The Best ‘Resident Evil’ Film You Haven’t Seen is Streaming Now on YouTube

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By now you’ve surely seen Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, right? If not, we have, and we’re happy to let you know what we’ve thought. You’ve certainly heard Cregger defend his decision to omit legacy characters from his vision, explaining that Leon Kennedy, et. al, have been explored thoroughly in the games. For his tale, Cregger created an entirely new character to enter Raccoon City, giving us the “everyman” experience of the zombie invasion.

However, if you’ve played the games, you understand that Resident Evil 7 also features an everyman at its center: Ethan Winters, a systems engineer who is determined to find what’s become of his missing wife Mia on a cursed plantation in Louisiana. It is this relatable and grounded character that prompted Chandler Riggs, aka “Carl” from The Walking Dead, to make his own Resident Evil film based on the storyline of Resident Evil 7.

Riggs understood that Cregger had a vision moving into his own Resident Evil adaptation, and he respected that. As a fan of the games, however, he knew someone had to make something that used actual gameplay and characters from Capcom as inspiration for a faithful film adaptation. No shade (okay, a little shade) at Paul W.S. Anderson, but the Resident Evil 1 through 6 films that hit the box office from 2002 to 2016 are slam-bang action films that bear almost no resemblance to the classic horror-survival format of the games. I have to admit that I personally have only played Resident Evil games up until the 6th installment, as I have yet to graduate past a Playstation 3, which you can pry from my cold, dead fingers. Nevertheless, I’ve seen plenty of gameplay footage from Resident Evil 7 (and Village; I don’t live under a rock) and can instantly see the attention to detail in Riggs’s film.

Yes, Chandler Riggs has written and directed a fan film based on Resident Evil 7 called Biohazard, the original name for the game when it was being developed in Japan in the mid-90s. (It was changed largely thanks to New York rap-punks Biohazard, so there’s some fun music crossover for you.) The film runs a lean nineteen minutes and stands alone as a brutal yet fun and reverent adaptation of the game. However, one could also view the film as the prologue to a much longer film, or, as Riggs puts it, “it would have to be a series. To try to do it as some feature film would be really tough. I mean, if you look at “The Last of Us,” it’s the same kind of, roughly the same amount of play time: like around a 10-15 hour game, so you have to do it as a series for “The Last of Us.” So the way to do it for RE7, to do all of it and to do it justice, as close to the game as you possibly can, you’ve gotta do a TV show.”

I viewed Biohazard, which you can do right now on YouTube, twice before I sat down with writer/director/star Chandler Riggs and was delighted to see that he’s a genuine fan of this game, this genre, and this idea. Coming of age on a massively successful television show about zombies, one might imagine that Riggs would want to distance himself as much as he could from the trope, but it is to our benefit that he loves these stories and has an insider’s view on what makes them work.

Biohazard is a stunning achievement. The sets are game-accurate and excruciatingly detailed, the acting and makeup effects top-notch, and the action, viscera, and dread expertly realized. This is THE film to watch if you’re a fan of any of the Resident Evil games and a blueprint for future filmmakers to follow if they want to appeal to the built-in audience that the games have garnered.

Check out my interview with Chandler Riggs here:

WATCH MORE: Chandler Riggs Discuss ‘Biohazard’

Biohazard is streaming for free now on YouTube, and Riggs has made it no secret that he would be delighted to partner with Cregger if and when he takes the franchise forward. I, for one, can think of few hands in which the series could be better placed. 

Have you seen Cregger’s Resident Evil and what did you think? Have you seen Riggs’s Biohazard and are you a fan? Be sure to sound off below and check back with us for all of your film, streaming, comics, and gaming news.