Resident Evil used George A. Romero’s groundbreaking, cult-classic zombie films as a major reference point when the game was designed prior to its 1996 premiere on PlayStation. The first segment of Resident Evil has gamers navigate a zombie-filled mansion, unable to escape, fighting amongst their supposed teammates while besieged by the hungry undead … the exact same premise as 1968’s Night of the Living Dead.
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While the first Resident Evil game eventually leads to different environments after the mansion, it still plays close to the rhythm established by Night of the Living Dead. Out of Romero’s original zombie trilogy, started by Night and completed with Day of the Dead, it appears Resident Evil most often referenced 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, the most commercially and critically acclaimed of the trilogy. In the film a team of four survivors escape a city overrun by zombies, fortify themselves in an abandoned shopping mall as they attempt to keep their lives in a doomed hellscape. All kinds of aspects in Resident Evil are cinematic in nature, like the now mostly abandoned fixed angle perspective that mimics horror film shots (which fans have recently modded RE7 to include). George A. Romero changed popular culture’s idea of the modern zombie and Resident Evil was not afraid to pay homage to the legendary filmmaker’s work early in the series.
10 Capcom Actually Hired Romero
George A. Romero was famously called upon to provide a Japanese-exclusive commercial for Bio Hazard 2 featuring Adrienne Frantz as Claire and Brad Renfro as Leon. The team pairs up to battle an impressively grotesque looking hoard of zombies in an abandoned police station in this wonderfully atmospheric micro horror movie. This commercial didn’t officially broadcast outside Japan, but fans were eager to share it worldwide across the web. Romero was later called to write a script for Resident Evil‘s film debut, but it was ultimately scrapped in favor of Paul W.S. Anderson’s action-packed science fiction schlock (fans hope the upcoming live action Netflix series will not continue this trend).
9 Leon & Roger’s Lighter
While the lighter is not an essential item in the first Resident Evil (especially for speedrunners), the fire starter is absolutely necessary to play through Resident Evil 2 in order to attain a red jewel hidden behind an oil painting that helps to uncover the puzzle piece that opens a locked door to the sewers (it’s weirder to read than it is to experience in the game). It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence that Leon, the rookie cop, has a lighter by default while playing the game, as it was likely a reference to Dawn of the Dead‘s Roger: a heroic-but-hasty S.W.A.T. officer who uses the lighter several times to spark his and Peter’s cigarettes. It could be argued that one reason Peter joined Roger in the zombie apocalypse was that the smoker couldn’t get a light anywhere else before the mall, making the lighter an essential prop in the film.
8 Classic Romero Zombie Laws
While Dawn of the Dead and the other films in Romero’s Dead series never give a concrete reason as to why the dead are rising from their graves, Resident Evil‘s T-virus is the definitive reason Raccoon City turned into a cannibalistic massacre. However, Resident Evil still stays true to the conventions and rules established by Romero’s work. If someone gets bit by a zombie, they’ll inevitably get a mean hankering for human flesh after they die, which really takes the “fun” out of “funeral.”
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7 Hands Burst Through Boarded Barricades
The first jump scare in Resident Evil 2 happens when Claire and Leon run through a hallway connecting the front lobby to the second floor stairway. Rotting hands burst through the boarded up windows and, if close enough, will grab hold of the player and constrain them momentarily. Fans of Dawn of the Dead might recognize the framing of the shot in Resident Evil 2, since it seems to be a mirror image to the 1978 film’s scene where S.W.A.T. teams encounter an apartment building’s basement filled with undead tenants.
6 Claire & Fran’s Single-Action Revolver
The Colt Single-Action Army revolver is one of the world’s most famous firearms, making it a natural decision for survivors to wield against the zombie hoards in both Dawn of the Dead and Resident Evil 2. However, because it’s a bonus weapon accessible only to Claire through esoteric means, that implies the team creating the game specifically wanted to highlight the iconic revolver like an easter egg, seeing how variants of the Colt SAA are often wielded in Dawn of the Dead by Stephen, the helicopter pilot known as “Flyboy,” and Fran, one of the film’s most heroic characters (which Resident Evil continued to honor with a strong female heroine in nearly every title).
5 Shotgun Decapitations
Romero pioneered the zombie headshot concept with Night of the Living Dead, where the human survivors discovered that a bullet to the brain is a surefire way to eliminate the walking dead in their tracks. This concept carried over to Dawn of the Dead with gusto, showing one of the most shocking shotgun-induced head explosions caught on film at that point where a dummy head stuffed with raw meat was blasted with a real shotgun loaded with live ammunition. There’s no doubt Resident Evil conjured that scene while designing the damage values set to the shotgun in the series.
4 Flyboy’s Secret Cameo
It can’t be a coincidence that one of the most common zombie models in Resident Evil 2 bears a striking resemblance to Stephen “Flyboy” Andrews, the helicopter pilot who met his demise defending his mall from a gang of motorcycle raiders. The bloodstain locations, the tucked in yellow shirt, the hiked-up green khakis … all these details lead fans to believe this is a massive easter egg hidden in plain sight.
3 Hunk & Peter’s Uniform
It’s no surprise heavily armed S.W.A.T. and special ops forces will get involved in a zombie nightmare, but the similarity between Resident Evil‘s Hunk and Dawn of the Dead‘s Peter is uncanny. We are introduced to Peter during the first firefight in Romero’s film when the trooper ends a racist maniac cop’s murderous rampage against an apartment complex’s terrified residents. Peter was the only man on the team with the courage to kill one of their own when it was necessary. Hunk also makes his entrance with a blaze of automatic weapons in Resident Evil 2 when he and his team confront the diabolical Dr. Birkin in order to obtain a G-virus sample.
2 Desperate Barricades Against Zombies
Sure, anyone with the will to survive would do well to lock all the doors and windows when the zombies start shambling up, but a central component in every one of Romero’s Dead films is the need for isolation, seclusion and security during a cannibal plague. You’ve got to board up a few windows in any zombie movie (even Minecraft forces players to hole up for the night lest they face zombies). In Resident Evil 2 you can choose to rewire the broken security shutters and prevent the halls they protect from eventually being flooded with zombies … an idea that likely would not have occurred to the game’s production team without Romero’s films to serve as inspiration.
1 Helicopter Escapes
Helicopters really come in handy when everyone in the city is trying to eat one another. Dawn of the Dead showed that not only is it important to fly when the dead walk, but an experienced pilot is vital. In the film Fran implores Flyboy to teach her how to pilot and, as a result, it saves her life. The main reason Alpha team is forced to navigate the Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil is because of their cowardly helicopter pilot Brad Vickers, but he’s also the reason they managed to escape. Every Resident Evil title has a helicopter and it’s likely because of the importance helicopters specifically play in Romero’s Dawn and Day of the Dead.
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