This might be a surprising concept, but Resident Evil is one of the most robust zombie movie franchises out there. Especially in terms of continuity, it has all the competition beat, considering the fact that each installment of George Romero’s zombie movies or the Italian Zombie franchise have next to nothing to do with one another. To the point that one of the Zombie movies is technically a sequel to Dawn of the Dead.
So, it’s time to face facts. Resident Evil is where it’s at if you’re looking for a zombie movie franchise, for better or for worse (for better if you’re looking to have fun, for worse if you’re looking for a zombie franchise that is 100% about zombies and doesn’t constantly distract itself with other types of mutants and monsters and whatnot). As the resident ranker of things here at Horror Press, I’m here to rank every last Resident Evil. I mean, every last live-action movie. I mean, every last live-action movie that stars Milla Jovovich as the indefatigable Alice. Look, we’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Between video games and animated movies and reboots and television shows, this franchise is simply too sprawling to be wrangled if we don’t set some ground rules.
Ranking All the Mainline Resident Evil Movies
#6 Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016)
This movie is the last in the continuity and the last in our hearts. It’s full of little fan service moments, which can be very fun, but the exact fans it is servicing sure aren’t me, because nothing it dredges up from the past movies is treated with any kind of respect. Including the cliffhanger ending of the previous installment. The ending of Retribution promises that we are about to see the most epic battle in the entire franchise, and this one (presumably in a cost-cutting move) opens with that battle already having been concluded.
So basically it starts with a big wet fart and then proceeds to tell a choppily edited story that is too busy and loud to really allow you to take a beat and indulge in its best moments.
#5 Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
Retribution might be the second-lowest in the ranking, but there is a wide gulf between it and The Final Chapter. This installment absolutely has its moments, especially when it comes to its main setting, an Umbrella Corporation facility that recreates different urban and suburban environments from around the world. It’s basically a twisted Epcot Center, and it allows for some very cool action setpieces.
Unfortunately, this facility is really only a core feature of less than half of the runtime. And the rest of the movie isn’t quite up to the task of buoying itself, especially because the supporting cast is among the most stilted of the franchise and the editing among its most frenetic.
#4 Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
This is Resident Evil in Mad Max drag, and for that reason it is a very fun movie. It is also a very stupid movie, and only half the time in a way that is satisfying to watch. But it’s easy to forget every last quibble you’ve had with it when you’re watching Alice tromp around in her glorious “dystopian Barbarella” garters + duster costume.
#3 Resident Evil (2002)
And here we arrive at the original movie! This is how you know it’s a franchise worth ranking. When a series is spawned from an iconic, well-regarded classic, it’s hard to ever rank the first movie anywhere but No. 1. Halloween? Jaws? Psycho? Ranking any sequel or remake up top is close to heresy. But it also makes writing such a list much less interesting.
Meanwhile, 2002’s Resident Evil doesn’t aim to be a classic or well-regarded. It just wants to have fun, explore the rhetorical and artistic value of how hot Milla Jovovich is, and be very 2002 while it does both of these things. It accomplishes all of these goals, in spades. It’s certainly a success, but some of the movies that followed simply did more interesting things. This is especially true when it comes to zombies, considering the fact that the first movie is isolated to a single underground facility and only hints at the very interesting wider world around it.
#2 Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
Resident Evil goes outside! This is a huge expansion on the original movie, following through – more or less – on the promise made by the ending of the first film. It’s apocalyptic on a much broader scale, even though it is still limited to a single cityscape rather than a single underground facility. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun, with major “Escape from New York but with mutant monsters” vibes.
#1 Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
Maybe this is where my personal bias comes in, but part of the reason this one is so gosh darn fun is the fact that it actually operates like a zombie movie. While the assorted non-zombie mutants and monsters featured here do fit the narrative in an unusually satisfying way for the franchise (both in terms of its themes and the flow of events), this is the movie where the core story could most fit into a George Romero universe. Here we follow Alice and her newest hangers-on as they hole up in a prison while they attempt to find a way to survive long-term and escape to greener pastures.
It somehow has the gumption to be an actual character drama in the middle of a video game movie franchise where the priorities are action, action, and action, in that order. Speaking of… The action sequences here are, of course, pretty sweet as well. That coin gun sequence? Glorious. It’s the best of all worlds.