Every Resident Evil Animated Movie Ranked

Capcom's "Resident Evil" franchise – one of the progenitors of the "survival-horror" video game subgenre — is also one of the most popular game series ever. The first game came out for the PlayStation 1 in 1996, where players chose one of two members of the fictional elite military unit S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Service), exploring pre-rendered backgrounds with static, cinematic camera angles, akin to earlier survival-horror attempts like 1992's "Alone in the Dark." 

The first "Resident Evil" story involves the aforementioned S.T.A.R.S. members investigating a mansion connected to the evil Umbrella Corporation which conducted genetic experiments that led to the creation of zombies and other monstrous creatures. However, that initial gameplay style changed drastically for PS2's "Resident Evil 4," which became straight-up behind-the-back third-person action games, a style which most later entries — including Capcom's remakes of older "RE" games — continued. There have even been first-person entries, such as "Resident Evil: Survivor" for the PS1, and the most recent mainline entries "Resident Evil VII" and "Resident Evil Village."

Furthermore, the franchise's popularity led to a lot of ancillary media too, such as comics, novels, action figures, and of course the highly profitable live-action "Resident Evil" feature films starring Milla Jovovich, as well as a less successful reboot in 2021 called "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City." Not only that, but popular CG-animated "RE" films and miniseries were produced too. Below, we're going to rank these "RE" CG-animations from best to worst. Read along below to see if you agree with our choices.

To clear things up for the next couple of entries, in Japan the "Resident Evil" series is actually titled "Biohazard," which honestly makes more sense than "Resident Evil" in many ways, considering bio-chemicals are used by the dastardly Umbrella Corporation to create their various monstrosities, such as the ever-present zombies, the grotesque lickers, and the inhuman super-soldiers like Mr. X and Nemesis. The CG-animated feature film "Biohazard 4: Incubate" was released only in Japan in 2006 shortly after the hugely influential "Resident Evil 4" came out.

Unfortunately, the film is essentially just a collection of the game's cutscenes and some gameplay footage spliced together into an almost-100-minute runtime. However, to keep the runtime at that reasonable length, many elements from the original game had to be cut or shortened. In particular, a lot of the middle chapters — namely chapters three through five — are mostly omitted, including sequences with the giant salamander enemy dubbed "Del Lago" and encounters with the infected Genado.

Which, if the movie is just the game footage with less content ... at that point, just play the game, right? At least then you'd get the full experience. Now, the novelty of something like "Biohazard 4: Incubate" could've had some sway at the time, especially if you wanted to catch up on the story. Just, with the influx of video game let's plays all over the internet now, the novelty is no longer there, which is why it's the lowest on our list.

"Biohazard 4D-Executer," released in 2000, is an interesting footnote in the history of Capcom's popular horror game franchise. Like "Biohazard 4: Incubate," it was only released in Japan (hence the "Biohazard 4D-Executer" title instead of "Resident Evil 4D-Executer"); however, unlike "Incubate," "4D-Executer" is actually sort-of a ride. Clocking it as just under 20-minutes in length, "Biohazard 4D-Executer" was screened at Japanese theme parks, with moving seats that were synchronized to the action, similar to simulation rides like Universal Studios' "Despicable Me Minion Mayhem" or Disneyland's now-defunct "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" attraction.

Also, like the first live-action "Resident Evil" film starring Milla Jovovich, the story of "Biohazard 4D-Executer" features no characters from the official video game canon (the first knock against it in the ranking). Instead, "4D-Executer" is a "gaiden" (or "side-story") that takes place within the "Resident Evil" universe, sometime around "Resident Evil 2" or "Resident Evil 3" due to the entire town of Raccoon City already being infected by zombies and monsters. The plot of the short animated film (what little there is) follows a group of generic military specialists who are tasked with finding a rogue scientist in the city. And, despite some fun creature effects and gory moments, the story is really nothing to write home about.

Worse, the CG-animation itself is also surprisingly rudimentary and blocky, even for the time, barely rising above the quality of the FMVs from the games. Overall, it's a fun experiment for the franchise, but still a bottom rung entry nonetheless.

2008's "Resident Evil: Degeneration" is technically the first original feature-length CG-animated "Resident Evil" film from Capcom and Sony Pictures Entertainment, as "Biohazard 4D-Executer" wasn't feature-length, and "Biohazard 4: Incubate" wasn't an original story, instead using repurposed gameplay footage. So, because "Resident Evil: Degeneration" is the first of these original CG-animated features, it's pretty much a given that the animation in this one is the weakest of the bunch.

Meanwhile, the story of "RE: Degeneration" is set within the "Resident Evil" timeline between the "Resident Evil 4" and "Resident Evil 5" games, attempting to fill in some narrative gaps (such as introducing the antagonistic Tricell corporation). Most of the runtime is set inside the fictional Harvardville Airport, following Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield — both protagonists of multiple "RE" games — as they attempt to stop a virus outbreak there.

The main problem with "RE: Degeneration" is, again, mostly due to the relatively early CG-animation — which, sans a big Pixar-esque budget, means the animation is unfortunately very stiff, especially concerning the facial animations of the characters. The airport location is also a bit on the bland side too. Now, to be fair, "Resident Evil: Degeneration" isn't the worst thing in the world — heck, it's not even the worst "Resident Evil" feature film adaptation ... and judging by this very list, not even the worst animated adaptation. However, due to its flaws in animation, flat voice-acting, boring location, and basic, rote storytelling when compared to other, later CG-animated "Resident Evil" films, this one ranks pretty low on our list.

Four years after the release of 2008's "Resident Evil: Degeneration," Capcom and Sony Pictures Entertainment decided to produce and release their next CG-animated "Resident Evil" feature film, the overly-similarly-titled "Resident Evil: Damnation" in 2012.

Like the previous film, this particular entry is also set after the game "Resident Evil 4," and once again follows the video game protagonist Leon S. Kennedy. This time, rather than being paired up with Claire Redfield, like he was in "RE: Degeneration" and the game "Resident Evil 2," Leon is instead allied with the fan-favorite femme fatale spy — and Leon's on-again/off-again romantic interest — Ada Wong (who, like Leon and Claire, also made her first appearance in "RE 2"). The story itself is set in a former-Soviet Eastern Slav republic, and follows Leon as he tries to stop the use of biological weapons in that nation's current civil war. Monster attacks, shoot-outs, and explosions ensue, which is not much different from most of the other "Resident Evil" animated films, honestly. This leads to one of the big issues with this entry, which is its overly generic story. Again, it's not terrible, but it is mostly forgettable, especially given the more drab, gray setting.

It is somewhat redeemed by having much better animation than "RE: Degeneration," with more realistic facial expressions, smoother motion-captured movement, and better-choreographed action. However, despite the film displaying greatly improved animation in comparison to the aforementioned "RE: Degeneration," it still pales in comparison to the later entries in the series nonetheless.

Unlike all the other entries on this list (barring "Biohazard 4D-Executor"), "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" is in fact not a CG-animated feature film, but rather a CG-animated miniseries, which premiered its four episodes on Netflix in 2021. This meant that "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" was allotted more screentime to delve into the characters, and showcase more monster mayhem as well.

The story is set between the games "Resident Evil 4" and "Resident Evil 5," and follows Leon S. Kennedy — at this point basically the mascot for these CG-animated "Resident Evil" features — teaming up once again with Claire Redfield. Together, they also once again have to stop monsters and zombies — this time in the White House.

Now, Netflix's "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" does a lot of things right. It focuses on arguably the most popular "Resident Evil" protagonists — i.e. Leon and Claire — and has some of the best (and again, the most) action of any of the entries on this list. However, there are some issues that stop it from taking the top spot overall, unfortunately. For one, despite having a (much) longer cumulative runtime than any of the other ranked CG-animated "Resident Evil" films, the story itself is still very rote and basic, feeling a bit overly stretched-thin in the process. It hits many of the same beats as the other "RE" CG-films, but takes longer to resolve, and often repeats them in different episodes. Fans are also mixed on ending with Leon and Claire on bad terms as well. 

Released in 2023, "Resident Evil: Death Island" is currently the most recent "Resident Evil" CG-animated film to date. In the chronology of the video games, it is set between "Resident Evil 6" and "Resident Evil 7," and features almost all of the major "Resident Evil" video game protagonists that have popped up throughout the years — i.e. Leon S. Kennedy, Chris and Claire Redfield, and Jill Valentine — minus notably Ethan Winters from "Resident Evil 7" and "Resident Evil Village." This is also, surprisingly, the first time in "RE" canon that fan-favorites Leon and Jill meet up.

Meanwhile, the story of "Resident Evil: Death Island" takes place in San Francisco's famed Alcatraz Prison Island, harkening back to the '90s action classic "The Rock," as the aforementioned dream team of "Resident Evil" heroes infiltrate the now-defunct prison to stop another potential bio-terrorism attack. Once they enter the facility, there's a milieu of monsters, mayhem, and blah, blah, blah — you know the drill at this point.

Being the most recent CG-animated feature in our list, the animation is pretty immaculate, with some of the smoothest facial animations, motion-captured stunts, and detailed textured in any of the films thus far. This gives it a lot of points. Another reason for being so high on our list is, again, seeing all our favorite characters show up to kick butt together for the first time. How cool! Unfortunately, it is a bit on the campy, ridiculous side, which takes away from some of the horror elements of the series.

2017's "Resident Evil: Vendetta" is the third CG-animated "Resident Evil" film, coming out between "Resident Evil: Damnation" and "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness."  Excitedly, this is the first time Leon S. Kennedy and one of the other biggest fan-favorite characters, Chris Redfield, ever really teamed up together in "Resident Evil" history (outside a very brief conversation in "Resident Evil 6," and later teaming up again in the aforementioned "Resident Evil: Death Island"). Not only that, while also showing up in "Death Island," "Resident Evil: Vendetta" introduced the character of Rebecca Chambers into these adaptations. She began as one of Chris' S.T.A.R.S. team-members in the first "Resident Evil" game — then later starring in her own title, "Resident Evil 0," a prequel to "RE 1" — who is now a scientist helping Chris and Leon.

Set between the games "Resident Evil 6" and "Resident Evil 7," the film "Resident Evil: Vendetta" is about Chris, Leon, and Rebecca attempting to stop a madman named Glenn Arias from spreading a new dangerous virus throughout New York City. Despite a similar plot as other "RE" animated films, "RE: Vendetta" nonetheless boasts the most robust character arcs in these animated films — and some of the coolest action and animation too. This combination of great character moments and badass action means we rank it as the best one of the bunch. It also helps that the story and stakes are a bit more grounded, which makes the action scenes more tense, exciting ... and horrific as well.