It’s been five years since Paul W.S. Anderson closed the book on his version of the Resident Evil franchise with the aptly named Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (starring his wife and leading lady of all six films, Milla Jovovich). While a few of those movies have some redeeming qualities, the action-heavy approach didn’t really capture what was so great about the video games.
The first Resident Evil game was groundbreaking and helped birth the survival horror genre. That means the camera is fixed, the ammo is hard to come by, and the ambient sound of oncoming zombies provides a haunting atmosphere. So when you finally open a door—which makes your screen go completely black—you are on edge preparing for whatever danger awaits on the other side. By design, it’s a defensive puzzle and strategy game, whereas the Anderson films are better described as sci-fi action.
Years later, the games would catch up to the films in terms of the over-the-top action (Resident Evil 4–6) before just recently returning back to their horror roots. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City seeks to make the same hard reset as the games, but on the big screen. The results are mixed at best.
It’s clear right from the start that English writer-director Johannes Roberts is a fan of the video game series he’s adapting. Entire cutscenes from the first two games are recreated, along with sets like the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil and the Raccoon Police Station from Resident Evil 2. His efforts in building Raccoon City into a damp and dreary locale that never sees sunlight sets the film up for a promising start.
The film opens with a creepy flashback at an orphanage (backed by the sound of children lullabying), where we are introduced to Claire Redfield—one of the playable characters in Resident Evil 2. Claire stumbles upon Lisa Trevor, an Umbrella Corporation experiment gone horribly wrong, and when Claire tries to tell her brother Chris about the encounter, he dismisses it. Years later, Claire returns to Raccoon City to uncover the truth behind the Umbrella Corporation’s freaky experiments. They advertise themselves as a pharmaceutical company, but when a woman is hit by an eighteen-wheeler and is able to walk away right after, that’s usually a sign that somethin’ ain’t right.
Claire and Chris Redfield are two iconic characters from the game, along with Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy, and Albert Wesker, who all make appearances. Unfortunately, any attempts at “fan service” in the script are distractingly clunky (the “Jill sandwich” line is truly embarrassing). Leon Kennedy—the other playable character in Resident Evil 2—is by far the worst casting choice. He’s a total badass in the games, but here he’s reduced to a bumbling idiot. As for the other characters, they are so loudly introduced that, for a split second, I thought they all might turn to the camera and say, “Hey! Remember us from the games?”
So while Claire is the closest thing we get to a protagonist, she doesn’t learn anything that she didn’t already know or suspect at the beginning of the movie. This leaves us with no relatable characters to grasp onto or root for; they essentially became interchangeable monster meat. The fact that most of them are disposed of in shadow (probably due to budgetary reasons), making it hard to see who is dying or what is even happening to them, just adds insult to injury.
Neal McDonough appears as Dr. William Birkin, and is a perfect example of an actor that knows exactly what movie he’s in. Meanwhile, Donal Logue who plays Chief Irons is hamming it up in a bad way, dragging every scene he’s in down with his brash performance. The characters all look the part (Claire’s red jacket; bulletproof vests galore), but aside from lead actress Kayla Scodelario (Crawl) and Hanna John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp), the actors all look like they’re freshly plucked from a CW show.
It’s rare for an adaptation to focus too closely on details, but one gets the feeling that’s what was prioritized instead of carving out an engaging story from the source material. Roberts previously wrote and directed The Strangers 2: Prey at Night and both 47 Meters Down films, all of which also suffer from forgettable characters. And while Raccoon City may not be his worst project, it’s not his best either. The mistake that doomed the movie from the start was trying to combine the first two Resident Evil video games: the empty mansion of the first game and the police station and sewers of the second have two very different vibes and the two games have very different gameplay.
Another prevailing criticism many had when the trailer for this movie first dropped was that it looks like a fan-made film, and, at times, it does feel like that. But to the film’s credit, the makeup and visual FX of the zombies are surprisingly effective for a film of this size. They have a kind of translucent marble appearance that the director describes as being inspired by victims of Chernobyl, though I was reminded more of the vampires in Blade II.
Overall, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is faithful in adapting sets, costumes, and creature effects from the games, but those unfamiliar with the story might struggle to care or be impressed. And while I appreciate the attempt to bring the horror back to the films, the action here lacks pizazz—something previous Resident Evil director, Paul W.S. Anderson, brought in spades.
For a variety of reasons, video games turned into movies tend not to translate well (see the Resident Evil franchise). Yet the RE fan in me still foolishly believes that a definitive adaptation can still be made one day—maybe with the right filmmaker at the helm who is familiar with the games and can balance both the survival horror and action. For now, I’d recommend picking up a controller and playing Resident Evil 1 and 2 before watching this below-average adaptation of them.
Final Rating:
‘Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’ is available now on Blu-Ray and Digital.
Rated R.
(Photos: Screen Gems)
