In all its beauty.
Players are now able to watch a restored 4K version of Sweet Home, the Japanese horror film that spawned a video game adaptation and inspired Capcom’s Resident Evil.
Thanks to Kineko Video, a video preservation group, this polished version of Sweet Home — or Suito Homu in Japan — replaces a 360p VHS rip of the formerly lost film. This new 4K upload was based off the film’s LaserDisc version.
“After eight months, three laserdiscs, and hours of clean up and translation work, we are excited to bring you Sweet Home, the 1989 horror spectacular that’s been locked on analog all this time,” Kineko Video said.
“Famous for its outstanding use of practical effects, as well as its Famicom game tie-in, this film has developed a cult following among horror film enthusiasts and gamers alike,” Kineko continued. “Horror film junkies will tell you an ongoing dispute restricted this film’s wider release outside of Japan to this day, with the rumor being about director Kiyoshi Kurosawa suing Itami Productions + Toho due to there not being additional compensation for the director with video sales after it was released on VHS/LD.”
“Kurosawa would lose this lawsuit. Resident Evil fans celebrate this film as the inspiration for the Famicom tie-in title, a revolutionary game in its own right which would become the basis of the Resident Evil franchise.”
Speaking with GameSpot back in 2016, Resident Evil’s Shinji Mikami detailed how Sweet Home on Famicom inspired the long-running survival horror franchise.
“We were in Capcom’s Osaka development studio and my current boss, Tokuro Fujiwara, called me in to talk to him,” Mikami said. “He said that he wanted us to make a horror game using systems from Sweet Home, which was a horror game for the Famicom that he had directed. I was actually a big fan of Sweet Home, and he was someone that I really respected, so I was excited about the project from the beginning.”
You can check out video from Sweet Home the game above, and the restored 4K version of Sweet Home the movie below. The film was directed by the iconic Kiyoshi Kurosawa and also features a soundtrack from PaRappa the Rapper‘s Masaya Matsuura. Enjoy!
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