MOVIE NEWS – Movies have long influenced video games, but it’s rare to see the process work in reverse. Yet for Alex Garland, the man behind 28 Days Later, a single game moment shaped the entire vision of his groundbreaking zombie thriller.

Film has left a deep mark on video games for decades. Classics like Silent Hill 2 owe their eerie atmosphere to films such as Blue Velvet and Jacob’s Ladder, while The Last of Us took major cues from The Road and 28 Days Later. But the influence rarely moves in the opposite direction. Alex Garland, the writer of 28 Days Later, recently sat down with Neil Druckmann and admitted that without Resident Evil, his movie might not exist at all.

A lifelong gamer and a fan of immersive storytelling, Garland has always been vocal about his love for games like Bioshock and Half-Life 2. But it was early in his career, before fully committing to filmmaking, that he first played Resident Evil. As someone fascinated by zombie films, the experience left a deep impact on him—one that directly led to the creation of 28 Days Later. The biggest trigger? A pair of glowing eyes in the dark: the infamous zombie dogs.

“I played the first Resident Evil on PlayStation, and two things struck me at once. First, I realized I absolutely love zombies. I don’t know why, but I do. The second thing was something about the game’s design. You revisit locations throughout the game, and while the tension is high due to the constant ammo scarcity, the zombies themselves move slowly. Even with the clunky aiming system, they were relatively easy to take down. But then came the dogs… and the moment they jumped at you, no matter how many times you’d passed that hallway before, your heart would pound. You never knew if you’d be fast enough to react. That combination—the love of zombies and the terror of fast, unpredictable enemies—was the foundation for 28 Days Later. It came directly from Resident Evil.”

The Resident Evil series remains one of the most influential in video game history. Its DNA is embedded in modern survival horror, with titles like Silent Hill and The Last of Us carrying its legacy forward. The first game not only left its mark on players but on an entire genre.

What makes this connection even more fascinating is that Resident Evil itself was inspired by film—most notably, the work of George A. Romero, the father of the modern zombie genre. This created one of the strongest links between cinema and gaming in history. In a twist of fate, Romero was once close to directing a Resident Evil movie, but it never materialized.

Garland’s admiration for video games didn’t stop at Resident Evil. He has openly praised The Last of Us, calling it a “more sophisticated” work than 28 Days Later. In fact, the upcoming 28 Years Later trilogy, set to kick off this summer, is heavily influenced by Naughty Dog’s masterpiece. Much like The Last of Us, the first film in the trilogy revolves around a father-son relationship—but Garland notes a unique twist: this time, the child guides the adult. The inspiration? Ico, another beloved classic in gaming history.

Source: 3djuegos