Resident Evil Movies Ranked: Every Film Tier List (2026)
I ranked every Resident Evil movie worst to best, including Zach Cregger's new 2026 reboot. See my tier list and build your own free, no login needed.
Iris 7.5 min read
I watched Zach Cregger's new Resident Evil opening weekend, and it's changed how I rank this entire franchise
My Full Resident Evil Tier List, Ranked Worst to Best
- S Tier: Resident Evil (2026)
- A Tier: Resident Evil (2002), Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017), Resident Evil: Death Island (2023)
- B Tier: Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
- C Tier: Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Resident Evil: Damnation (2012), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
- D Tier: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
S Tier: the only movie that gets its own spot
There's no ambiguity for me about why this one sits alone at the top. Bryan (Austin Abrams), an organ courier, gets sent on a late-night delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital, and on the snowy drive in, he hits a woman with his car — she's alive, but something about her is very wrong. That accident is the door into the outbreak, and the rest of the night has Bryan fighting through tentacle-based mutations and bio-engineered creatures the credits list as "the Pedestrian" and "the Puker." What actually earns this the S tier for me isn't the gore or the box office record, it's that Cregger has been upfront that this story has zero connection to any previous Resident Evil movie — you can walk in without having seen a single other entry and follow everything, which is the smartest creative call this franchise has made in over a decade.
A Tier: the three I'd actually recommend to a new fan
The 2002 original still holds up better than people give it credit for — the Hive sequences are legitimately unsettling, and the slower pace lets the dread sit instead of rushing to the next set piece. Vendetta surprised me because it's the CG movie where the writers finally treated Leon, Chris, and Rebecca like actual characters instead of action-figure mouthpieces reciting Umbrella Corp exposition. And Death Island is just a genuinely fun watch — it's the first time Jill Valentine and Leon share a scene together in the series' mainline game-canon timeline (the non-canon 2012 live-action Retribution had them cross paths too, but Death Island is the first time it happens in the actual continuity the games follow).
B Tier: solid, but you can feel them playing it safe
Afterlife leans hard into style over substance, and honestly, I don't mind — the 3D slow-motion sequences are ridiculous in a way that feels intentional. Degeneration gets overlooked a lot because it was the first CG entry and the animation looks dated now, but it's worth watching for how directly it ties back into the games — it's set at a fictional airport in Harvardville a few years after Raccoon City's destruction, and it's the first time Leon and Claire share the screen since the original outbreak, years before the live-action films ever thought to reunite them. Apocalypse has Nemesis, full stop, and that character design alone keeps it from sliding lower no matter how thin the plot around it gets.
C Tier: fine for a rewatch, forgettable on a first watch
Extinction commits fully to its Mad Max desert detour, which I respect as a swing even if it doesn't fully land. Damnation drops Leon into a fictional "Eastern Slav Republic" in the middle of a civil war over bio-organic weapons, and there's so much political subplot juggling that the movie forgets to make Leon himself interesting, which is a real problem when he's supposed to be the emotional center. Retribution trades the open-world apocalypse of earlier films for an underwater Umbrella facility stuffed with clones of past characters, and it's the point where the live-action series started visibly recycling its own ideas.
D Tier: the two I'd skip on a rewatch
The Final Chapter sends Alice back to The Hive in Raccoon City for one final stand against Umbrella, trying to close out six movies of mythology in under two hours, and it shows — the pacing feels like someone speed-running a checklist of loose ends. Welcome to Raccoon City had the right idea going back to 1998, the Spencer Mansion, and the original S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team, but the cast never gels, and it's honestly the one Resident Evil movie I forget exists until someone brings it up.
Do the CG Anime Movies Actually Count as Canon?
This comes up constantly in Resident Evil fan spaces, and the answer is more interesting than a simple yes or no. Degeneration, Damnation, Vendetta, and Death Island are all treated as canon within the game timeline, slotting in between mainline entries and even referencing specific game events directly — Death Island, for example, answers lingering questions about where Jill has been since Resident Evil 5 and has Chris reference his partner from Resident Evil 6, threads the live-action films never touched. The catch is that mainstream audiences barely know they exist, since they never got a wide theatrical release outside Japan. If you only know Resident Evil through the Jovovich or Cregger movies, the CG films are honestly the most faithful adaptation of the games you haven't seen yet.
Why the 2026 Reboot Split the Fandom
Cregger has said in interviews that this is a fully original screenplay with zero connection to the earlier films, which is a gutsy move for a franchise built on interconnected lore. Some fans love that a clean slate finally let the horror breathe. Others feel like something got lost without the ensemble cast dynamic that defined the Jovovich era — there's a real nostalgia for watching a team fight through an outbreak together instead of one guy alone in a hospital. I land somewhere in the middle: I think the reboot is the better movie, but I get why longtime fans miss the group chaos of the older films.
How I Turned My Rankings Into a Shareable Graphic
Once I had all twelve movies sorted in my head, I wanted something I could actually post instead of a wall of text, so I used a tier list maker to build it out. It's a free tier list maker, no account required — you open a movie template, drag each poster into the tier you want, rename or recolor the rows if you're picky about it, and export the finished grid as a PNG. There's a film category with a bunch of franchise templates if you want to do something similar for a different series.
Where Would You Rank the New One?
Twelve movies, one franchise, and I still don't think fans will ever fully agree — that's kind of the fun of it. Does the 2026 reboot actually deserve the top spot, or is nostalgia for the Jovovich era always going to win for you? Drop your own ranking in the comments, I'm curious how differently people are seeing this one.
Resident Evil Movies FAQ
How many Resident Evil movies are there in total?
There are twelve Resident Evil films as of 2026: eight live-action movies (2002 through the 2026 reboot) and four CG animated films (Degeneration, Damnation, Vendetta, and Death Island).
Is the 2026 Resident Evil movie connected to the earlier films?
No. Zach Cregger has confirmed it's an original, standalone screenplay with no ties to the Jovovich-era continuity, so newcomers can start there without any homework.
Are the CG animated Resident Evil movies worth watching?
Yes, especially if you're a fan of the games — they're treated as canon and reference specific game storylines more directly than the live-action films do. Vendetta and Death Island are the strongest starting points.
Is TierMakerPro free to use for making a movie tier list?
Yes, it's free with no signup required. You pick a template, drag images into tiers, customize the labels and colors, and export your finished list as a PNG.