Cinema and video games have been walking side by side for a long time, and their «friendship» is constantly growing stronger. A special place in both industries is occupied by projects about all kinds of monsters that are always trying to dive out of a dark corner and attack a game or movie character. Today, we decided to recall the ten most colorful creatures that migrated from game missions or rounds to movie plots and captured the imagination of not only gamers but also ordinary viewers who are far from escapist immersion in bizarre virtual worlds.
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Goro
A series of games: Mortal Kombat
Films: Mortal Kombat (1995), Mortal Kombat (2021)
Features: give this guy another pair of mittens
Goro — is not an ordinary monster that seeks to devour someone and that’s it. He is a majestic representative of the Shokan race and the undefeated champion of the Mortal Kombat tournament, at least until he meets Liu Kang in the game’s story.
The character appeared in the first film adaptations a cult game directed by Paul Anderson, which has long enjoyed cult status itself and is also featured in the 2021 reboot. In addition, Goro had a cameo in the movie adaptation of Ready Player One by Steven Spielberg, where he shared a scene with a xenomorph.
Share in the comments where you think this four-armed giant looks more convincing — in Anderson’s version or in the latest reboot.
Licker
A series of games: Resident Evil
Films: Resident Evil (2002), Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse (2004), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), Resident Evil series (2022)
Features: he has a long tongue
Lickers — ugly mutants without skin and eyes, but with great sensitivity to sound, a distinctly enlarged brain, sharp claws, teeth, and a long tongue. You definitely don’t want to meet one on the street on your way to the grocery store for bread. The licker made it’s debut in Resident Evil 2 (1998) and has since been considered an integral part of the zombified media franchise.
Repeatedly, this soil has appeared on the movie screen — in several parts with Milla Jovovich, starting with of the first movie as the final boss, as well as in the weak 2021 reboot and the already completely useless series by Netflix.
Nemesis
A series of games: Resident Evil
The movie: Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse (2004)
Features: Terminator: Nemesis
Another representative of the Resident Evil series, who made his debut as the main antagonist in RE 3 (1999) and appeared in several subsequent game projects, including the remake of the original game released in 2020. He can also be seen in some games outside of the main franchise, including Marvel vs. Capcom and Dead by Daylight.
It is noteworthy that this is not a dumb creature that just growls and thirsts for blood, but a creature endowed with intelligence. In addition, Nemesis is prone to rapid regeneration. Next to him, even such a scary thing as Deadpool with the same ability would look like a candidate for the cover of Men’s Health magazine. This is probably how russian military correspondents imagine the results of experiments conducted by mythical NATO biolabs.
The only cinematic appearance of this mutant terminator with a rocket launcher and a minigun took place 20 years ago in the zombie action movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse. There, Nemesis initially competed in coolness with the warrior Alice and then he fell victim to exclusively good motives caused by the realization of his humanity.
Pyramid Head
A series of games: Silent Hill
Films: Silent Hill (2006), Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)
Features: a huge pyramid helmet on the top of the head
Another prominent monster from the gaming industry that was inherited from the movie industry. His first appearance was in Silent Hill 2 (2001), and this big guy with a pyramid helmet and a giant knife made his cinematic debut in 2006 in the movie adaptation of the game under the direction of french director Christophe Gans.
Pyramid Head fits perfectly into the game concept of the Silent Hill universe both visually and psychologically. It was the creation of the bizarre subconscious of Silent Hill 2 protagonist James Sunderland.
The Executioner (The Axeman)
A series of games: Resident Evil
Films: Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
Features: distant relative Pinhead
The Resident Evil franchise, both gaming and cinematic, has spawned a bunch of different monsters — from the usual walking dead or zombie dobermans to vile mutants like Albert Wesker with a machete in his mouth or the Tyrant. If the aforementioned Pyramid Head could pass for an executioner in the Silent Hill series, RE has its own hidden-face bull designed for punitive work.
In the fourth installment of the zombie saga with Jovovich, it’s a monster with a bag over its head, hooks and nails in it’s body, and a huge axe in it’s hands splashing in the shower with the girls, and it does so entirely in Zack Snider’s slow motion. In the fifth movie, there are two Executioners, but even this did not help them destroy the immortal Alice. Although the guys did their best, we have to give them credit.
Mutant beasts from Rampage
A series of games: Rampage
The movie: Rampage (2018)
Features: another Godzilla vs. Kong
In the original 1986 arcade game, players were offered to control people George, Lizzie and Ralph, who, as a result of unsuccessful scientific experiments, turned into mutant animals — a gorilla, a lizard and a wolf. The gamer’s task was to destroy buildings and anything else that came to hand. When only ruins remained of the city, the mission was considered completed. But there were various obstacles on the way to it’s completion.
In the blockbuster movie of the same name based on the game, the victims of corporate genetic experiments are George, an albino gorilla, who is befriended by a muscular primatologist played by Dwayne Johnson, as well as a crocodile and a wolf. This trio heads to Chicago and turns the city into a hellish zootopia.
Skyscrapers, cars, various military vehicles, in short, everything but the unyielding Rock are destroyed. With Michael Bay’s inherent fascination with explosions, Roland Emmerich’s love of city destruction, and the tenacity of the authors MonsterVerse to wield kaiju in fights, Brad Peyton’s blockbuster is a mix of bulldog and rhinoceros. But what a spectacular and high-budget way to make these animals growl from the screen directly at the viewer!
Rathalos
A series of games: Monster Hunter
The movie: Monster Hunter (2020)
Features: “And they fly so beautifully that the ground shakes”.
When Paul Anderson and his wife Milla Jovovich had had enough of zombies and mutants, the couple decided to take on monsters on a much larger scale. To do this, they turned to the Monster Hunter game universe, where the player is offered a hunt based on the principle of “fantastic beasts and where to find them”. That’s how «Monster Hunter» was born, another common sense but pleasing to the eye slaughter with the same Milla at the center of events that can hardly be called a plot.
From a purely visual point of view, Diablos looks somehow more interesting, but Rathalos is the main monster of the original game, and he appeared as the final boss in the movie, so the choice was made on him. This is a fire-breathing wyvern of gigantic proportions, which is not capable of being defeated by tanks or combat helicopters, but by a creature in every sense perfect — the Fifth Element itself. However, with the support of Mr. Tony Jaa.
Animatronics
A series of games: Five Nights at Freddy’s
The movie: Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023)
Features: oddly enough, monsters from the highest-grossing horror movie of 2023
Today we live in an era when no one is surprised by banal kaiju or desiccated dead people. The appearance on the big screen of animatronics from the modest but cult and surprisingly popular Five Nights at Freddy’s game by a single developer, Scott Cawthon, offers something fundamentally different. This type of monsters diversifies the presence of virtual evil spirits, which have become a creature of a clearly unhealthy imagination, on the movie screen.
The concept of cute but actually terrifying mechanical animals, of course, is far from a horror revelation, but the very movie adaptation of the game turned out to be less controversial. However, Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the rabbit, Chica the chicken, Foxy the fox, and Mr. Cupcake the evil-eyed cake are all well done, which probably helped the Blumhouse project become the highest-grossing horror movie of 2023.
Bloater
A series of games: The Last of Us
Series: The Last of Us (2023)
Features: suddenly here it is such
Series adaptation of the cult game has made a lot of noise and become a real hit not to mention the general critical acclaim and prestigious nominations for the Emmy and Golden Globe. It’s no wonder that the project made it to our list the best series of 2023.
One of the high-profile events of the series (not as high-profile as the story of the two gays, but still) was appearance in the fifth episode Bloater, or the Blister. Roughly speaking, this is the most advanced, final stage of infection with the cursed cordyceps, when the infected becomes the most dangerous. It’s not easy to kill this bugger, so meeting him does not bode well.