Editorials
5 Things We Want From ‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’
The Resident Evil movie franchise isn’t exactly known for being of the highest quality. In fact, most critics downright loathe the films. Actual quality aside, they’re actually really fun. Mindless entertainment, to be sure, but fun nonetheless. Call me crazy, but I have a real soft spot for these films. If box office numbers are any indication, some of you do as well. Everyone ranks them differently though! Former BD writer Jonathan Barkan wrote about his ranking of the franchise a few months ago, but my ranking differs quite a bit (the only one I loathe is Apocalypse, Barkan’s favorite in the series, but my favorite is Extinction). Quality schmality, amiright? Fans of the franchise have been waiting for the so-called “final” chapter of the series for almost five(!) years, and expectations are high (for me, anyway). I don’t ask for much from these films, as I like them for what they are, but I do have an idea of what a satisfying conclusion to a long-running franchise should entail. Here are five things I want from Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.
1. Awesome Action Scenes
This is sort of a no-brainer when it comes to the Resident Evil films, and it is one quality that I’m 100% certain it will deliver on. I just hope it isn’t the only thing. If The Final Chapter could give us scenes as brutal the Las Vegas fight sequence from Extinction or as beautiful as Rain’s clone’s death in Retribution, and deliver them on a consistent basis, I’m sure that it will feel right at home in this goofy franchise.
2. Returning Fan Favorites
The Resident Evil franchise has built up a deep mythology with tons of memorable characters so it’s a bit disconcerting that the only fan favorites returning for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter are Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich. Where are Sienna Guillory’s Jill Valentine? Or Wentworth Miller’s Chris Redfield? Remember when Leon Kennedy and Barry Burton were brought into the mix? How about Li Bingbing as Ada Wong? Hell, we still don’t know where K-Mart is (What? I liked K-Mart, okay?). The fans deserve some closure for all of these characters. It will be highly disappointing if the plan is to pull an Aliens and kill most of them off-screen during the opening credits.
3. Continuity
This is sort of linked to the above segment, but it would be nice if The Final Chapter didn’t forget any of the events that happened in the previous films. The series has been pretty good about continuity, but they’re also pretty bad about retconning events from previous movies (remember when Alice’s superpowers from Extinction were quickly dispatched in the opening scene of Afterlife?). It would be lovely if The Final Chapter kept in mind all of the events that happened in the previous five films.
4. An Actual Plot
I’m not saying Retribution wasn’t fun to watch (I like it more and more each time I watch it, but I digress), but the fourth sequel had the thinnest plot the franchise has ever had. Watching it felt less like a movie and more like watching someone else play a video game. Remember the tagline “Evil Goes Global”? That was some bullshit, wasn’t it? The whole film took place in an underground facility and did nothing to move the overall plot of the franchise forward. Hopefully The Final Chapter will remedy that problem and give us an actual plot to follow through to the end.
5. Closure
How many times have we been faced with a so-called “final” chapter, only for it to make a bunch of money, leading the studio to produce yet another sequel? If you’re going to put the word “final” in your sequel’s title, please make it final. Have an ending. Flash forward 40 years to the future and show Alice as an elderly woman so we know you can’t backtrack. I don’t care. Just make this one actually be the final chapter. Then reboot the franchise properly in a few years and actually adapt the Resident Evil games.
What do you want to see in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter? Let us know in the comments below!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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