These Resident Evil AI Images Will Have You Long For an 80s Horror Movie That Never Existed

There’s a unique ambiance to the original Resident Evil games that’s hard to express; anybody who has played the games knows what I mean. And for those who haven’t, fear not — you won’t have to read my best efforts to try and describe it. There’s an image-generating AI whose pictures tell a thousand words, and it’s even put a special twist on the game’s aesthetic thanks to the clever instructions of one YouTuber.

The clever twist, as you’ll see below, is to transform Resident Evil into a series of 80s “dark horror” movies. Ludex is one of a number of YouTubers following the trend, with 80s cheese proving a highly popular aesthetic of choice to mash up lots of iconic media. In any case, their work… or, rather, the work of the AI program Midjourney, takes a bunch of well-known Resident Evil imagery from each game and transforms it into something that looks as though it was created during the 1980s. Especially in the case of the original trilogy and their eerie theme music, there’s an unsettling aura about the images that almost creates a bizarre sense of nostalgia.

Our pick of the bunch is the original three games, but you can check out 4 and 5 as well. A quick search across YouTube yields lots of other interesting mashups, including Metal Gear Solid made to look like an 80s movie, which is equally brilliant:

Of course, Metal Gear fans might be waiting indefinitely for the next installment in that beloved series, whereas those enamored with Resident Evil only have only months to wait until the anticipated launch of the Resident Evil 4 Remake. You can check out Twinfinite’s coverage of the upcoming game until then, including the latest trailer that details all the special editions.