert Wesker’s daughter.

A release for the show shares more about what we can look forward to:

Year 2036 – 14 years after Joy caused so much pain, Jade Wesker fights for survival in a world overrun by the blood-thirsty infected and mind-shattering creatures. In this absolute carnage, Jade is haunted by her past in New Raccoon City, by her father’s chilling connections to the sinister Umbrella Corporation but mostly by what happened to her sister, Billie.

It sounds like we’re looking at a story where false utopia meets major dystopia. New Raccoon City may look idyllic, but the marks of the Umbrella Corporation are all over it. And what happens there, we’re sure will have dire consequences. Not to mention, the survival of humanity, of course, is once again on the table… As are more zombies than ever before. But there will be more personal mysteries to unravel as well.

Additionally, a recent article from Entertainment Weekly sheds some more light on the series. In it Resident Evil‘s showrunner Andrew Dabb sheds some light on our story.

He notes about Jade, “What popped into my head really early on was she’s like Jane Goodall for zombies. She’s studying them. She’s trying to learn how they operate. This is a new organism. Our zombies are not the risen dead. They’re infected by a virus. All of us have had a crash course in viruses the last few years. This virus changes. It evolves and it has its own agenda.”

The article notes that one timeline revolves around the year 2036, 14 years after the breakout of the T-virus which turns people into zombies. And Jade is consumed with fixing the catastrophe. Meanwhile, the other takes place in 2022 in New Raccoon city.

Dabb notes, “We are now essentially 20-plus years from the first Raccoon City. Everyone knows it was destroyed in a very tragic incident, but very few people know exactly what happened, which makes sense, given that it was a bit of a cover-up in the U.S. government.”

At the helm of the Umbrella Corporation’s new home base is Evelyn Marcus (Paola Nuñez). Entertainment Weekly explains that she is the “daughter of Umbrella founder and virologist James Marcus.” Although she does not exist in the games, Dabb thinks, “There are some hints that she could, if you dig deep enough.” In Netflix’s Resident Evil, the Umbrella Corporation has moved from bioweapons to consumer products. Including a drug called Joy, which has side-effects that include the T-virus.

A second teaser trailer for the show sheds light on Joy and how the catastrophe we see began. But Joy may just be one part of the puzzle that leads to global catastrophe.

Lance Reddick stars as Albert Wesker in the series, a virologist and major character from the Resident Evil franchise. Maybe not the one we’d have pegged to have a child. But that’s the beauty of the show. Ella Balinska will play Wesker’s daughter Jade. And we speculate their relationship will live at the heart of the show, which according to Gizmodo, will be “told both in the past and the future simultaneously.”

Count us very much in. Netflix’s Resident Evil premieres on July 14th. It will run for eight episodes.

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In 2020 Netflix announced development of a live-action Resident Evil series. The popular Capcom game has already had its chance to shine on the big screen. But those films didn’t exactly land for everyone. It’s why we’re excited to see how the franchise will work as a television show. During Netflix’s Geeked Week event in June 2021, the streaming platform revealed that Lance Reddick was leading the cast as Albert Wesker. We’ll be seeing him in action this summer. Netflix announced—with a set of ominous posters—that the series will debut on July 14.

The Oz star will take on the iconic role of Resident Evil‘s famed virologist known for his cold demeanor. Fans of the John Wick franchise know Reddick can be cool under pressure. He also strikes an imposing presence, all while being naturally charismatic. And fans of The Wire watched him outmaneuver numerous foes and pitfalls with a deft hand. We wouldn’t want to cross any of his characters anymore than we would want to cross Resident Evil‘s most Machiavellian character. Reddick should make for a perfect Albert Wesker.

But while the series features an iconic Resident Evil character, and set within the games’ greater universe, it’s not a straight adaptation of any game in particular. Instead, it’s a new story, featuring Albert Wesker’s daughter, Jade.

Here’s what the show is about, per Netflix:

Year 2036 – 14 years after a deadly virus caused a global apocalypse, Jade Wesker fights for survival in a world overrun by the blood-thirsty infected and insane creatures. In this absolute carnage, Jade is haunted by her past in New Raccoon City, by her father’s chilling connections to the Umbrella Corporation but mostly by what happened to her sister, Billie.

Ella Balinska, Tamara Smart, Siena Agudong, Adeline Rudolph, and Paola Núñez will play major roles on the horror survival series. Ahad Raza Mir, Connor Gossatti, and Turlough Convery round out the cast.

Netflix

Andrew Dabb serves as showrunner and executive producer on the series, which will consist of eight one-hour episodes. Fellow executive producers include Robert Kulzer and Oliver Berben of Constantin Film, the studio behind the show. As well as Mary Leah Sutton, who also serves as a writer.

Resident Evil season one debuts on Netflix on July 14.

Originally published on June 11, 2021.

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Nerdist: You clearly love the Resident Evil games and you really manage to translate that creeping sense of dread to the screen in this movie. What was the process of bringing that to life? And was that a big drive for you?

Johannes Roberts: Yeah, 100%. I came on as the horror guy. Let’s go back to the games. Let’s make this scary. You’ve got to balance people that are fanatically passionate about the games to people that love the previous franchise or people that just want to go and see a horror movie. The one thing I believe they all have in common—because that’s the one thing I want—I want them to go into that movie and be scared. I want to have a John Carpenter movie that’s just Resident Evil. That’s how I approached it. I was like, “I want to be scared. I want to have fun. I want to have everything that this game has given me.”

I was obsessed at the time while we were making this with the reboot of the second game. It’s just phenomenal. And it became a cornerstone for how I would go and create the film. Everything drenched with rain, atmosphere, and everything lit with flashlights. I just wanted to scare the s**t out of people, and it really was as simple as that.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City obviously takes a lot from the first two games, but you mentioned Carpenter and there are some big nods to his body of work there. So what were some of your other big non-game influences?

Carpenter rules how I saw this movie in my mind. As a storyteller, I approached it as Assault on Precinct 13. This is an ensemble coming together. And it’s going to have the humor and the suspense and that’s how I that’s how I looked at it. Then let’s bring in something like the atmosphere of The Fog. As a film director you always have that nadir moment when you’re filming when you think you’ve f***ed everything up. And once we shot all night, I remember going home to my wife and saying, “I think I f***ed this up. I think it’s terrible. It’s not working.” Then she went to bed and I put on a DVD of The Fog and everything was right with the world. So yeah, obviously, Carpenter is in my DNA.

Then the world it’s set in is very Stephen King. When Claire comes into town, and people appear from behind curtains. You have this dying Americana and that’s my love of King. Even “Itchy Tasty” being written on the wall with blood, that’s “IT” being written on the wall with blood. I’ve always wanted to do that. There’s definitely some Exorcist in there. And definitely some Exorcist III in there!! Slowly just building these scenes within the camera so that all comes through there. I think with the music there’s definitely Argento. There’s definitely Ennio Morricone and Goblin. We used The Bird with a Crystal Plumage in the temping a lot actually. And when Mark came on his brief was: Assault on Precinct 13 but as if Goblin did it!

Taking on the zombie movie in 2021 is no easy feat. It’s been niche, mainstream, over-saturated, and has even had a resurgence with films like Train to Busan. So how did you approach creating the legitimately terrifying zombies in your film?

That was f**king hard! That night I mentioned was the first night of shooting the zombies. I suddenly realized that I had like 50, 60, 70 years of zombie history now, “I’ve got to get this right.” The big decision that I took which really paid off through the movie was that I was obsessed with Chernobyl which had many thematic similarities to what the story I was telling with Resident Evil. I found that show so disturbing with the makeup and how when people got sick, like I have never been as scared watching something in a long time. So that was the way I decided to go. We’ve got to make these zombies scary again. You know, Shaun of the Dead has definitely made zombies not scary. The Walking Dead is on TV all the time. How am I going to go back to making this scary?

It all came down to really feeling the human within the zombie. So we cast only actors to play the zombies. Even if they were stunt people they had to be actors first. We did all the makeup in-camera, there’s no CG. Steve Newburn did this incredible prosthetic that was very much based around radiation poison. I wanted to really feel these human beings falling apart and that was really how we got into that world.

The cast in this movie is absolute dynamite and I left the film wanting to see them again. So the big question is are there more stories you want to tell in this world?

Oh very much. I think the key for me if we get to go on from here—which I really hope we do—is that we approach it as we adapted the first and second game by looking at them and saying this is a novel. This is like adapting the novel, we take it seriously. We’re faithful, we believe and love this material. Whether we go into Resident Evil 4—which is a game I love very much—or into the bonkersness of Code Veronica or Resident Evil 3, there’s a lot to explore. And when we do it and how we do it—it’s not as clear cut as the first two—is just to take that source material seriously. We don’t just change it up and go into our own world. We keep that horror and intimacy, that scare and mystery that’s here and just keep going.

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Do you remember the first time you played Resident Evil? The creeping fear, flickering lights, and oppressive feeling that any choice you made doomed you. Nightmarishly atmospheric and eerie, the franchise has long haunted the dreams of gamers everywhere. But the billion dollar movie series that it spawned eschewed that for wild action-packed and often fluorescently lit reimagining. But Johannes Roberts’ entertainingly scary Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a throwback to those early games and, surprisingly, to the fun and often campy ensemble horrors of the ’00s. So if you want to get scared silly while rooting for a group of ragtag heroes this holiday season then you’re in luck.

Based heavily on the first two Resident Evil games, Welcome to Raccoon City centers on the titular town. It was once the beating heart of the notorious Umbrella Corporation. The shady medical group ran a very creepy orphanage which was once home to our hero, Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario), and her brother, Chris (Robbie Amell). While Claire ran away years ago, Robbie stayed in town and is now a member of the RCPD. But he’s one of the only people still there; Umbrella has upped and left. The only folks still stuck in Raccoon City are those too poor to leave and those protecting Umbrella’s interests. When Claire hears that something’s afoot in her old hometown she heads back to find her brother.

Roberts drenches Raccoon City in his obvious and loving horror influences. It’s a rain-soaked small town that screams Stephen King. The film plays with Carpenter from the claustrophobic heist of Assault on Precinct 13 to the supernatural slow burn of The Fog. While Roberts is a student of those movies, it doesn’t take away from his dedication to bringing that very specific creeping dread of Resident Evil to the screen. Just like in the games, Raccoon City is its own character and Roberts brings it to life with menace. But just as important are those who inhabit it, and that cast might be the film’s biggest strength.

Since Tiger House, Skins breakout Scodelario has established herself as a killer lead for a weird dark thriller. That was most recently showcased in Alexandre Aja’s Crawl. While she has less outrageous gymnastics to do here, she’s a stoic and smart lead. Amell plays her brother with jock-ish aplomb. The RCPD really brings something special, though, with Ant-Man and the Wasp’s Hannah John-Kamen standing out as the badass Jill Valentine. If there are more of these movies, the idea of a proper Scodelario and John-Kamen team up feels almost too good to be true. Umbrella Academy’s Tom Hopper is perfect as the morally gray Albert Wesker, and his chemistry with Kamen is powerful. The breakout, however, is Avan Jogia’s himbo dreamboat Leon. He’s our in and constantly provides humor and heart. It’s a killer ensemble that you actually care about which helps when the undead sh*t hits the fan.

One of the most impressive things about Welcome to Raccoon City is how it balances building a world that’s instantly recognizable to fans of the games but also totally accessible to new viewers. In that way it feels like a true crossover horror. If you like zombies you’ll be terrified by Roberts’ grotesque creations, and if you enjoy video games you’ll love the way he translates the visual language of Resident Evil to the screen. There are scares galore and a ton of Easter eggs for those looking. It also has some of the best ’90s needle drops this reviewer has ever heard. Speaking of which, one cast member features in one of the best and we haven’t mentioned him: the magnificent Donal Logue. He leads the RCPD with the appropriate amount of cowardice and menace.

So, although Christmas is slowly creeping nearer, if you want to be scared this holiday season then (if you can) make sure you see Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City on the biggest screen possible. It’s fun, frantic, and frightening in the best way. There’s silliness and scares, as well as an enjoyable cast that will have you hoping for a ton more of these movies. And if there’s any justice in our already franchise-saturated world, there will be.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City premieres November 24.

4 out of 5

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The Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City trailer invites you into its world. Though we’ve glimpsed the new movie, this is our first full look at the action. And it looks good.

Seeing some of our favorite characters in their latest iterations is a real treat. In the trailer, we get a good look at Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, Jill Valentine, and more. The cast all slide effortlessly into their roles. Kaya Scodelario, Avan Jogia, Robbie Amell, Hannah John-Kamen look right out of the games.

Sony Pictures

But the monsters definitely steal the show here. Trouble awaits our heroes, no doubt. And trouble has many teeth. Of course, that’s not even to speak of the true danger. The nefarious Umbrella Corporation does not want its story getting out. And it’s not looking like it will go down without a fight. And that fight apparently happens to the tune of 4 Non Blondes like it’s some kind of He-Man meme.

The Welcome to Raccoon City trailer’s description shares more about the movie. It shares:

Returning to the origins of the massively popular Resident Evil franchise, fan and filmmaker Johannes Roberts brings the games to life for a whole new generation of fans. In Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company’s exodus left the city a wasteland…with great evil brewing below the surface. When that evil is unleashed, a group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night.

Sony Pictures

The Resident Evil games are beloved in the gaming universe. And now, this reboot will again introduce new viewers to the franchise. Fans already know this live-action outing intends to stay faithful to the games. And this new Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City trailer cements that sentiment. The movie is taking us all back to the origins of the story. It looks to be a terrifying sci-fi tale that has a very relatable core. We can’t wait to see more of both those aspects.

Of course, no adaptation can exist identically to its predecessors. So changes the movie decides to make will also be interesting to consider. The right tweaks can bring even more excitement to an already popular IP. If this trailer is anything to go by, it looks like writer-director Johannes Roberts intends to deliver on the challenge.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City arrives in theaters on November 24. Here’s hoping it’s everything die-hard fans expect and more. We know we’re rooting for this film to succeed.

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The Resident Evil video game series is one of the most popular and longest-running in history. The games are survival horror at its best, with big sci-fi monster set-pieces throughout. The movies…well, they’re mostly just very silly. But now, perhaps, fans of the game will see what they love about them on the big screen in a newly announced Resident Evil film, which already boasts an amazing cast. The movie was going to come out on Labor Day weekend 2021 but has now moved to November 24 for Thanksgiving weekend.

Sony Pictures has now released first look photos of the movie. In them, fans get to see Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker, and more in their big-screen forms.

Sony

According to Deadline, Constantin Film is setting in motion an origin movie for the franchise that will hew a lot closer to the games. The movie will take place on a fateful night in 1998 in the fictional Raccoon City. Writing and directing the film will be Johannes Roberts, the filmmaker behind 47 Meters Down. He said of the project:

“With this movie, I really wanted to go back to the original first two games and re-create the terrifying visceral experience I had when I first played them whilst at the same time telling a grounded human story about a small dying American town that feels both relatable and relevant to today’s audiences.”

And he’s really doubling down on the commitment to the first two games in the series, which came out in 1996 and 1998, respectively, by casting some excellent actors to play well-known and beloved characters from the games.

Robbie Amell (The Flash, Upload) will play Chris Redfield; Hannah John-Kamen (Killjoys, Ant-Man and the Wasp) will play Jill Valentine. They were the main playable characters in the first game. Representing the second games heroes, Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) will play Claire Redfield; alongside Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap) as Leon S. Kennedy. And representing the baddies is Tom Hopper (The Umbrella Academy) as Albert Wesker and Neal McDonough (Arrow) as William Birkin.

Capcom

It appears the new film will, one would assume, play as two parallel stories representing both of the first games, with action inside the Spenser Mansion and Raccoon City. The Umbrella Corporation’s tendrils are everywhere, you know.

This sounds like it has a great chance to be the kind of movie Resi fans have wanted for years.

Article originally published October 6, 2020 and updated on March 31, 2021.

Featured Image: Capcom

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

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I haven’t played it yet, so I have no idea how Resident Evil Village compares to prior games in the franchise. Does it have a better story? Don’t know. Is it more challenging? Couldn’t tell you. Is it the scariest installment yet? Ask someone else. But despite all that, I give it a perfect 10 out of 10. Because the one thing I know is that it features the big lady in the hat, Lady Dimitrescu. She makes every game the best. She always would have too, no matter the era or console. I know because one fan has transformed Resident Evil Village into a PlayStation-style game. And even with vastly inferior graphics, I would buy it right now if it really existed.

This video is the latest throwback from the YouTube channel Hoolopee. It’s a journey to when the PS1 led the way in video game graphics. Back then the console was a real game changer for the industry. Gaming had entered a new, better phase. But watching this remake now is like watching an old silent film after stepping out a 3D-movie in an IMAX theater. The differences between mid-’90s video games and current ones is even starker than we would have guessed.

But the dated quality of this version quickly washes away when everyone’s favorite nine-foot-tall demon enters. Despite being heavily pixelated and less focused compared to her 2021 version, she still maintains her imposing stature. She’s mesmerizing, even though we know she wants nothing more than to kill us. Even in 1996 she would have been a fan-favorite. Though without social media she might not have become the phenomenon she is right now.

Hoolopee

I don’t want to go back to original PlayStation graphics. Modern games look amazing. But the true worth of any Resident Evil installment has always been the quality of the experience. How a game looks is only a part of that.

But now making sure Lady Dimitrescu is in the game is a big part of making that experience perfect.

The post Fan Reimagines RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE as PS1 Game appeared first on Nerdist.

This isn’t to say Resident Evil doesn’t have any playable POC. In Outbreak and Outbreak: File #2, Jim Chapman and Mark Wilkins (two African American men) and Yoko Suzuki (a Japanese American woman) are the big three in a cast of eight. In Operation Raccoon City, playable characters are Japanese, Japanese American, Puerto Rican, Native American of Cree heritage, and African of Shona-Zimbabwean descent. Sadly, this game never reached the heights of the Outbreak duology. 

However, the number of POC isn’t the problem; we’re more concerned with how and when the games utilize these characters. Whenever we’re introduced to characters who are POC, they’re plot devices, eviscerated after helping the games’ white leads, or only playable outside the mainline games that don’t expand the world of Resident Evil very much, if at all.

Capcom

Yes, we’ve had Sheva Alomar (a BSAA agent of West African descent), Carlos Oliveira (a UBCS mercenary of Indigenous South American descent), and Ada Wong (a spy of Chinese American descent) in significant roles. In Resident Evil 5, you can play through the entire story mode as Sheva, but it’s Chris Redfield’s game at its core. Carlos’ role was larger in Resident Evil 3’s remake; nevertheless, we have the same trope of him coming to the rescue of the white main protagonist multiple times. Only to never appear again in later sequels.

Ada appears the most in the mainline series, playable in RE2 remake, RE4, and RE6, where she had her first real campaign since her RE4 side-story Separate Ways. Though her motives are murky, she’s mostly there to move Leon Kennedy from one point to the next. And though she had a campaign in RE6, it wasn’t her game since she had to share it with Chris, Leon, and Jake Muller. Notice a pattern? The games have used all these POC characters as plot devices for white protagonists in some way; they’ve never had games dedicated solely to their own stories.

In hindsight, it could’ve been worse for them. They could’ve died like Marvin Branagh, Tyrell Patrick, Kenneth Sullivan, Rodrigo Juan Raval, and David Anderson (the cop in Resident Evil 7). If you’ve played the games, you’ll notice that all of these names belong to Black male characters. Other than Kenneth, who we found dead in Resident Evil 1, they all died after assisting a white protagonist.

Capcom

Yes, there are non-Black who have died in similar ways. But when so many Black faces are disposed of like this, I can’t help but give Capcom the side-eye. Meanwhile, Black characters like Josh Stone, Keith Lumley and D.C. have survived, but existed for the same reasons. In the end, it shows how Resident Evil won’t be kind to you if you’re a POC, and you’ll have it even worse if you’re Black.

Similar anti-Blackness plagues Resident Evil 5. With its setting and themes involving Tricell’s exploitation of Africa, it would have benefited a lot more from being Sheva’s game. It takes place in her domain, where her people are dying and her home is once again being ravaged by a European corporation. So why not make her the lead so her story and motivations aren’t overshadowed by Chris?

The game could better flesh her and Josh out, leaving room for Chris to have an Ada-like role. They’d run into him here and there, wondering what he’s up to; remember, he never disclosed his reason for joining an Africa-based mission as a North American BSAA agent. This would’ve given Capcom an opportunity to make better use of Chris’ White Saviorism by writing it into the game. Sheva finding out about Chris’ “personal stake” in the conflict—a white American woman—could create a compelling dynamic between them; all while speaking on the realities of the White Savior Complex. 

Capcom

So we aren’t forced to slaughter Africans, alter the enemy types. Plagas could be retconned into something like Molded. That way the people of Kijuju aren’t seen as monsters—in other words, literal stereotypes (see: “The Savage”). If Capcom remakes RE5, with Black creatives heavily involved, a complete reimagining with these ideas in mind could make it work. But this is the publisher that removed their only Black woman character from the box art of later editions. We should keep our expectations in check.

Remake or not, give Sheva another chance. She’s still involved in operations throughout the world; so where in the world is she? If Carlos returned to South America, did he eventually join their BSAA? Could this be where Sheva’s stationed? What else is going on in Ada’s world? She’s involved in all sorts of shenanigans, yet we never see her unless Leon’s in the picture. There’s so much potential being wasted here.

Truth says this: Resident Evil’s characters of color were never given the longevity, spotlight, or care they deserve. It’s undeniable that finally having these characters at the forefront of Resident Evil would take the series to a place it hasn’t been before. If only Capcom could see the value in that, then maybe it could become something much greater during its next 25 years of life.

Featured Image: Capcom

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It goes without saying that 2020 was a strange year all around. But it was an especially strange year for movies. Last year, we compiled a list of all the big horror movies we were excited to see in 2020. Then COVID-19 happened. And, well… most of them didn’t come out. In fact, the majority were pushed to 2021. Which brings us to this new list! Now that dates have been arranged and rearranged, it looks like we finally have a pretty solid idea of what horror fans can expect this year.

That said, dates are subject to change. We’re still in the midst of the pandemic, after all. We’ll keep this list updated accordingly. But, in the meantime, let’s get excited about all of the horror films—from smaller indies to big-budget reboots and beyond—coming in 2021.

La Casa

Dread’s first horror film of the year is this terrifying-looking horror film. La Casa tells the story of a police officer trapped by evil spirits in a cursed house. Sounds like a relatively basic premise, but as you can see from the trailer above, this one looks incredibly spooky. We’re excited to see what director Jorge Olguín has in store for us.

Release Date: VOD January 19, Blu-ray on February 2

Wrong Turn

This is a remake (reboot?) of the 2003 horror film of the same name. It even comes from the same screenwriter, Alan McElroy. That Eliza Dushku-starring film followed hikers who encounter some pretty malevolent locals on the Appalachian Trail. This Wrong Turn looks to cover similar territory, but with a new cast. It seems fairly random to reboot a film series that was never really a super huge property, but hey—we’re always interested to see how a bold idea pans out.

Release Date: January 26

A24

Saint Maud

This A24 horror film showed at a number of festivals in 2019 and 2020, but the pandemic kept it from an official release. Luckily, that appears to be sorted now, and audiences will finally get to watch this utterly transfixing psychological film. Saint Maud follows a devout Catholic hospice nurse named Maud who becomes obsessed with saving the soul of a terminal patient. Fans of The Exorcist should keep their eyes on this one.

Release Date: In select theaters January 29, VOD on February 12

A Nightmare Wakes

The story of how Mary Shelley came to write Frankenstein is an iconic bit of literary history. It’s also one we’ve seen on film plenty of times. But A Nightmare Wakes appears to be something quite different. Yes, it’s about Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. But it blends dreamlike psychological elements with the real story. That’s a perfect way of digging into the novel and blending it with Shelley lore. We’re excited to see the results when the film premieres on Shudder.

Release Date: February 4 exclusively on Shudder

IFC Midnight

The Vigil

Keith Thomas’s The Vigil looks to offer a fresh take on the religious horror subgenre. It tells the story of a young man who agrees to fulfill the duties of a “shomer”—the Jewish custom of looking after a dead body over the course of one night. That sounds like the perfect setup for a supernatural horror story, and that appears to be what The Vigil has up its sleeve. This festival hit debuts in 2021 via IFC Midnight.

Release Date: February 26

A Quiet Place Part II

This sequel to John Krasinski’s horror hit A Quiet Place was also meant to come out in 2020. We’ll see if it was worth the wait. The film follows the Abbott family, lead by matriarch Evelyn (Emily Blunt), who continue their journey to safety in a world where sound attracts murderous invading creatures. Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou join the cast for this outing.

Release Date: April 23

Spiral: From the Book of Saw

Everything about this one sounds weird to us. And also… really intriguing? Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson star in the ninth installment of the Saw franchise. It follows a detective (Rock), following in the esteemed footsteps of a police veteran (Jackson), who investigates a series of grisly murders. Soon, he finds himself trapped in the killer’s twisted game. Time will tell how this connects to the larger Saw universe and if this gamble was worth it. But again, color us intrigued.

Release Date: May 21

Warner Bros. Pictures

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

The Conjuring series follows the fictional accounts of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. The films blend “true” events with supernatural fantasy, and are a lot of splashy fun. So of course we’re stoked for the next entry. This one is based on the trial of Arne Cheyenne Jackson—the first-known court case in the U.S. where the defense sought to prove innocence based on claims of demonic possession.

Release Date: June 4 in theaters and on HBO Max

The Forever Purge

The Purge films have always felt pretty eerily dystopian. (Especially these last four years.) So we’re curious how this sequel—the fifth and final installment—shakes out. It deals with the fallout of a presidential election that abolishes the Purge and a Mexican couple escaping a drug cartel in Texas. Will the topicality of the subject matter pay off? Or will it be a hindrance? We’ll find out this summer.

Release Date: July 9

Searchlight Pictures

The Night House

David Bruckner, director of The Ritual and the “Amateur Night” segment of V/H/S, is a horror filmmaker to keep your eye on. Luckily, audiences don’t have long to wait before the release of his latest film, The Night House. Rebecca Hall stars as a widow who uncovers disturbing secrets about her recently deceased husband. (You can read our Sundance review of the film here.)

Release Date: July 16

Universal Pictures

Old

We know virtually nothing about M. Night Shyamalan’s next horror film, Old. It comes out this summer, it boasts a stellar cast (Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Alex Wolff, and Ken Leung, to name a few), and it’s from the guy who brought us classics like The Sixth Sense and Signs. So naturally, we’re very interested. According to Collider, it’s based off the French graphic novel Sandcastle. And if that’s true, it sounds like we’re in for a spooky beachside horror story.

Release Date: July 23

Sony Pictures Releasing

Don’t Breathe 2

Don’t Breathe was a big horror surprise back in 2016. It was a critically acclaimed sleeper hit, about three friends who break into a blind man’s home and find themselves trapped there. A sequel was inevitable, and we finally get one this year. This one follows that blind man, Norman Nordstrom, who’s in hiding with a young girl he adopted after a house fire. When she’s kidnapped, he’s forced to leave his home to save her.

Release Date: August 13

Candyman

This one is probably our most anticipated film on this list. Why? First of all, it’s a sequel to the 1992 cult film of the same name. Second, the talent behind it is outstanding. Candyman is directed by Nia DaCosta, produced by Jordan Peele, and stars Watchmen breakout Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. It’s set in the gentrified area that was once the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago. And it traces the lore of the titular killer to the present day. There’s a lot going for this film, and we’re thrilled that we finally get to watch it in 2021. (Fingers crossed.)

Release Date: August 27

Capcom

Resident Evil

This is another reboot of a beloved and well-worn horror franchise. Based on the video games of the same name, Resident Evil is an origin story set in 1998 that divulges the secrets of the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon City. Fans of the games and the original series will no doubt be anxious to see how this reboot pans out. We’ll find out this fall.

Release Date: September 9

Universal Pictures

Halloween Kills

The Halloween franchise is one of the more complicated horror sagas, at least timeline-wise. We won’t delve into all of that right now (you can read our handy explainer here), but we are pretty jazzed about Halloween Kills. The film—a direct sequel to the 2018 Halloween—once again stars Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. We don’t know a ton about the plot just yet, except that Michael Myers is still alive (of course) and on the hunt (duh). We were meant to get this one last October, but it was delayed a year.

Release Date: October 15

Focus Features

Last Night in Soho

Put the words “horror film” and “Edgar Wright” in the same sentence, and we’re automatically listening. Which is why we’re especially hyped about Last Night in Soho. The film was meant to debut last year, but was pushed to this spring. It stars The Queen’s Gambit breakout star Anya Taylor-Joy, along with Thomasin McKenzie and Matt Smith. The film follows a young wannabe fashion designer who mysteriously travels back to 1960s London. But all is not what it appears, because, you know, it’s a horror film and all. Edgar Wright is always one to watch, so we expect great things from this one.

Release Date: October 22

Searchlight Pictures

Antlers 

Antlers was originally slated for an April, 2020 release. But those were the early days of COVID, so naturally it was pushed. And boy was it pushed. Now, it’ll come out a full year and a half later, this October. The film stars Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons as siblings living in Oregon who grow concerned about one of Russell’s young students. Turns out, he’s keeping some sort of supernatural beast as a pet. That can’t be good! The film is produced by Guillermo del Toro. Which, speaking of…

Release Date: October 29

Searchlight Pictures

Nightmare Alley

Another one we really can’t be more excited for is Nightmare Alley. It’s directed by del Toro, the beloved and Oscar-winning director, who based it off a William Lindsay Gresham novel of the same name. The film will follow a manipulative carny who teams up with a dangerous psychiatrist to wreak havoc. And oh, what a cast. Nighmare Alley stars Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, Ron Perlman, and Rooney Mara, to name a few. Is it December yet?

Release Date: December 3, 2021

Netflix

Army of the Dead

Director Zack Snyder returns to the zombie genre (after his Dawn of the Dead remake) with this Netflix flick. The movie follows a group of mercenaries plotting to heist a Las Vegas casino in the midst of a zombie outbreak. Dave Bautista and Tig Notaro star. Army of the Dead doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it’s due out this year.

Release Date: TBD 2021 on Netflix

Warner Bros. Pictures

Malignant

James Wan is one of the biggest names in horror. So of course we’re excited for his next project, Malignant. The only problem is… we know almost nothing about this film. It’s apparently an entirely original story written, directed, and produced by Wan. It stars Annabelle Wallis, Jake Abel, and McKenna Grace. And it’s listed on HBO Max’s slate of Warner Bros. releases for 2021. So hopefully we don’t have to wait too long to know what this one is about.

Release date: TBD

The post 20 Horror Movies We Can’t Wait to Watch in 2021 appeared first on Nerdist.

A longtime game franchise is about to take up residence at Netflix. The streaming site has confirmed that an original live-action series based on Capcom‘s hit Resident Evil series is in development. And it will take place in two different timelines, so viewers can see how the world was overrun by monsters.

Netflix and Constantin Film are producing a series based on Capcom’s classic video game franchise. Andrew Dabb (Supernatural) will serve as showrunner and also executive produce. He says fans of the series can expect both familiar faces and new terrifying twists from the show.

Capcom

“Resident Evil is my favorite game of all time,” said Dabb in a statement. “I’m incredibly excited to tell a new chapter in this amazing story and bring the first ever Resident Evil series to Netflix members around the world. For every type of Resident Evil fan, including those joining us for the first time, the series will be complete with a lot of old friends, and some things (bloodthirsty, insane things) people have never seen before.”

Netflix says the series “will tell a brand new story” across two different timelines:

“In the first timeline, fourteen-year-old sisters Jade and Billie Wesker are moved to New Raccoon City. A manufactured, corporate town, forced on them right as adolescence is in full swing. But the more time they spend there, the more they come to realize that the town is more than it seems and their father may be concealing dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the world. 

Cut to the second timeline, well over a decade into the future: there are less than fifteen million people left on Earth. And more than six billion monsters — people and animals infected with the T-virus. Jade, now thirty, struggles to survive in this New World, while the secrets from her past – about her sister, her father and herself – continue to haunt her.”

The first season will feature eight one-hour episodes. Executive producer Bronwen Hughes (The Walking Dead, The Journey Is The Destination) will direct the first two episodes.

Capcom

The show will also come with a massive, built-in fanbase. The survival horror game series first debuted in 1996. Since then the franchise has sold more than 100 million games worldwide. It also led to six films. Netflix will certainly hope their show will find a lot more critical success than the movies, though.

If it doesn’t, the show could be scary for all the wrong reasons. But hopefully the billions of monsters roaming the Earth will be the only thing that’s terrifying about it.

Featured Image: Capcom

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A brand new Hellboy movie hits theates on April 12 and it’s darker, grittier, and more violent than anything you’ve seen before. But it also represents creator Mike Mignola’s vision in a way that will please comic book diehards and newcomers alike. To go deeper into this wild world, Dan Casey sat down with David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, and the stars of Hellboy to find out why now is the perfect time for more Big Red.

The post How the New HELLBOY Movie Brings Mike Mignola’s Vision to Life (Nerdist News Edition) appeared first on Nerdist.

“What’re ya buyin’?” asked the wretched man clad in a body-length black cloak. His craggy voice emanated from somewhere beneath the purple bandana covering his face. “Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil 1, and Resident Evil 4 on the Nintendo Switch,” you answer.

Get ready to scary yourself silly all over again (and on the go)! Capcom announced on Monday on Twitter that it will bring three of the most popular entries in the Resident Evil series to the Nintendo Switch on May 21. 

Resident Evil 0, 1, and 4 are coming to Nintendo Switch eShop on May 21!

Play all three masterpieces anywhere, such as:
– On trains ?
– During mansion tours ?
– Across the European countryside ?

Pre-orders start on Feb 28! pic.twitter.com/BCzatyoUhU

— Resident Evil (@RE_Games) February 25, 2019

Because buying Skyrim on every console wasn’t enough, now you can buy Resident Evil 4 on yet another device too! Following the success of Resident Evil 2 Remake, Capcom is releasing three classic Resident Evil titles as digital downloads on the Nintendo eShop on May 21. North American Switch owners will be able to purchase a retail bundle called Resident Evil Origins Collection, which bundles together RE0 and RE1. Unfortunately for European Switch owners, they will have to purchase each title separately and digitally. No pricing details have been announced at this time, so keep any and all masters of unlocking away from your piggy bank until then.

This latest deluge of fan-favorite remakes is quickly cementing the Switch’s status as the go-to console for gamers looking to recapture the halcyon days of their youth while they commute to work, finish a pick-up basketball game, interrupt a rooftop barbecue, or whatever increasingly improbable scenarios were in the original Switch launch trailer. But now I’ll have three new ways to induce blood-curdling terror on a red-eye flight, which is exactly what my ever-present anxiety needed.

Pre-orders for all three Resident Evil games commence on February 28.

Images: Capcom

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Twenty years after the release of Resident Evil 2, the team over at Steamforged Games is bringing this beloved title to a tactical board game. But how could, what is basically a board game dungeon crawler, capture that same claustrophobia and sense of dread that kept fans of the series coming back? While we had a chance to get our hands on a pre-production version of the game last year, I had a chance to sit down at Gen Con 2018 with the lead designer Sherman Matthews to answer that exact question with the final version of the game. Spoiler alert, it’s pretty good.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE CONTAINS SCENES OF EXPLICIT VIOLENCE AND GORE

Residient Evil 2: The Board Game is a cooperative tabletop game of survival horror for 1 to 4 players. You play as one of the characters from the game, Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Ada Wong or even Robert Kendo who we last saw being eaten alive by zombies. It would seem that Kendo is more resilient than previously thought.

Matthews’ love of the source material shows from the moment you sit down at the game. The characters have a heartbeat meter for a health bar, your inventory spaces are limited, and how you interact with the environment and other players all just felt right. We played a prototype of the second scenario, The S.T.A.R.S Office at the Raccoon City Police Department. Our objective was to safely make it to the S.T.A.R.S. office on the second floor, but first we needed to split up and find the correct key to open the locked door.  Although, many of the puzzle elements of the Resident Evil series didn’t make it into the final cut of the board game, many of these ‘find one item to unlock an area to find another item’ did. It works, and is immediately familiar.

Knowing full well that they had two major audiences to please, veteran tabletop gamers and fans of the video game series, Steamforged approached the design of Resident Evil 2: The Board Game very deliberately. They wanted it to be intuitive for newcomers, but not boring for more experienced players. To do this, the game’s mechanics roll out several scenarios, increasing the game’s complexity without being overly intimidating.

Each player has 4 actions on their turn that they can use to move a space, attack, and search. Opening doors also costs an action but so does closing it behind you. This action economy becomes incredibly important as you find yourself needing to decide between fighting a zombie and trying to escape from the room. The undead on the board will only activate if they are in the same tile as a player or if doors are left open between them and a player’s character. Therefore, leaving some doors open can make it easier to backtrack when needed but it can also come back to bite you.

Actions that involve players interacting with zombies, either to avoid or attack them use the game’s dice. And these are some unforgiving dice. Each board space can fit four regular sized models in it. Some enemy models have larger bases and this scenario definitely has one of those. But typically you’ll find yourself in a space with one regular zombie. To avoid a single zombie is a fairly simple task, with the exception of Kendo all other characters roll 2 dice to avoid. Each dice has 3 dodge results, but they are contingent on the number of zombies you are trying to avoid. If you find yourself in the same space as 2 zombies your successful results reduce from 3 die faces to 2. Dodging means your move action succeeds and you can continue on your way. Failure means that you take some damage, but you’ll be able to shove one of the zombies to an adjacent space allowing for your next attempt to be easier.

Combat is similarly stressful as your ammunition is at a premium. Each shot with your pistol rolls one die and you can fire up to three bullets in a single attack. Much like avoiding, attacking has varying levels of success. Most likely you’ll just push  basic zombies back a space, but if you’re lucky one of these shots will strike true and kill it. Firing your weapons in a room full of zombies will also attract unwanted attention and your desire to dish out some punishment may find you suddenly cornered.

After each player’s turn, they will draw from the Tension Deck to reveal an all clear or some horrible event taking place that the players will need to deal with. The deck of Tension cards acts as a timer in some scenarios as the player will lose if the deck runs out. Fans of the series will recognize the art on the back of these cards as the iconic opening door image that separated rooms keeping players on edge not knowing what they would find. Each of these cards comes with some atmospheric flavor text (that I encourage everyone to read in their creepiest voice) and the more severe ones will spawn zombies or create lingering effects.

Ultimately Resident Evil 2: The Board Game gave me everything I had hoped for as a fan of the series. The low key sense of dread was present from the first turn as I stared down a narrow hallway at a pair of zombies. The decision points of do I fight this zombie or do I try to run past it harkened straight back to the source material. Playing solo for the traditional feel or teaming up with others was just as enjoyable and the boss fights break up the standard game with exciting new challenges.

The game comes with eight scenarios to start but with expansions, there will be more than 20. Not to mention the loads of additional characters and enemies you’ll be able to add to your games including a really neat retro pack that replaces the art on the game components with the classic imagery from the video game.

Steamforged Games launched the Resident Evil 2: The Board Game Kickstarter nearly a year ago and backers should be getting their copies in the next month or so with a wider release in early 2019.

What video game do you hope to get adapted for the tabletop? Tell us in the comments below!

More board game goodness!

• Disney Villainous Is More Than Just A Family Board Game
• Track Every Boardgame You Play With Board Game Stats
• Push Your Luck & Play With Dynamite On The Tabletop With YA BLEW IT!

Image credits: Ian Birdsall

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I still remember the first time I played Resident Evil. I was far too young, but a cool older cousin called me chicken so I swore I could handle it. I couldn’t. I was spooked and never returned to that horror-mansion outside of Raccoon City. Perhaps due to that early play, I largely skipped the Resident Evil series of video games. I’m familiar with how they work and I’ve seen people play them but until I demoed the new Resident Evil 2: Board Game from Steamforged I had never actually visited Raccoon City myself.

I am a big fan of Steamforged miniatures game Guild Ball so was excited to sit down to take a look at this upcoming title. RE2 will not be their first video game-board game translation – they’ve published Dark Souls which raised well over $4 million on Kickstarter – so they have some experience bringing beloved IPs to the tabletop. There are some big differences between board games and video games however, so my hope was to play the game and figure out what they were keeping from what I know of the series and what they were throwing out.

The defining word of the demo was tension. I played with Steamforged co-founder Mat Hart in a demo lead by designer Sherwin Matthews and they both repeated throughout that the goal was to capture the tension and rising horror of Resident Evil 2. Based on my short demo, I’d say they succeeded. There was pressure, uncertainty, but most interestingly a novel resource management system that managed to capture some of the same feelings I get playing survival-horror video games.

The game presented itself as a seemingly standard dungeon crawler, only the dungeon is the streets of Raccoon City. I played rookie cop Leon Kennedy while Mat took on Claire Redfield. Right from the start things were different from most dungeon crawlers I’ve played: we didn’t start together. This mission was to work separately to find the key to the police station and meet up in the parking lot to enter together. Mat explained that this was done – in part – to capture the feel of working alone even while seated at the table with friends.

It works. I began the game staring down an alley at two zombies. These are classic walk-slow-and-bite-you zombies, devoid of any of the powers or abilities that seem to be creeping into the genre. Their threat is as much their presence as it is any real physical danger. Taking an action while sharing a space with them means rolling a few custom dice to evade and if you succeed, you’re free to act or move away or whatever you need to do. Ammo is a precious resource so there isn’t really a need to put them down. Or so it seems.

My first few turns were pretty standard. I moved past the zombies, preferring to save my pistol ammo, and began exploring. In homage to Resident Evil’s loading screens, tiles are separated by doors and opening them sees you rolling on a table to potentially spawn more undead. On top of that players will draw from a rather thin deck at the end of each turn. Most of the cards were “All Clears” but from time to time we drew events that would call back to moments from the video game or add a bit of ambiance and potential danger. One card described shuffling sounds around the corner and forced Mat to back track a few spaces or risk alerting whatever was making the noise. Others forced us to draw multiple cards, hastening the end of the scenario and increasing the risk of failure.

This deck is what delivered a lot of the tension. It’s a timer and thus delivers an inherent tension but it also is full of surprises that laced each draw with a moment of dread. Concerned about an upcoming run in with a giant monster I opted to take a few extra rounds searching for a shotgun; I had to carefully weigh that decision against drawing an extra 2-3 cards in the process. You also have to be careful going back to eliminate zombies or waiting for your teammate to show up because of the ticking time bomb you’re drawing from each round. Sherwin mentioned that future campaign scenarios will see players backtracking through levels akin to the video games,making that decision to ignore zombies now one that might bite you later.

Of course, you can’t just kill everything. Shooting in the board game introduces an element of push your luck. I had a large pool of blue cubes representing my pistol ammo and each shot consumed 1-3 cubes. It was up to me how many to spend but I needed 2 success on those custom dice to end the threat for good. A single success would only push the zombie back to buy me some breathing room. This may be my favorite tension-building aspect as I’m forced to consider how much ammo I have and how much I want to carry forward into future levels. Like the best survival horror games, resources are scarce and not knowing when the next ammo box would show up made every decision to pull the trigger hard.

Leon ultimately perished at the hands of whatever that horrible abomination was, but my interest in the game did not die with him. I played prototype components and the game is still in development so a lot of things will change, but I definitely felt the tension that they were hoping to bring. More importantly, it did not feel like Just Another Zombie Game. Not everything was unique and it will remain to see how well the final translation from video game to board game works, but it’s safe to say I’m excited. Maybe I can finally redeem myself in the eyes of that cool cousin.

Want to keep up with what’s new and cool in the world of tabletop? Tune into Game the Game on G&S Live every Friday from 4:00 pm – 6:30 pm where Ivan Van Norman and Becca Scott break out some of the best board games the industry has to offer, with new guests each week!

Featured Image Credits: Steamforged Games

Image Credits: Rafael Cordero

In addition to Geek & Sundry, Raf Cordero writes for Miniature Market’s The Review Corner and co-hosts the gaming podcast Ding & Dent. Chat with him on Twitter @captainraffi.

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Something spooky this way comes. No, it’s not our editor-in-chief Rachel Heine disappearing from the conference room in yet another cloud of bats. Rather, it’s a brand new Resident Evil video game AND a Resident Evil movie. On Tuesday, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard hit store shelves, scaring the pants off of legions of gamers—including our own Samantha Sofka, who gave it a sterling 4.5 out of 5 rating. On Friday, audiences will see the thrilling conclusion of Alice’s saga in the aptly-titled Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. (Although I would bet dollars to undead doughnuts that this won’t actually be the final chapter in the Resident Evil film franchise, which has grossed nearly a billion dollars worldwide.) Considering that this franchise has been giving us heart palpitations for over two decades, it seemed like the perfect time to delve into the weird, wild, and hidden history of the Resident Evil franchise. From composers harboring terrible secrets to forgotten characters based on Eddie Murphy to dialogue tracks that are somehow worse than the one in the original game and beyond, I have assembled 8 terrifying bits of trivia that will scare you silly (provided that you are deathly afraid of learning).

What are your favorite Resident Evil facts? What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below!

Image: Capcom

Sources: Uproxx; Mental Floss; Unseen64; VG Facts; GamesRadar

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I met Mercer several years ago when he was performing in a friend’s live radio play. While watching that performance, I instantly knew he had some serious acting talent. I thought to myself, “This guy could be the second coming of Crispin Freeman.” Turns out, I was right.

Shortly after, Mercer was cast at Tygra in the Thundercats remake, and I watched his career take off like a rocket. Here are some of the roles he is most proud to share:

Leon Kennedy – Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil: Damnation

Image credit: Capcom

Leon was first introduced in Resident Evil 2 as a rookie police officer who gets caught up in Raccoon City’s zombie outbreak. He returned as a government special agent in RE4 and again in RE6 when he was voiced by Mercer. In Resident Evil 6, Leon teams up with Helena Harper to expose the conspiracy that lead to a bioterrorist attack and the death of the U.S. President.

Captain Levi – Attack on Titan

Image credit: FUNimation

Attack on Titan is an insanely popular anime in which humanity has been decimated by man-eating titans. After 100 years of peace, the titans have returned to devour the rest, but Captain Levi and his army will do whatever it takes to stop them. Levi is a fan favorite because of his cold, calculating mind and his superior aerial-combat skills.

Bigfoot – Wabbit: A Looney Toons Production

Image credit: Warner Bros.

Wabbit is 2015’s updated version of the classic Bugs Bunny cartoons, slapstick and all. The show wanted to keep the feel of the classic shorts, while modernizing them with fewer anvils and more recognizable falling heavy objects. Mercer plays Bigfoot, the big dumb, loveable lunk who doesn’t understand laser points or pancakes. It’s super adorable.

Gangplank, Kindred (Wolf) – League of Legends

Image credit: Riot Games

Mercer voices two champions in League of Legends. First is Gangplank, the pirate king feared by sailors and land-lubbers far and wide. Riot actually did a bit where Gangplank “died” and came back with a metal arm and a thirst for vengeance. The second champion is the Wolf half of Kindred (Kindred is technically two entities of Lamb and Wolf). Kindred is the personification of death. Lamb swiftly and peacefully ends lives with her bow, but Wolf hunts down and rends those who try to flee from the inevitable.

Robert MacCready – Fallout 4

Image credit: Bethesda Softworks

Robert MacCready is a mercenary and former mayor of Little Lamplight. He can eventually join the protagonist, for a price, and is one of the few who can steal items. If the Solve Survivor can garner enough favor with MacCready, he’ll grant the player the Killshot perk which boosts hit percentage for heads in VATS by 20%.

Rexxar – Hearthstone, World of Warcraft

Image credit: Blizzard

Rexxar is a half-ogre, half-orc which is either horrifically ugly or terrifyingly beautiful, depending on your point of view. He is a beastmaster of the Mok’Nathal clan and a champion of the Horde. Much like Vox’Machina’s Vex’ahlia, he too has a faithful bear companion named Misha. Aww, maybe Vex and Rex can set up a play date.

Mercer has provided vocal performances in dozens of animations and video games including Star Wars: Battlefront, Fate Stay/Zero, Naruto: Shippuden, Tenkai Knights, Guild Wars 2, and many more. You can also see him do live performances in Mythica, Pen & Paper & Laser Guns, School of Thrones, and The Evil Inside.

To hear more of Mercer’s wide array of characters, tune in to Critical Role Thursdays at 7pm PT on Geek & Sundry’s Twitch channel or by checking out the videos posted Mondays at GeekandSundry.com!

Featured image credit: Pamela Joy Photography

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There are obviously a lot of people out there that own various game consoles, if only to get different experiences out of each one. But how many go the extra mile to own special collector’s editions of these consoles?

And this goes deeper than the special edition Xbox One consoles (like Halo 5: Guardians and Forza Motorsport 6) or the Star Wars-mapped PlayStation 4 console that are available. Some folks have gone as far as building their own game console, custom-built from the ground up to add to their collection or sell online. While these are pretty rare machines in their own right – some are even one of a kind – they’re remarkable in their design, while at the same time maintaining the same level of performance you’d find in a regular machine.

We’ve scoured the Internet to find seven of these standout custom consoles, to show you just what kind of savvy some of these folks have when it come to design. And, yes, you’d be lucky to add them to your collection.

Tron Legacy Nintendo 64

Image Source: Zoki64

There are a number of colors available for Nintendo 64 units, but how many glow in the dark like Zoki64’s design? The answer: none. This slick matted console not only looks great with its blue and black design, but it also glows in the dark with neon colors straight out of the Tron films. You won’t find this on sale anywhere (it was made for a private collector’s N64 collection), but that won’t stop us from dreaming.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Nintendo Entertainment System

Image source: Platinum Fungi

Cowabunga! This custom-built system, created by Platinum Fungi and painted by Custom NES Guy (another specialist in the building game) resembles the party van from the classic Ninja Turtles cartoon series, with cartridges fitting in on top. The system also features a classy plug-in system on the back (so they don’t stand out – it looks like it goes right into a gas tank) and two custom-painted controller. We’d totally play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game on this.

The Punisher Nintendo Entertainment System

Image source: Custom NES Guy

Speaking of Custom NES Guy, he works on a number of system creations of his own, some of which are lucky enough to be sold on eBay. Among his selections include favorites based on old-school games, but this particular model, featuring Marvel’s gun-toting Punisher character, resembles something every comic book fan would love. Whether it’s the solid black matte design (with Punisher logo) or the way that the eyes light up on the top of the system when it’s on, the design will make any gaming or comic book fan jealous. If only one of these would go on sale…

Resident Evil “Survival” PlayStation

Image source: Vadu Amka

Those of you who love the Evil Dead films or series, or are just in the mood for a good horror-based system, will love what artist Vadu Amka has done with a Sony PlayStation. This thing looks like it crawled out of hell, with a console and a controller mapped in what resembles human skin, and with a few extra creepy effects like the eyeball peering out atop the system. What better way is there to play classics like Silent Hill and Resident Evil than on a console that’s always watching you?

Half-Life Dreamcast

Image source: Vadu Amka

Another amazing design from Vadu Amka, this Dreamcast is one of the best designs we’ve seen, as it pays loving tribute to Valve’s Half-Life series. The shocking thing is Vadu only took a month and a half to finish up the design and it looks like a professional quality model. Whoever ended up with this is no doubt very lucky – or managed to steal it with the help of a crowbar.

R2-D2 Multi-Console

Image source: BDeVitis

There are various custom consoles out there based on R2-D2 units, including PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This creator, however, went all out and put ten consoles into a single operating R2 unit, including PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, SNES, NES, and even the Atari 7800. There’s even a projector installed in the head to let you play games anywhere, even in a galaxy far, far away. Now that’s multi-tasking and it looks amazing to boot.

Which classic console do you want to see get a makeover? How would you customize it? Let us know in the comment section below!

Feature Image Source: Vadu Amka

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The room is dark—lit only by candlelight. Relaxing in a hot bath listening to her tunes, teen Samantha thinks she might have heard something. Was someone else in the room? All her clothes are gone: a prank by one of the seven friends she’s spending the weekend with? Looks like she has but one option: investigate, wearing only a towel. So why not check the basement, right?

Countless scary movies have done this EXACT scene. Countless audiences have yelled, “don’t go to that dark basement, girl!” It’s a recipe for thrills, and one that requires major suspension of disbelief.

Because honestly: did she really need to be wearing only a towel?

Until Dawn releases today exclusively on the PlayStation 4. The setting is a remote mountain getaway with an oppressive snowstorm, brimming with horror movie clichés: horny teens, a cabin, an abandoned asylum (obviously), and someone wielding a machete.

A year after the mysterious deaths of his siblings Hannah and Beth, Josh (Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek) invites eight of his high school pals back to that remote cabin to heal—and party. Spoiler alert: neither happens, but who survives the night is entirely up to you. You’ll need to make choices, some rather quickly. If you’ve played Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain or Beyond: Two Souls you’re good.

The visuals are crisp, often stunningly capturing the likenesses of several known TV actors. The gameplay is a mixture of quick time events (QTE), walking and talking, and the ever popular “pick up everything you can” by pressing X.

Which takes us back to Samantha exploring a basement at 2 am. I had no choice but to trudge on after finding a much needed flashlight. In movies this drives me crazy, but survival-centric horror games thrive on these moments. I want to be alone in the dark; I hope to find something awful. And since I was rooting for Samantha to outlast the others, I’ll need her to triumph over something truly unimaginable. Ever since we all hoped it was Chris’ blood in the original Resident Evil, the old adage “why would ‘person A’ voluntarily enter dangerous ‘scenario X'” no longer applies. In Until Dawn we are in control now, so let the mayhem begin.

Throughout the player’s quest to make sure characters they like live or die, other famous franchises get referenced. A twisted (in the best way) moment involving buzz saws includes a voice that taunts “let’s play a game.” Pure Jigsaw. This summer, I’ve been watching Scream, and I wish MTV’s show would kill off their teens with the same gleeful abandon. Live or die, the choice is yours.

Hayden Panettiere (Scream 4) plays Samantha a clever, sympathetic lead about as convincingly as she terrorizes Rayna James as upstart Juliette on ABC’s Nashville. (Which is to say a lot.) On an unlocked behind the scenes clip, Panettierre said the character is closer to who she actually is than other roles. (Minus the towel problems, one assumes.) Her biggest connection to Samantha is the love they both have for animals. Early on, you can choose to shoot a defenseless squirrel with a BB rifle while she watches. I, like 78% of other players, did not.

That percentage is real. Like other choice-based games, you can see how others played. I wasn’t at all surprised that most chose to have mean girl Jessica kiss hunky Mike (played by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s hunky Brett Dalton) over tossing a snowball at him. These kind of playful teen shenanigans are way more entertaining than you’d think. Most of the characters act like they’ve known each other for years, which makes effing up their social dynamics extremely satisfying.

Since the avatars look eerily like the real life actors, I would have them “act” they way I wanted them to. As Ward, Dalton became a bad guy on Marvel’s Agents on S.H.I.E.L.D., which I never bought. (I will always be Team Ward.) In Until Dawn, I righted the wrongs done by ABC. My version of Mike (Dalton) is a trustworthy a dude.

Alas, he didn’t survive. This time.

There are ten chapters (plus a prologue) that can be replayed for different outcomes. These “new paths” are explained as a butterfly effect. How’s the actual story? The plot starts off as a send up of I Know What You Did Last Summer (er, winter), but I certainly didn’t see the big twists coming. And the writers somehow didn’t leave any major plot holes. Even some of the tiniest aspects like news clippings dating back to 1952 paid off.

I’ve already begun a second play through making different choices. Letterman jacket wearing Matt was a washout the first time (and somehow survived!), so this time I’m having him do as many 180s as possible.

There are a lot of extras: behind the scenes clips, a host of collectibles, and a camera capture mode called Cheap Shots. This game has a lot of jump scares. If you have a PlayStation Eye, it will record you playing when it assumes you’ll lose it. Seeing who freaks out is a fun perk.

And having fun is really what Until Dawn is all about. It’s gory, but not like the disturbing imagery of Silent Hill. It’s (mostly) a slasher flick with predictably dumb-acting characters getting sliced and diced. I hope this is the beginning of a series for Supermassive Games. Survival horror has waned lately. By getting back to the core of what works, Until Dawn had me playing until just that.

I’m so not taking a late night, candle lit bath anytime soon.

Image Credits: Sony Computer Entertainment

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