The agency’s location-based experience turned visitors’ phones into scanners, revealing a creature tearing through Berlin’s UCI Luxe.
LONDON, UK. October 1st, 2026. Independent creative agency The Forge, which works from studios in London and Berlin, has transformed one of Berlin’s best-known cinemas into the scene of a monster outbreak to mark the release of Constantin Film’s new Resident Evil movie.
Visitors to the UCI Luxe were invited to scan a QR code and point their phones at the building. Their devices became digital scanners, revealing cracks spreading across the cinema’s facade before enormous tentacles broke through its walls and roof.
The brief came with a specific challenge. Resident Evil is one of gaming’s most recognisable franchises, but earlier film adaptations had led many audiences to associate it with action rather than horror. With the new film returning to the series’ survival horror roots, The Forge built the campaign around a single strategic principle: “Don’t lead with the franchise. Lead with the feeling.” That meant putting atmosphere and immersion first, rather than relying on the name alone.
“Resident Evil fans have lived with this world for thirty years, through the games, the films and everything in between, and they can tell straight away whether you understand it,” said Calvin Innes, CCO and co-founder of The Forge.
“We’ve built a team across London and Berlin that understand how fandoms actually think, what they care about and what they’ll hold you to. That’s where this idea came from. We knew telling people the film was scary again wouldn’t be enough, so we let the cinema become the first scene. By the time you walked inside, you’d already been part of the story.”
The experience carried on well beyond the phone screen. Umbrella personnel in white hazmat suits patrolled the area around the UCI, surrounded by warning tape, biohazard markings and weathered containers referencing Raccoon City. Visitors were handed blood-red ice cream shaped like the Resident Evil logo.
Inside, Webedia extended the experience for an invited community, guiding visitors through an immersive journey that began in a clinical hospital setting, escalated into chaos and ended in the snow-covered world of the film.
Photography and film captured the takeover and audience reactions, while a cinematic version of the creature breaking through the UCI carried the idea across social and editorial channels.
The AR was never meant to be the headline. It formed one part of a wider Resident Evil scenario that connected the real location, live performers, props and the digital creature into a single experience.
“You don’t build excitement around a franchise like Resident Evil by simply reminding people how big it is. Fans already know that,” said Calvin. “Our job is to give that passion somewhere to go. We wanted to create something people could discover, experience and talk about, something that made the world of the film feel real before they even entered the cinema.”
The new Resident Evil has received an exceptionally strong critical response since its theatrical release and currently holds a 95% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the highest-rated live-action Resident Evil film on the platform.
ENDS