Resident Evil: Netflix series sets two Rotten Tomatoes milestones

Horror adaptation debuted on the streaming service this week

Netflix’s new Resident Evil series has set two milestones on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

The series is adapted from the hit horror video game franchise, published by Capcom in 1996. Previous adaptations have included a film series starring Milla Jovovich, and an animated TV show.

After the new series was released on the streaming service this week (14 July), reviews and audience reactions have been shared online.

With a critical score of 61 per cent positive reviews, Resident Evil is the highest-rated of all Resident Evil adaptations. The lowest is 2004’s Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which scored just 19 per cent.

However, its audience rating is actually the lowest of any Resident Evil adaptation to date, clocking up a score of just 30 per cent.

In a two-star review for The Independent, Nick Hilton wrote: “The zombies themselves – and let’s face it, a Resident Evil adaptation is only as good as its ravenous swarm – look like a flash mob of A-level drama students, until they start running, at which point the frenetic action sequences are lit more sparingly than a medieval boudoir.”

“Perhaps the makers of this show felt that escaping the video game aesthetic was enough. And for some it will be: in the Wesker origin story and the skull-crunching violence, there’s something to appeal to devotees of the landmark franchise.

“But for those unfamiliar with the fabled video game series, this will feel like little more than a muddled, and somewhat tacky, zombie serial, saddled with the baggage of pre-existing lore.”

Read the full review here.