Ahmed Al-Turkiet... Enters the "Resident Evil" Nightmare
Al-Turkite told Al-Rai, “In this film, I return to the world of Resident Evil 7 and to the character Ethan Winters, but I do not want to present him only in the way that video game audiences know him, but in a different way.”
He continued, “What draws me to Ethan’s story is that this man did not start as a superhero, a trained soldier, or an adventure-seeking figure. Rather, he is an ordinary person who enters a full-blown nightmare because of something simple and deeply human: his search for his missing wife. This point, in particular, is the heart of the film for me.”
He noted that he hopes to re-examine Ethan’s journey through a more intimate psychological and emotional lens, asking, “What does it mean for someone to enter an unknown place while clinging to the hope of finding the person they love? What happens when that very hope gradually transforms into a source of fear? And how can love, longing, and a sense of responsibility toward another person drive a person to keep going, even when everything around them becomes illogical?”
Al-Turkite added, “Therefore, Welcome to the Family will not merely showcase the iconic horror moments from Resident Evil 7. Instead, there will be broader efforts to build the human relationship that drives the horror, rather than the other way around. I want the audience to first feel Ethan as a person, and then gradually enter the nightmare with him.”
He further explained, “The film reinterprets several elements and characters from Resident Evil 7 through my own directorial perspective, with greater emphasis on psychological horror, slow-burn tension, and the sense that something unnatural is infiltrating everyday life. There is also more room for the theme of family, but not in the comforting sense of the word. Instead, it adopts the distorted approach used in the Resident Evil 7 universe, where the word ‘family’ itself becomes something that carries both love and threat simultaneously.”
He pointed out that he strives, as much as possible, to ensure the film is not exclusive to those familiar with the games, clarifying, “Certainly, Resident Evil fans will find references, details, and characters they know well, and they may notice how I have reinterpreted certain moments. However, I also want someone who has never played Resident Evil in their life to be able to watch the film, understand Ethan, comprehend his relationship with his wife, and share his fear as he enters the place he finds himself in.”
He concluded, “Ultimately, I see these short films as a form of tribute and gratitude to the game creators who have influenced my imagination for years. This is my personal way of saying that these works did not just give me hours of entertainment; they taught me something about horror, world-building, visual storytelling, and how fear can become a gateway to a genuine human story.”
