Video Game adaptations have long been a tricky, tricky thing to accomplish. Too far removed from the source material, and you earn the fanbase’s ire. Too close to the source material, and you’ll likely alienate newcomers. Many adaptations opt for the former.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City tries its hand at the latter, attempting to bring the film franchise back toward the games’ survival horror roots (our review). If you’ve seen it and you’re looking for more, here are five more horror video game adaptations to watch!
Dead Space: Downfall
Wouldn’t it be great to get a live-action adaptation of one of the greatest horror video games of all time? Until then, this solid animated prequel makes for a satisfying placeholder. It chronicles the discovery of the Red Marker and the initial monster outbreak, which means that you can expect it to get very, very bloody. It does pull from familiar space horror tropes, especially movies like Event Horizon and Alien. But if you’re looking for more Dead Space fun or an easy reminder to get pumped about the upcoming remake, this might do the trick.
Detention
Detention is based on Red Candle’s excellent 2017 side-scrolling horror game of the same name. It’s set in 1960s Taiwan during the grim White Terror Period and follows Fang Ray-shin. She’s a student that wakes to discover her school has evacuated for a storm, and she’s trapped there by floods. Fang Ray-shin, along with one other student, looks for a way out by candlelight, but they find they’re not alone. It’s a politically charged nightmare filled with ghosts, monsters, and more.
Doom
Doom may not be the adaptation fans were hoping for, nor did it impress at the box office. At face value, though, it’s an entertaining B-horror movie with loose ties to the game. Space Marines get sent to Mars to investigate a strange attack on a research facility. They find themselves in a fight for survival against predatorial mutated humans. With fun creature work and action sequences, and an impressive cast led by Dwayne Johnson and Karl Urban, Doom brings the entertainment. Ignore it as an adaptation, and you’re more likely to enjoy this creature feature. Look for perennial favorite Richard Brake among the marines.
Silent Hill
In this film adaptation of the popular video game, Rose (Radha Mitchell) takes her adoptive daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) to Silent Hill’s mysterious town for the truth of Sharon’s troubled past. One car crash later, Sharon is missing, and the area is blanketed in a thick fog inhabited by monsters. Rose will have to fight both the monsters and the town’s fanatical cult to get her daughter back. It’s a visually impressive adaptation full of extraordinary creatures and gore. The cast is stacked as well; Alice Krige continues to nail the terrifying villainess role. All you need to know is two words: Pyramid Head.
Werewolves Within
Forest ranger Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) embraces his new assignment in the cozy little town of Beaverfield. He barely settles in before he’s getting to know the colorful residents through their vocal opinions on the new pipeline construction project that’s creating major division among them. Then he discovers that a brutal murderer is hiding among them, and a severe snowstorm traps them all together at the inn. Werewolves Within is less interested in werewolves and more interested in exploring how the possibility of one hiding in plain sight can turn a town inside out. It does so by tilting the scale heavily in favor of comedy over scares. Think Needful Things by way of violent whodunnit comedy.