Gaming’s biggest horror series are more vital than ever

Resident Evil and Silent Hill are both thriving with new spins on survival horror.

For the third year in a row, I’ve been scared out of my wits by a new Silent Hill game. First it was the modern remake of Silent Hill 2 , then the Japan-set spinoff Silent Hill F . Now I find myself slowly crawling through a quaint Scottish town in Silent Hill: Townfall , trying my best not to get brutally murdered by demonic creatures chasing me through the streets. It’s been a remarkable turnaround for a franchise that once seemed like it was on life support. And when you combine it with a strong run from Resident Evil across games and film, you have gaming’s two biggest horror franchises both at the height of their powers.

For Resident Evil , it’s been a steady buildup, but it really started with Resident Evil 7 nearly a decade ago . It jolted the series back to life with a first-person perspective that made its scares feel more visceral. Since then, Capcom has settled on an effective strategy of alternating between bottom-up remakes of classics like Resident Evil 4 , and new spins on the formula, like the vampire-tinged Village . This has allowed the studio to be more experimental with the mainline titles; this year’s Requiem , for instance, was a bold attempt to merge two types of Resident Evil games together, mixing straight-up action with first-person terror .

Resident Evil has always had an uneven track record when it comes to adaptations, like the largely forgettable live-action Netflix series . But that may be changing. Last week a reboot of the film series premiered, called simply Resident Evil , helmed by Weapons director Zach Cregger . It explored the zombie franchise from a new viewpoint: Instead of following iconic characters like Leon or Claire, it was centered on a hapless delivery driver who served as a stand-in for a player who is terrible at survival horror games. Like the Exit 8 movie , Resident Evil explores its source material through the lens of the player. The result was equal parts hilarious and horrifying — there were scenes where gore dripped from ceilings, and a particularly terrifying long-limbed baby — and it also had the best box office opening in franchise history .

Silent Hill has followed a similar trajectory, albeit on a smaller scale. After lying largely dormant following the 2015 cancellation of Silent Hills , a reboot led by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, Konami signaled a return for the franchise with a series of announcements in 2022 . Not everything has been a winner — a film came out earlier this year with little fanfare, and the less said about the bizarre interactive TV series Ascension the better — but when it comes to games Silent Hill has been on a roll. The Silent Hill 2 remake set the stage, introducing arguably the most beloved title in the series to a new audience, while Silent Hill F offered a freshly horrifying experience through its setting and more RPG-focused gameplay.