11 Video Game Movie Adaptations, Ranked By Accuracy

Summary

• Video game movie adaptations often struggle to capture the essence of the games, leading to disappointing results.
• Some films, like Alone In The Dark and Monster Hunter, drastically deviate from the source material, losing the essence of the games.
• Even when faithful to the games, movies like Resident Evil create their own stories, showing that accuracy doesn't always guarantee success.

Video game movie adaptations don’t have the best reputation. This can be attributed to several factors, from poor writing to bad acting to lackluster budgets. However, no matter how high the quality of the film, there is an inherent difference between playing a game and watching a movie.

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The effect of this principle is that faithful adaptations don’t always transfer well to the big screen. Sometimes, even movies that strive to follow what came before, fail to have the same impact when the agency of being able to play through them is lost.

These films are being rated based on their accuracy to the source material, not their overall quality.

11 Alone In The Dark

Released

2005

Directed By

Uwe Boll

Many modern survival horror series can trace their roots back to 1992’s Alone in the Dark. The movie adaptation of the same name is remembered a lot less fondly.

Directed by Uwe Boll, Alone In the Dark is a disaster in many different ways, as is evidenced by its pitiful Rotten Tomatoes score of just one percent. However, aside from all of its other major shortcomings, the movie also fails as an adaptation. Abandoning scares for bizarrely over-the-top action, Alone in the Dark shares next to nothing in common with the series that helped start survival horror.

10 Monster Hunter

Released

2020

Directed By

Paul W. S. Anderson

The Capcom series Monster Hunter is a fantastic set of action games about taking down massive creatures in the wild. Many of the titles have narratives, but they are overshadowed by the exciting hunts that players can embark on alone, or with their friends. This makes it all the more bizarre that a film adaption of the games was created in the first place.

Starting in the real world, the film stars Milla Jovovich as a military commando who enters a monster-filled other world along with the rest of her squad. These creatures follow her back to Earth, where they proceed to wreak havoc and destruction. Aside from the visual designs of the monsters and weapons, which are admittedly impressive, the movie adaption follows nothing of what made the games so iconic.

9 Doom

Released

2005

Directed By

Andrzej Bartkowiak

The name Doom is synonymous with the shooter genre, and with good reason. Ever since its first entry back in 1993, the series has offered gamers violent, demon-slaughtering goodness. But in terms of story, the series has largely kept things light in favor of focusing on the action. Despite what little details are given, 2005’s Doom movie contradicts it.

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Starring prominent actors like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Karl Urban, the film decides to give the invaders of the interstellar base a different origin story. Rather than have them be demons from Hell, the monsters of 2005’s Doom are zombified mutants. The film does have its fair share of references to Doom lore with some of the character's names. However, it largely breaks away from the established story. Save for one action sequence filmed in first person as an homage to the series' perspective.

8 Postal

Released

2008

Directed By

Uwe Boll

One of the most controversial video game series of all time, the Postal games are known most for their crude humor and wanton violence. The games follow the aptly named Postal Dude whose activities range from mass murdering, literally battling his inner demons, and completing his weekly chores in a town on the brink of insanity.

The Postal film, starring Zack Ward in the leading role, bases itself on the antics of the second game. Largely going in its own direction in terms of story, the movie does embody many of the general themes that helped Postal acquire its notorious reputation. Things get especially accurate at the end of the film, with the protagonist going on a rampage. But, leading up to that, the film is a collection of crass humor and offensive jokes.

7 Sonic The Hedgehog

Released

2020

Directed By

Jeff Fowler

Sega’s Sonic series has covered a lot of ground in its decades-long run. This is fitting considering how speedy the mainline hedgehog is. But none of his many adventures ever panned out quite like the movie did. Sonic has established a lore over the years involving ancient civilizations, magical items, and visitors from other worlds.

However, the movie opted not to follow any of these plotlines in favor of creating its own version of events. Sonic’s happy-go-lucky attitude, and Jim Carrey’s wonderfully manic portrayal of Dr. Robotnik, makes the movie fit in with the themes of the series. As an adaptation, it borrows only scraps from the source material.

6 Resident Evil (Series)

Released

2002

Directed By

Paul W. S. Anderson

Few gaming series have managed to keep themselves relevant for as long as Resident Evil has. With its debut title back in 1996, Resident Evil has frightened and entertained players for decades now. Though the canon for the series is expansive, many of the games revolve around the Umbrella Corporation, and their tendency to dabble in dangerous experiments that turn victims into zombies or mutated weapons.

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Despite having an iconic line-up of protagonists, the film versions of Resident Evil instead decided to create their own lead character, Alice. The films exist as a strange anomaly, occasionally opting to stay close to the source material with the introduction of characters like Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera, along with an extremely accurate depiction of the deadly Nemesis B.O.W. For the most part, the films pursue their own stories, while throwing in the odd detail from the games.

5 Uncharted

Released

2022

Directed By

Ruben Fleischer

Between Uncharted and The Last of Us, Naughty Dog has proven itself extremely capable when crafting narrative gaming experiences. The former of the two series, Uncharted, follows Nathan Drake on his various quests for treasure, which take him across the globe. Each game is filled with bombastic, cinematic set pieces that already feel as though they were made for the big screen.

A point that the director Ruben Fleischer seemed to agree with as the 2022 film starring Tom Holland, recaptured the adventurous spirit maintained by the games. Even still, many details from the game were altered, including Nathan’s age, as well a few of his important relationships, partiucarly that of his friend Sully.

4 Max Payne

Released

2008

Directed By

John Moore

Rockstar’s Max Payne series is a departure from the open-world epics like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption that the studio is well known for. These linear action games follow the former cop, Max Payne, as he fights his way through a seedy underworld riddled with crime.

Thematically, the movie carries over a lot of the game’s gritty atmosphere, and Mark Wahlberg gives a solid portrayal of the vengeful Max Payne. Some details are altered from the game's story, which makes Max Payne cover odd territory between faithful adaptation, and going its own way.

3 Silent Hill

Released

2006

Directed By

Christophe Gans

Konami’s Silent Hill series has produced some of the scariest gaming experiences of all time. Mostly taking place in a town with the same name, Silent Hill explores concepts of punishment and grief through frightening visuals and stellar writing. In 2006, a film version was created to see if the same themes could be brought to the big screen.

Silent Hill (2006) brings the atmospheric horror of the games to life, with a tale of suffering and woe that embodies the ideas of the series well. During this dark journey, some familiar faces pop up, like the notorious Pyramid Head.

2 Five Nights At Freddy’s

Released

2023

Directed By

Emma Tammi

The pop culture phenomenon, Five Nights At Freddy’s took the internet by storm with its jump scares and deep lore. Starting as a video game, the series has since dabbled in other media, like books and graphic novels. It wasn’t until 2023 that the series hit the silver screen.

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Five Nights At Freddy’s had its work cut out for it in trying to adapt years' worth of purposefully vague details into a digestible plot. The animatronics look as though they were pulled right from the game, and while some new characters and plot threads were introduced, the movie succesfully brought many of the game’s ideas to life.