Sweet Home, a cult classic horror film you might not have heard of that inspired Resident Evil, is finally available to watch online.
Before Resident Evil, there was Sweet Home. Haven’t heard of it? That’s ok, cult classics are exactly that for a reason. Released in 1989, Sweet Home is a Japanese horror film directed by none other than acclaimed horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, best known for his works like Pulse, Cure, and Creepy. It follows a film crew visiting an old, abandoned mansion once inhabited by a famous artist, now haunted by ghosts. Up until now, there’s been no easy way to watch it in high quality, but thanks to film preservation group Kineko Video, you can finally watch it subtitled in English and in 4K quality, completely for free.
Here’s the odd thing about Sweet Home, though: yes, it served as inspiration for Resident Evil, but not just because of the creepy mansion aspect. There was actually a video game released on the NES in the same year… developed by Capcom! In fact, Resident Evil was originally conceived as a remake of Sweet Home, with iconic video game make Shinji Mikami on directorial duties, and Tokuro Fujiwara – the director of the Sweet Home video game – serving as producer.