Resident Evil Movies in Order – From Survival Horror to Full-Blown Action

The Resident Evil films are a strange franchise for me because, while I own and have watched the complete series, there is really only one film that has always stood out clearly in my memory.

The first one.

Released in 2002, Resident Evil felt like a proper video game brought to life. It had confined spaces, locked doors, underground laboratories, strange creatures appearing from nowhere and the constant feeling that something was waiting around the next corner to kill you.

You could almost imagine holding the controller while watching it.

The films that followed gradually moved further away from that feeling and became bigger, louder and much more action-orientated, but Milla Jovovich remained the constant throughout the entire series.

She was very well cast as Alice and, whatever you think of the direction the franchise eventually took, it is difficult to imagine these films without her.

If you enjoy darker franchises built around monsters, survival, ruined worlds and characters who keep being dragged back into the fight, you might also like my Dark Movie Franchises I Keep Coming Back To. where I explore other multiple movie franchise productions.

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Two Resident Evil Blu-ray box sets, one containing four films and the later complete collection containing all six films.

Resident Evil Movies in Release Order

There are six films in the original Milla Jovovich series:

Resident Evil – 2002
Resident Evil: Apocalypse – 2004
Resident Evil: Extinction – 2007
Resident Evil: Afterlife – 2010
Resident Evil: Retribution – 2012
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter – 2016

For this post, I am sticking with the original six-film series rather than the later Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which was a separate reboot.

Resident Evil – 2002

The first Resident Evil is easily the strongest film in the franchise for me.

It begins with a viral outbreak inside The Hive, an enormous underground research facility operated by the Umbrella Corporation beneath Raccoon City.

A special forces team is sent inside to investigate, bringing Alice and several others with them as they try to work out what has happened.

Naturally, things get worse very quickly.

The facility has been sealed by its artificial intelligence system, the Red Queen, while almost everyone working inside has been infected by the T-virus.

What I always liked about this film is how much it actually feels like a video game.

The characters move through different sections of the facility, doors open and close behind them, new threats appear as they advance and there is always the sense that the next room might contain something considerably worse than the last.

Even the creatures feel like enemies being introduced as you progress through different levels of a game.

The zombies are only the beginning.

Then you have the infected dogs, the Licker and, of course, the Red Queen herself controlling much of what happens inside the Hive.

The famous laser corridor sequence also remains one of the most memorable scenes from the entire franchise.

It was simple, nasty and unexpected.

Milla Jovovich was also an excellent choice for Alice. She could handle the physical side of the role without becoming a caricature, and as the film progresses she becomes increasingly convincing as someone capable of surviving what is happening around her.

The first film never needed to be enormous.

Its strength came from being trapped underground with a limited group of characters while things steadily fell apart around them.

That is probably why it remains the one I remember most clearly.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse – 2004

The ending of the first film immediately sets up Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Alice wakes inside a hospital and discovers that the infection has escaped from the Hive and spread throughout Raccoon City.

The confined underground horror of the original is replaced by a much larger urban setting as survivors attempt to escape before Umbrella destroys the city to contain the outbreak.

This film also introduces several characters and ideas much more closely associated with the games, including Jill Valentine and Nemesis.

Nemesis became one of the franchise's most recognisable creatures and gives the film a much larger physical threat than the zombies and Lickers seen previously.

Apocalypse is still recognisably Resident Evil, but you can already see the franchise beginning to move away from survival horror and towards action.

Alice is no longer simply trying to survive.

She is becoming something else entirely.

Resident Evil: Extinction – 2007

By the third film, the T-virus has spread far beyond Raccoon City.

Civilisation has effectively collapsed, large areas of the world have become desert and the remaining survivors travel in convoys while trying to stay ahead of both the infected and Umbrella.

Resident Evil: Extinction therefore feels very different from the first two films.

The franchise has moved from underground horror, to an infected city, to a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Alice has also become increasingly powerful as a result of Umbrella's experiments.

She joins a convoy of survivors travelling across the United States while Umbrella continues searching for her and attempting to develop ways of controlling the virus.

The scale is much larger again, although by this stage the films are clearly becoming more interested in Alice herself than in recreating the atmosphere of the original games.

Resident Evil: Afterlife – 2010

Resident Evil: Afterlife continues directly from Extinction and opens with Alice taking the fight to Umbrella.

After searching for other survivors, she eventually reaches Los Angeles and discovers a group sheltering inside a prison.

They believe a ship called Arcadia may offer safety.

Naturally, getting there is not straightforward.

The film introduces more familiar elements from the games, including Chris Redfield and the huge Executioner enemy.

By this stage, however, the franchise has fully embraced its action-movie identity.

There are still zombies, monsters and Umbrella laboratories, but the emphasis is increasingly on spectacular fights and elaborate set pieces.

It is a long way from the relatively restrained corridors of the first Resident Evil.

Resident Evil: Retribution – 2012

Resident Evil: Retribution pushes the franchise even further into science fiction.

Alice finds herself inside another huge Umbrella facility, but this one contains recreated environments designed to simulate outbreaks in different parts of the world.

That gives the film an excuse to move rapidly between different locations and bring back characters from earlier instalments.

Some are genuine.

Some are clones.

Some are being controlled by Umbrella.

At times it almost feels deliberately like moving between different game levels.

The film also brings the Red Queen back into the story and continues building towards what appears to be a much larger final confrontation between the remaining humans and Umbrella.

By now the franchise has become increasingly complicated, with clones, experiments, artificial environments and characters repeatedly returning in different forms.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter – 2016

Fourteen years after the first film, Milla Jovovich returned as Alice one final time in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.

The story brings her back to where everything started.

Raccoon City.

The Hive.

Umbrella.

Alice learns that the remaining human population is close to extinction and that a possible cure for the T-virus still exists inside the Hive.

To retrieve it, she must return underground and confront Umbrella once again.

Bringing the franchise back to the Hive was a fitting idea.

After travelling across ruined cities, deserts, prisons and enormous Umbrella facilities, the story eventually returns to the underground complex where the first film began.

The Final Chapter attempts to tie together the history of Alice, the Umbrella Corporation, the T-virus and the events that have driven all six films.

Whether every part of the mythology fits together perfectly is probably debatable, but there is something satisfying about the franchise ending where it started.

How the Resident Evil Films Changed

Watching the franchise from beginning to end shows just how much its style changed.

The first Resident Evil was essentially a contained survival-horror film.

A small group of people entered an underground facility and gradually discovered what had happened there.

Each sequel expanded the world.

Raccoon City became infected.

Then civilisation collapsed.

Then the films became increasingly dominated by Umbrella facilities, clones, superhuman abilities and increasingly elaborate action sequences.

That change will probably divide viewers.

Anyone looking for the atmosphere of the original film may prefer the earlier entries, while those who enjoy large-scale action and science-fiction may find more to enjoy later in the series.

For me, though, the original still has something the others never quite recreated.

It actually feels like playing a game.

Milla Jovovich as Alice

Whatever else changed during the franchise, Milla Jovovich held the entire series together.

Alice was created specifically for the films rather than being taken directly from the games, but she gradually became the central figure around which almost everything revolved.

Across six films, Jovovich had to move Alice from confused survivor to hardened fighter and eventually into someone capable of taking on Umbrella almost single-handedly.

That could easily have become ridiculous.

At times the films certainly pushed things very far, but Jovovich always looked comfortable in the role.

She became as closely associated with Resident Evil cinema as many of the original game characters themselves.

The Problem With Buying a Franchise Before It Is Finished

One thing that genuinely annoyed me about the Resident Evil series had nothing to do with the films themselves.

It was the box sets.

I actually bought the franchise in box-set form twice, each time believing the series was finished, only for another film to appear afterwards.

For a physical-media collector, that is surprisingly irritating.

You buy a nice matching box set because you want the complete franchise sitting neatly together on the shelf. Then another sequel is released and suddenly your “complete” collection is no longer complete.

The old box set effectively becomes far less desirable overnight.

You are then left with two choices.

Replace the whole thing with yet another complete box set, which means buying films you already own again, or keep the existing set and buy the new film individually.

The second option is certainly cheaper, but it upsets the ecosystem of the shelf.

Instead of one tidy matching collection, you now have a box containing several films followed by one or two individual cases stuck beside it.

That probably sounds like a very small problem to anyone who does not collect physical media.

Collectors will understand it immediately.

Resident Evil caught me with this twice, and it is one of the reasons I have become much more cautious about buying supposedly complete franchise box sets before I am reasonably certain the studio has actually finished making them.

Final Thoughts

The Resident Evil films became considerably bigger and more over-the-top as the series continued, but there is no denying that they created their own identity.

Milla Jovovich carried the franchise for fourteen years and six films, while Umbrella, the T-virus and the seemingly endless supply of infected creatures gave the series a recognisable world of its own.

For me, though, the first film remains the standout.

It was dark, relatively simple and genuinely felt like somebody had taken the structure of a video game and turned it into a movie.

You entered the Hive.

The doors closed behind you.

And every new area seemed to contain another thing trying to kill you.

Sometimes keeping things simple works best.

Thanks for Reading,

David

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About the Author

I’m David Condon, a movie enthusiast from Tralee, Co. Kerry. I’ve been collecting DVDs and Blu-rays for years, and along the way my shelves have become a mix of favourites, hidden gems, and titles I occasionally decide to resell.

I’m not a professional critic, just someone who enjoys good films, well-made discs, and the odd rant about the quirks of collecting. This blog is where I share my thoughts, opinions, reviews, and experiences as a fan. You can read more on my About page.

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