Were you thrilled to find out that your favorite video game would be adapted into a film, only to be disappointed by how horrible it turned out? Or are you only interested in watching poor video game movie adaptations? Regardless of your reasons, we’ve compiled for you a list of our top 5 favorite worst video game film adaptations.
We used Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and IMDb scores to rate these video game movie adaptations. If you want to know more about games and gaming technology, check out Techzumo here. Now, let’s get into it!
Alone in the Dark (2005)
Alone in the Dark is a Christian Slater-led video game movie adaptation that was directed by Uwe Boll. It is known to be the worst video game movie adaptation of all time. Uwe Boll is known for his poor films, and “Alone in the Dark” was his second effort at turning a video game into a film.
The game was already mediocre, but adding a poor adaptation to the equation made matters worse. It has been dubbed not only the worst gaming film adaptation but also one of the worst horror films ever made. It even served as an example of how not to make a film for many film directors. Alone in the Dark was so awful that it was listed on practically every list of worst gaming movie adaptations ever made.
Alone in the Dark, like its director, was regarded as lacking self-awareness. It’s a mishmash of different styles and plots, and it’s badly produced, preventing the film from having its own voice. The plot, as well as the characters, were all over the place. Alone in the Dark was supposed to shine a brighter light on the game, but it turned into the laughing stock of the world.
- Rotten Tomatoes: 1%
- Metacritic: 9 out of 100
- IMDb: 2.4 out of 10
House of the Dead (2003)
Another Uwe Boll-directed film that flopped is “House of the Dead.” Although the plot was super simple, the execution wasn’t really great. The gunplay was poorly choreographed and the characters’ acting was just as bad. More importantly, the movie was just full of unnecessary and mind-boggling scenes that didn’t make any sense.
The movie just kept going downhill. It doesn’t fit the “so bad it’s good” category. It’s honestly just bad. Nick Schager from Lessons of Darkness mentioned that it is “one of the most astonishingly idiotic pieces of entertainment I’ve ever had the displeasure of sitting through.”
- Rotten Tomatoes: 3%
- Metacritic: 15 out of 100
- IMDb: 2.1 out of 10
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
Unlike the 1995 “Mortal Kombat” film, which is considered one of the best video game film adaptations, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is known to be the “black sheep” of the two.
Annihilation is known to be one of the worst sequels in the genre. Aside from the fact that Annihilation was not allowed to finish the post-production properly, it also had one of the worst CGI effects despite the film’s larger budget.
Most of the actors from the first movie also did not come back to film for the second movie, leaving the audience to become confused. The actors from the first movie left a big impact that the new actors were not able to compensate for. It was hard for the audience to get used to the new actors when the previous ones were already embedded in their minds.
Even one of the creators of the Mortal Kombat games, Ed Boon, stated that he didn’t like the movie since the movie producers did not follow the original source material of the games.
- Rotten Tomatoes: 4%
- Metacritic: 11 out of 100
- IMDb: 3.6 out of 10
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012)
The Silent Hill game is one of the most iconic horror games out there. However, the sequel of the first Silent Hill movie, Silent Hill: Revelation, became quite a disappointment to Silent Hill game fans.
Silent Hill: Revelation didn’t have the same great plot as the first movie, which had an interesting and terrifying feel to it. The sequel’s story plot was all over the place, and the addition of 3D where swords are suddenly being thrust into the audience didn’t make it any better. In reality, it became “gimmicky and ridiculous,” as some say. And although we love Kit Harrington, he just felt out of place in the movie.
- Rotten Tomatoes: 10%
- Metacritic: 16 out of 100
- IMDb: 4.9 out of 10
Resident Evil Franchise (2002-2016)
Last on our list and one of the more “decent” video game movie adaptations is the Resident Evil Franchise. The Resident Evil films could have been great if the movie didn’t deviate from the original Resident Evil games. When watching the movies, it seemed that there was no “real plan” from the start and that each movie was just doing its “own thing.”
The protagonist was a made-up character that the director added that was never even seen in the games. But later on, the director started to add the games’ original characters to “try” to stay true to the original source material. But the creators kept changing their minds and kept adding new things to the plot, making the overall plot of the whole franchise quite confusing.
Each movie became more and more ridiculous and got worse with each passing movie. Nevertheless, if you were unaware of what the original games were like, then the movie franchise may be quite decent for some.
- Rotten Tomatoes (Highest): 37%
- Rotten Tomatoes (Lowest): 19%
- Metacritic (Highest): 49 out of 100
- Metacritic (Lowest): 33 out of 100
- IMDb (Highest): 5.5 out of 10
- IMDb (Lowest): 6.6 out of 10
Final Thoughts
Games and movies are designed to transport us to a magical realm full of things out of this world. Although each uses its own set of strategies to transport us to these fantasy worlds, video game film adaptations are far more difficult to pull off compared to games for a variety of reasons.
There are still a few excellent video game film adaptations like the first Silent Hill movie and Assassin’s Creed, but the ones mentioned above are not among the best. Despite the disappointment of lousy film adaptations, we continue to watch them for whatever reasons. So, sit back on your gaming chair, relax, grab your popcorn, and let’s continue to watch these video game movie adaptations!