How to Watch Resident Evil, In Order
In preparation for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, we're taking a deep dive into the existing adaptations of the popular game series.
The Resident Evil video games are among the most popular around. Currently, 13 main series games have been released, with the total number getting closer to 60 when you factor in remakes, mobile games, and spin-offs. It makes sense then that the property has had several movie and TV adaptations, proving to be a long-lasting franchise on the big and small screen.
Initially created by Paul W.S. Anderson, there have been seven live-action Resident Evil films to date, with Weapons and Barbarian director Zach Cregger adding an eighth in 2026. There have also been four animated movies, an animated mini-series, and a short-lived Netflix show. With so much Resident Evil viewing out there, it can be hard to understand where to start, but worry not; we’ve done the hard work and listed all of the Resident Evil adaptations in release order. Use the guide below to find out how to watch them all in the UK.
The Resident Evil movie world began in 2002 with Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil. Although the first game is rich in tension, unease, and suspense, Anderson decided to take a more sci-fi action-than-horror approach. He cast Mila Jovovich, who would later become his wife, as non-canon character Alice who awakens in a mysterious building with no memory of how she got there. She joins a military team and battles zombie-like creatures, the result of a deadly experimental virus. Alice and the team must work together to shut down a rogue supercomputer before it releases the virus into the wider world.
Although 2002's Resident Evil barely resembles the game that inspired it, the film does have a nerve-shredding lift sequence, some fun gore, entertaining action, and a nu-metal-heavy soundtrack that helped bands like Slipknot break into the mainstream.
Directed by Alexander Witt (with Paul W.S. Anderson present as writer), Resident Evil: Apocalypse picks up immediately after the end of the first film. Having survived the nightmarish underground laboratory, Alice escapes into the streets of the first game's setting, Raccoon City. There she meets original game protagonist Jill Valentine, and the pair fight the mutated behemoth Nemesis.
Whereas the first film strayed very far from the game, its sequel brings in characters and monsters from the series to help appease fans.
Resident Evil: Extinction continues Alice’s story several years after the T-virus' release. Set in a desert wasteland, the devastation that the virus has had on the planet is plain to see. The plot picks up as Alice stumbles across a group of survivors, led by game favourite Claire Redfield, who are travelling to the rumoured safe space of Alaska.
Easily the second best movie in the franchise to date, director Russell Mulcahy definitely made the coolest-looking Resident Evil film. The desert setting gives Western vibes, and the inclusion of more game characters enriches the connection between source material and adaptation.
In 2008, the first animated Resident Evil film, Resident Evil: Degeneration, was released. Forgoing any ties to the live-action films, the animated film continues the game series canon. Set between the fourth and fifth games, the plot sees Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield join forces to take down a newly mutated monster.
As with the other animated movies that followed, watching Resident Evil: Degeneration is akin to viewing an entire game's set of cut-scene videos without the stress of hordes of zombies triggering them.
Having sat out of the director’s chair for the previous two movies, Paul W.S. Anderson reclaimed the mantle for Resident Evil: Afterlife. The film introduced original game character Chris Redfield, who reunited with his sister, Claire, in the Alaskan haven of Arcadia. Alice, however, quickly learns that Arcadia is merely a front for more dastardly experiments by the T-virus creators, Umbrella. Aided by the Redfield siblings, Alice goes into superhero mode to once more try to save humanity.
After the slick and stylish western setting of Apocalypse, Resident Evil: Afterlife returns to the sci-fi action trappings of the first movie, which many view as a step backwards for the series.
Resident Evil: Retribution has the highest saturation of game characters across the film franchise, with a roster that includes Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker, Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong, Barry Burton, and Carlos Oliveira. The deadly game monster, Licker, is also on hand to cause devastation as Alice and friends desperately try to break out of an Umbrella testing facility.
Despite this stacked cast of characters, the film struggles to maintain coherence. Instead, it plays out like one big chase sequence, which at least means plenty of action moments for fight fans.
2012 saw two Resident Evil films released: The first was the live-action Retribution; the second was a new animated offering, Resident Evil: Damnation. Once again, the latter was intended to bridge the gap between video games, with events occurring between Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6.
Leon S. Kennedy once again leads the story, which this time sees him investigate biological weaponry that is being used in a European civil war.
It is always dangerous to include the phrase ‘ The Final Chapter’ in the naming of a franchise film, especially a horror one, as inevitably it is not the actual end.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter might not be the last Resident Evil film, but it is at least the last created by Paul W.S. Anderson, and does mark the end of Alice’s saga. One last time, Alice returns to the Umbrella Hive to stop yet another deadly virus from destroying the world. Across the six-film series, she's gone from amnesiac human to superhuman clone, and beyond, and so The Final Chapter is the right place to end the story.
Resident Evil: Vendetta unfolds during the gap between video games six and seven, with the animated series of movies continuing to build upon the games' canon.
In many ways, it is this aspect that makes the animated run superior to its live-action counterparts, and yet most fans are wary of them. Hardcore gamers should definitely seek them all out for a deeper gaming experience, though; Vendetta, for instance, follows Leon S. Kennedy, Chris Redfield, and Rebecca Chambers as they travel to New York to prevent death merchant Glenn Arias from unleashing a deadly virus upon the city.
In 2021, director Johannes Roberts stepped into Paul W.S. Anderson's shoes to take ownership of the Resident Evil live-action movie franchise. Rather than continue the events previously set out, Roberts went back to basics. Taking inspiration from the first two Resident Evil video games, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City follows the initial viral outbreak in the city.
For some reason, critics and some game fans took issue with the movie, but for me, it’s easily in the top three of live-action adaptations so far. Roberts’ film taps into the creepy atmosphere of the games in a way that the other six never did and includes a ton of game-centric Easter eggs for fans to enjoy. Hopefully, in time, others will come to see that Welcome to Raccoon City is a diamond amongst the rough.
