Resident Evil Village is another breath of fresh air for fans who grew tired of Raccoon City’s cramped surroundings. With the return of exhausted everyman Ethan Winters and his new trials in a timelessly gothic European village, the game may leave fans wanting more of the same. Here are a few movies that capture some of the cultish and witchy vibes fans enjoyed, although there’s still no substitute for Lady Dimitrescu‘s charms.
Hereditary
Ari Aster’s breakthrough film could be just another nightmare for a Resident Evil protagonist. The 2018 horror drama leaves the Graham family under the thumb of their dead matriarch, and Annie (Toni Collette) fights to protect her children from the cultish secrets that drove her predecessors to madness. The gore is infrequent but shocking, and the demonic revelations that tear Annie’s family apart are some of the best twists the genre has to offer. A terrific film in its own right, the lurking presence of otherworldly evil makes Hereditary perfect for Resident Evil fans.
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The Ritual
2017’s The Ritual was overlooked and underrated by critics. Sold off to Netflix, the movie is an initially understated story about survivor’s guilt and toxic masculinity. Four friends go hiking in the Swedish mountains, a tribute to a fifth who died in a liquor store robbery that one of them witnessed. When the group strays from the trail, they begin to find clues that suggest someone’s still living in the deep forest, and whatever they worship isn’t part of anything the modern world wants to know about. Mother Miranda would approve of the little village that’s eventually discovered, and the climax is just as makeshift and desperate as Ethan’s previous struggle in the Louisiana bayou.
Blade 2
Guillermo Del Toro’s weird romp through the bloody underworld of genetically altered vampires is the sort of flick Resident Evil‘s Albert Wesker would take notes from. The Bloodpack, led by frequent Del Toro collaborator Ron Perlman, is a violent counterpart to Chris Redfield’s new anti-Umbrella squad. Both are born of once-enemy forces and uncomfortable allies to their protagonists. Blade 2‘s plot occasionally stumbles and the CGI effects haven’t aged as well as Del Toro’s intricate creature effects, but it’s still a high-octane trek through the secret societies hidden behind everyday life.
Dog Soldiers
This 2002 cult hit pits British soldiers against a pack of werewolves living in the Scottish Highlands. Violent and funny in equal measure, things get hairy fast when the British troop discovers the mangled remains of the elite squad of SAS men they’d been meant to train against. The plot delivers some wicked twists, turns and cruel betrayals, along with a note-perfect understanding of classic werewolf tropes and weaknesses. All the soldiers have to do is survive until dawn, but even that might be too much to expect, especially when one of their enemies is already among them — a familiar turn for Resident Evil devotees.
The Wicker Man
This 1973 classic remains the benchmark for stories about the dangerous beauty behind occult lore and cultish devotion, paving the way for everything from Hot Fuzz to Ari Aster’s second horrifying hit Midsommar. Christopher Lee’s Lord Summerisle is the heart and soul of the secretive village, and it’s his actions that summon a naive constable to his island kingdom to search for a missing girl named Rowan. Deceptively slow and beautiful, and even sometimes classified as a musical, The Wicker Man isn’t just a must-see horror film, but a useful study for RE fans about how its villains can lure so many willing allies to their side.
The Brood
David Cronenberg’s 1979 film The Brood is an early example of his body horror artistry, mixing monstrous science with deeply damaged psyches. For fans invested in the complex, often abusive family Ethan had to deal with in the Baker clan, the broken relationship between Frank and Nola will ring familiar. The body horror and broken lives are all Village. Nola is in the care of experimental psychotherapist Hal Raglan, who’s pioneered something called psychoplasmics. The results of Raglan’s mind over matter treatments are only unsettling at first but, eventually, reveal themselves as the kind of brain-aching body horror that’s a staple of Resident Evil‘s bosses. Like The Wicker Man, the film is slow-paced, but that only makes the occasional punch to the gut land even harder.
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