10 Horror Movies That Changed Their Franchise
4. Resident Evil: Apocalypse
It may get some grief from those of us who adore the video game series, but the first Resident Evil movie was actually a pretty decent slice of action-infused horror. The problem is, it wasn't much of a Resident Evil movie.
Yes, the oft-murky Umbrella Corporation was involved, and yes, Raccoon City was a thing, but other than that, there were merely a couple of mild nods 'n' winks to the Resi games. Rather than any familiar characters, what we have here are all fresh creations, headed up by Milla Jovovich's Alice. While Jovovich does a solid job and Alice is an intriguing figure, it was tough for Resident Evil fans to fully invest in this film when it felt so distant from what had come to be associated with the RE name.
With Resident Evil: Apocalypse, though, the franchise was changed up in several different ways. Firstly, we got to see certain characters from the Resi games, with Jill Valentine, Carlos, and Nikolai/Nicholai - not to mention the full transformation of Matt Addison into Nemesis. Granted, these characters weren't all exactly video game accurate, but at least the burgeoning series was looking to appeal more to the die-hard Resident Evil fans.
The other major change in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, is that - for better or worse - the film went a bit more, well, nuts than its predecessor. This second Resi picture amped up its action, embraced a more outright cheesy tone, and laid the foundation for some of the insanity and bizarreness that would follow across the next 15 years in Extinction, Afterlife, Retribution, and The Final Chapter.