The Resident Evil series is filled with dozens of terrifying monsters and horrifying villains. It’s one of the many things that make the long-running series so memorable. Sure, the protagonists are beloved, and the survival horror gameplay is often the best in the genre. However, any good guy needs a great villain to play off of, and that survival horror gameplay would not be as tense without fresh nightmares chasing you around Resident Evil. That said, some of the baddies stand out as truly horrifying, whether through their looks, motives, or something else equally insidious.
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Here is every major Resident Evil villain ranked based on how nightmarish they really are.
17) Morgan Lansdale – Resident Evil: Revelations
Morgan Lansdale is basically just a guy. Yes, he’s the leader of the Federal Bioterrorism Commission who was behind the attacks on Terragrigia. It’s a devilish plan that was meant to increase public fear and give him more control. That’s not a great motive, but it’s far from the worst thing an RE villain’s ever done. Plus, he never even turns into a giant monster. Lansdale easily goes to the bottom of the list.
16) Derek C. Simmons – Resident Evil 6
Simmons does turn into a giant monster that you have to fight off during Resident Evil 6, but otherwise, he’s kind of a run-of-the-mill antagonist. That puts him near the bottom of this list because Simmons is one of the most boring villains Resident Evil has ever had. That’s one of the many reasons RE 6 felt like a step in the wrong direction for many fans.
15) Eveline – Resident Evil 7
Eveline is a weird case. She is absolutely a compelling villain who controls some of the scariest monsters in Resident Evil history. However, her entire motive is to find a family to take care of her. Unfortunately, she is a B.O.W. that can control people through her Mold powers. She’s not completely blameless, but her desire to be loved is somewhat admirable.
14) Carla Radames – Resident Evil 6
Carla Radames spends most of RE 6 pretending to be Ada Wong. In actuality, Radames is a young genius who was made to look like Wong via Derek Simmons. That doesn’t mean she’s not at fault for trying to fully develop the C-Virus and take over the world.
13) Karl Heisenberg – Resident Evil Village
If this were a list of the coolest Resident Evil characters, Heisenberg would be much closer to the top of this list. He is an all-time great villain, but you’d struggle to call him nightmarish, even when he mutates into a giant monster. Still, it’s hard not to be scared of a guy who is creating an army by mixing human test subjects with various pieces of machinery.
12) Oswell E. Spencer – Resident Evil 5
You could argue Spencer higher on this list. He is the man behind the scenes of much of Resident Evil, thanks to his work with Umbrella Corp. The reason he ranks relatively low is that he’s rarely seen, and when he does pop up, he’s an old man on the verge of death. Not exactly an intimidating presence. That said, you can’t deny that he is essentially the progenitor of the entire series.
11) Osmund Saddler – Resident Evil 4
Saddler is the main villain in RE 4, which many fans see as the pinnacle of the series. That’s too bad because he’s a weak link in an otherwise fan-favorite entry. Sure, he’s trying to conquer the world using Las Plagas and does turn into a nasty monster by the end of the game, but he’s relatively mediocre in the “nightmare” department.
10) Alexia and Alfred Ashford – Resident Evil Code: Veronica
The Ashford twins, somewhat understandably, hated their father, though turning him into the Nosferatu monster might’ve been taking things a bit too far. Between the two of them, players will run into some incredibly creepy scenarios, culminating in a fight against the mutated Alexia, who looks a bit too much like DC’s Poison Ivy character. These two take Eveline’s creepy kid gimmick and take it to the next level.
9) Mr. X – Resident Evil 2
Mr. X is tough to rank because he is a bio-engineered monster created specifically to kill whoever his handler sends him after. It’s kind of like getting mad at your Roomba for cleaning the kitchen. There’s no doubt that he’s downright terrifying when he unexpectedly pops up in the Raccoon City Police Department.
8) Lady Dimitrescu – Resident Evil Village
Lady D was the biggest selling point during Village‘s marketing campaign. She ultimately didn’t play as big a part in the campaign as fans expected, but she still left a mark. Lady D is an intimidating presence who strikes terror into fans’ hearts during her limited section. Then, she transforms into a grotesque monster before you take her out.
7) The Baker Family – Resident Evil 7
Above, I mentioned that Eveline isn’t a “nightmare” because she’s a girl looking for a family to love her. Enter the Baker Family. Lucas doesn’t have quite as much of Eveline’s influence, but the other two are fully under her power. That turns them into some of the scariest monsters in Resident Evil history. However, it’s worth noting that Eveline’s Mold warps their motives, so it’s hard to give them the full blame for their actions.
6) Alex Wesker – Resident Evil: Revelations 2
Widely regarded as the “best and brightest” of the Wesker children, Alex hasn’t appeared much outside of Resident Evil: Revelations 2. In that game, she seeks to achieve immortality and rule the world, mostly by transferring her consciousness into a young girl. By the end of Revelations 2, she accomplishes just that, putting her mind inside Natalia Korda’s body. We haven’t seen any real ramifications since then, but there’s hope Alex reappears at some point.
5) James Marcus – Resident Evil 0
Now here’s an Umbrella co-founder who gets his hands dirty. Marcus helped Spencer with the creation of the t-Virus before becoming increasingly erratic and engaging in illegal experimentation on children. Then, he was murdered by Albert Wesker and William Birkin. Soon after, Marcus was resurrected as a giant leech monster. He doesn’t have much personality, but Marcus is a vile creature who helped shepherd in the world-changing virus.
4) William Birkin – Resident Evil 2
Speaking of Birkin, the gifted virologist helped create the Golgotha Virus. However, he had a few conflicts with Umbrella’s top brass and tried to sell the virus to the government. Instead, he was nearly killed by Umbrella’s Security Service, but injected himself with the virus before dying, which turned him into a terrifying monster that stalks players throughout Resident Evil 2.
3) Mother Miranda – Resident Evil Village
Miranda is a complicated figure. On one hand, she is trying to use her “children” that she created with her Megamycete to steal Ethan Winters’ daughter. On the other hand, she’s doing that because she wants to use Rosemary to bring her own daughter back from the dead. Miranda is dealing with grief, and has been for decades. Players find out her daughter Eva died of the Spanish flu in 1919, which makes Miranda more than a century old. And if her constant experimentation and baby-kidnapping weren’t enough, she was Spencer’s mentor, helping him discover the Progenitor Virus, which sets off all of Resident Evil.
2) Nemesis – Resident Evil 3
Nemesis is Mr. X taken to the next level. He is an imposing figure who will stop at nothing to kill Jill Valentine. Yes, he’s a monster created by Umbrella to do exactly that, so his motive lacks the nuance of some of the series’s most dastardly villains, but it’s impossible to deny that he is the monster fans first think about when they think about Resident Evil.
1) Albert Wesker – Resident Evil
Nemesis is the first monster fans think about, but Albert Wesker is the major villain of the series. He’s been in the mix since the original game, and I don’t think anyone believes he’s actually going to stay dead. This is the guy every RE antagonist is trying to live up to. Wesker has it all: a dastardly motive, monstrous powers from his virus injection, and incredible style. If every villain were as good as Wesker, the Resident Evil series would be sitting pretty.
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Image courtesy of Lucasfilm -
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