The term “survival horror” first entered mainstream usage with the release of Resident Evil, the now-iconic 1996 zombie apocalypse action game that was released for the original PlayStation. Throughout the game, you play as either Chris Redfield (Scott McCulloch) or Jill Valentine (Una Kavanagh) as they navigate an expansive, derelict mansion overrun by an infestation of the undead. According to data released by Capcom, Resident Evil sold over five million copies in its initial release, landing it in the top 20 best-selling PlayStation games of all time. On the back of this, survival horror became firmly cemented as a genre that gamers couldn’t get enough of, and Resident Evil became a hugely popular franchise that helped to kick-start a resurgence in the popularity of zombie-related films, games, and series all throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

However, there was one game that formed the foundation for the Resident Evil franchise that many people may not know about: Sweet Home. Based on a movie of the same name by horror heavyweight Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Kairo), Sweet Home was created in collaboration with Tokuro Fujiwara, who also worked on titles like Ghosts ‘N’ Goblins and ultimately acted as a producer for the first Resident Evil game. Sweet Home the movie follows a film crew who take up temporary residence in a house that’s thought to be cursed by its previous inhabitants: an artist and his family. They’re hoping to investigate a number of frescos painted by Ichiro Mamiya that are supposed to be stored in the now derelict Mamiya family home (the "Mamiya House"). It turns out that the house – and the family that once occupied it – has far more harrowing secrets than the crew had originally bargained for, and the spirits that reside there begin picking off the cast and crew one-by-one in all kinds of different and disgusting ways.

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The story of the game release of Sweet Home, which was released for Nintendo's Famicom console (the Japanese version of the NES), is largely similar to the film its adapted from. The goal of the game is to navigate an escape route out of the Mamiya House without being killed by a ghost or monster along the way. It's a 2D role-playing game, using turn-based battle mechanics typical of titles like Final Fantasy or Fire Emblem. During these battle sequences you encounter a number of different malevolent beings, including skeletons, wisps, and wraiths. The game was immensely well-regarded in Japan, even more so than the film it was based on.

Despite Sweet Home’s popularity in Japan, it was never released for international audiences. It’s speculated that it didn’t receive any kind of North American localization because RPGs weren't popular with American audiences at the time. In 1993, however, production began on a new title (directed by Shinji Mikami and produced by Fujiwara) that was meant to borrow heavily from Sweet Home and bring some of the core elements of the game to an international audience. However, by this point, Capcom no longer held the rights to the plot of Sweet Home, and so some fairly major changes had to be made to the game's production. Specifically, a new world for the game to take place in had to be created, with a new overarching storyline. This led to the birth of the Resident Evil universe as we know it.

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Image via Capcom

Clearly, the main plot of Sweet Home differs quite substantially from its zombie-focused successor, which follows an apocalyptic outbreak of an unknown disease that seems to be leading to widespread death and cannibalism. However, the core atmosphere of the original Resident Evil game, which is set partially in the dilapidated "Spencer Mansion," can be traced directly back to Sweet Home (both the movie and the game). On top of that, while Sweet Home the movie was centered on ghosts and poltergeists, the game introduced a new threat that would go on to be incredibly important for Resident Evil -- zombies. Introduced in Sweet Home's closing moments, this new enemy would carry over into Resident Evil in a big way.

Despite clear differences between the two games, when playing Sweet Home, it's easy to see how it went on to inspire and influence Resident Evil. Even with the now-outdated, heavily stylized pixel-art graphics, the atmosphere and setting of the game is delightfully dark and unsettling in a very familiar way. Specifically, the ambience when exploring the ever-creepy Mamiya House in Sweet Home feels much the same as navigating the horrifying Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil. Every section of both buildings feels designed to put the player on edge, from the long, eerie corridors to the foreboding frescos. After all, who knows what's lurking behind each closed door in these abandoned residencies?

A core part of the storytelling of Resident Evil shared with both the game and film release of Sweet Home is the importance placed on the paintings. The vast majority of the storytelling for Resident Evil is told across a mixture of diary entries and frescos found within the house. In Sweet Home, key details of the Mamiya family are uncovered by the discovery of unfinished frescos. This style of storytelling -- using objects scattered throughout a space to fill in details about the plot -- can also be seen in other seminal horror games that came later, namely the Bioshock trilogy. The ripple effect that Sweet Home has had on horror games, both in its own right and via the Resident Evil titles, is remarkable. Without this seminal work, the whole landscape of horror video games could be different.

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Image via Capcom

The aesthetics of the Mamiya House and the Spencer Mansion are uncannily similar. Both properties are decorated in a non-specific, historical European-style, filled with decaying antique furniture and classical murals. Both places overwhelmingly evoke the feeling of being in a particularly malevolent haunted house, building enough tension with the game's surroundings that you could cut it with a knife. It's remarkable that both games generate such a similar atmosphere through their settings, considering the different technological capabilities of the two platforms the games were designed for. To be able to recreate the effect of the surroundings when shifting from a 8-bit console to a fully 3D, polygon console with extended audio capabilities without drastically altering the tone is remarkable and a real testament to the effectiveness of the atmosphere created across both games. The fact that the designers went to such lengths to build a similar atmosphere in both universes really hits home how important Sweet Home was to the creation of Resident Evil, and how much care went into creating a homage to it. In an interview with Gamespot, Mikami stated that, although Resident Evil referenced systems and mechanics established in Sweet Home, there was an intention to create something new and innovative by making use of the PlayStation's technological capabilities. When looking at both games, there is a sense that Sweet Home's design was a little ahead of its time and a bit of an overreach considering the technical specifications of the NES. However, the advancements of the PlayStation allowed Resident Evil to pick up where Sweet Home left off and further refine many of its ideas.

While there were some major changes that had to be made from the original Sweet Home game during the development of Resident Evil, such as the use of 3D graphics and an overhaul in terms of the plot and characters, some of Sweet Home’s more novel gameplay mechanics carried over to the new game. For example, one of the most iconic monsters that you take on in the game is the simply named "Man" enemy, which featured animation and gameplay mechanics very similiar to Resident Evil's “Turning Around Zombie.” The "Turning Around Zombie" sequence, where the player sees a zombie feeding on Kenneth J. Sullivan (Ed Smaron), is one of the most memorable scenes from the Resident Evil franchise, in addition to being one of the clearest nods to Sweet Home in the original game.

One of the more distinct differences between Sweet Home and Resident Evil was the shift from slower, turn-based battle mechanics to fast, action-based shooter-style combat sequences. The fast-paced nature of the Resident Evil games is part of what makes them so exciting. If your aim is bad at a critical moment, it could be game over. But the introduction of quick, action-packed fight scenes doesn’t mean that Resident Evil completely abandoned the strategic elements of gameplay that Sweet Home excelled at. Part of what set Resident Evil apart from some other early zombie games from the same wave, such as House of the Dead, was its use of puzzles and complex contextual storytelling mechanics. It seems likely that the emphasis on those kinds of mechanics is partly because of its connection to Sweet Home.

Sweet Home is largely heralded as being one of the best horror games ever made, as well as being an early and hugely influential entry to the the genre. Without it, survival horror as a subgenre may not exist as we know it today. Although it's a shame that the game was never really accessible outside of Japan (through official means anyway), its ideas and innovations continue to live on through both the Resident Evil series and the many horror games that it in turn inspired.