Despite the fact most games in the series stand alone, Resident Evil has maintained a strong sense of continuity and chronology since the PlayStation original. The average fan isn’t here for the story, but the fact of the matter is that Resident Evil is a decades-long franchise that stretches across multiple different mediums: from video games to books and even movies.

Unlike the live-action movies which are loose adaptations of the main games, Resident Evil’s animated films are firmly canon and often star Leon. Whether they’re any good is another matter entirely, but Resident Evil’s animated movies offer interesting insight into the franchise’s world that can’t be gleaned from just the games alone.

Updated on February 26, 2024, by Dennis Moiseyev: The animated CG Resident Evil movies are nothing but a zombie action romp featuring the beloved characters from the games with stories that don't take themselves too seriously and are canon as well. 2023's Death Island marks the latest in the lineup of CG outings, and there are plenty more that came before it, so if you don't know where to begin, look no further.

Additionally, this article was updated to include the list of voice actors and even more images that highlight the most important parts of each film.

7 Biohazard 4D-Executer (2000)

Before Resident Evil: Degeneration, there was one of the first animated entries into the Resident Evil universe in 2000. It's a short 19-minute animated feature called Biohazard 4D-Executer, with new characters outside the canon who go into Raccoon City on a search and rescue mission to recover Umbrella scientist Dr. Cameron.

Their search leads them to a warehouse where a T-Virus creature has the parasitic ability to attach its parts to other organisms and mimic their biology, almost like John Carpenter's The Thing. There's a cool first-person POV shot of a cockroach and some amazing animations and visuals for its time. And if you miss the series' traditional pure terror and survival horror roots, this is a good one to check out.

6 Biohazard 4: Incubate (2006)

Although the title sounds fancy and like it's a brand-new entry in the animated catalog of Resident Evil films, Biohazard 4: Incubate is merely one of the earliest official "video game movies" ever made. It cuts together certain cutscene sections and partial gameplay from Resident Evil 4 to make a complete 90-minute-long animation movie.

This was made to summarize the events of the original Resident Evil 4 game in a movie-type way and could serve as a good refresher before heading into the 2023 remake. The levels and cutscenes flow really well, and there are some excellent camera angles used for the gameplay sections.

5 Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)

The first full-length feature animated movie in the series, Resident Evil: Degeneration, was released in 2008 and is set one year after the events of Resident Evil 4. Notably, Degeneration establishes Tricell as an in-world presence before Resident Evil 5, offering some context into Chris’ future plight in Africa. And there’s definitely a charm to seeing Leon and Claire together on-screen for the first time since the original Resident Evil 2.

Degeneration is the most grounded of the animated movies, albeit Leon still gets so much action that any tension stemming from the zombie outbreak all but vanishes before the halfway point. Not helping matters is how poor the animation has held up, with character models simply not fit for human emotion. If nothing else, the references to Resident Evil 2 and 4 are enough to keep longtime fans engaged.

4 Resident Evil: Damnation (2012)