The Resident Evil franchise has been going strong for essentially a quarter of a century at this point and has expanded from the original games into a worldwide media phenomenon, including multiple live-action and animated movies.
Assuming that fans are already familiar with these movie adaptations, this list will look at 10 alternative choices from across the horror movie genre that will remind Resident Evil fans of the franchise's most essential and beloved qualities.
Rec 2 (2009)
Perhaps the greatest accomplishment in zombie found footage horror to date, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's sequel to their breakout 2007 hit upped the action with a heavily armed team of cops venturing into the quarantined building full of crazed demonic zombies from the first movie.
A non-stop source of visceral horror, Rec 2 is all but guaranteed to give a Resident Evil fan flashbacks of the doomed mission of Umbrella's Alpha Team.
Overlord (2018)
The WW2 horror movie has a surprisingly lengthy legacy and few have accomplished the niche subgenre's goals quite as effectively as Julius Avery's bloody and brutal Nazi experiment monster movie.
Overlord follows a squad of paratroopers who get even more than they bargained for when storming an old church behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day. Its heavy action and gore will be more than enough for a fan of any aspect of the Resident Evil franchise.
Silent Hill (2006)
Christophe Gans' original movie adaptation of Japan's second-most famous survival horror game series had far more effort put into it than the vast majority of video game movies that have ever been made do.
Visuals ripped straight from the games add to the sense of gothic dread in this unrestrained adaptation of Konami's hit franchise.
Hell Night (1981)
This cheesy slasher, about a group of college students spending the night at a local haunted mansion as part of a hazing ritual, makes up for its low budget with the simple atmosphere that, as fans of the original Resident Evil game will recall, can only come from a big creepy old house.
The endless hidden doors, a dark dungeon beneath the decaying home, and the mindless lurching monsters will make a Resident Evil fan feel right at home.
Day of the Dead (1985)
George A. Romero essentially invented the zombie as we know it today and the third movie in his Night of the Living Dead series is one of his most influential, and relatively-undersung, accomplishments.
The direct influence that Day of the Dead has had on the genre as a whole can be clearly seen in numerous modern zombie movies, particularly the Resident Evil live-action movie franchise's own third installment, Extinction.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Director Zack Snyder delivers a worthy update of Romero's seminal zombie classic, with the more timely running zombies that were once so controversial and an accompanying breakneck pace to the story.
Whatever the Dawn of the Dead remake lacks in originality is more than made up for by Snyder's compatibility with Romero's dark sense of humor and flair for nihilism. Against all odds, it's a must-watch for zombie movie fans.
World War Z (2013)
This loose adaptation of Max Brooks' best-selling novel had a widely-publicized struggle getting to the screen, with extensive reshoots altering its third act. The final product, however, still stands as the biggest, most mainstream, attempt Hollywood has made at a zombie movie to date.
Brad Pitt's disaster specialist leads the charge against the burgeoning zombie apocalypse sweeping the Earth and Resident Evil fans will have their thirst for all-out zombie warfare quenched even if the original PG-13 rating loses almost all of the blood.
The Crazies (2010)
Another remake of a Romero classic, director Breck Eisner adds a similar level of professional slickness as Snyder to the original cult B-movie favorite about a small town infected with a military virus that creates near-zombie like killers out of the townsfolk.
Timothy Olyphant's sheriff would act as an interesting prelude to Andrew Lincoln's take on Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead, which would premier on TV later that same year.
Mimic (1997)
The English-language debut of Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro, Mimic is a subterranean creature feature brimming with personality despite its production woes caused by friction with infamous producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein.
The story centers on mutated human-sized cockroach monsters breeding in the Manhattan subway system, where they hunt people as prey. Resident Evil fans will get a kick out of the creepy genetic abominations and the focus on tense survival horror.
Blood Creek (2008)
From Batman Forever and Batman & Robin director Joel Schumacher, this crime/revenge/Nazi occult horror movie is bizarre in so many ways.
Aside from its plot, which is mostly limited to an isolated farmhouse in West Virginia, the movie's phenomenal cast (including Henry Cavill and Michael Fassbender in the lead roles) just makes the experience all the more surreal. Blood Creek's heady mixture of action and dark ritualism will conjure up many memories of the Resident Evil franchise's roots for fans.