[Film Review] Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

**mild spoiler warning for the film and some of the Resident Evil game franchise**

Resident Evil started life on PlayStation in 1996 (known as Biohazard in Japan) and has since become Capcom’s most successful video game franchise to date, expanding out into cross-platform media through its films, comic books, soon to be television series, and much more. Many of these formats were only loosely based on the original source material, often branching into their own narratives. However, the newest film, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, promised to stay relatively true to the game canon (primarily the first and second games) focusing on the Raccoon City Police Department and the mysterious Spencer Mansion as the zombie outbreak begins to unfold.

Right from the start, I will say that this film has been made for the game fans. If you haven’t played any of the Resident Evil series, or aren’t aware of the world’s lore, this will come across as another attempt to make a generic zombie film different by way of a corrupt pharmaceutical company. 

As it mirrors two video games with over twelve hours of gameplay, the audience can probably predict that this film’s plot synopsis is a bit of a schlep…The story of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City centres around Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario), as she returns to her hometown to find her brother Chris (Robbie Amell), after she receives some worrying information from a conspiracy theorist Ben (Josh Cruddas). Ben believes that Umbrella Corporation, a pharmaceutical company that based its work in Raccoon City, were undertaking dangerous research, and may have packed up and disappeared from the city to run from the consequences of their actions. Meanwhile, police rookie Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia) is new at the local precinct and has arrived to find that the ‘Alpha squad’ haven’t returned from a call out at the mysterious Spencer Mansion. The rest of the team, including Jill Valentine (Hannah John Kamen) and Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), are sent to find and return the squad to safety (after a siren starts blaring, telling people to stay indoors), whilst Leon is left to man the front desk with Chief of Police Brian Irons (Donal Logue). At the same time, William Birkin (Neal McDonagh), is trying to evacuate his family from the city with a mysterious briefcase of medicine vials. It turns out Alpha have been taken out by zombies, Wesker is working for an unknown person(s) to find Umbrella’s secrets and Birkin led a bunch of unethical experiments on children at the orphanage where Claire and Chris lived as children… to cut a long story short, scary monsters, dangerous scientists, and a lot of killings.

As you can see from the above description, this film throws as many of the famous characters from the Resident Evil games at the audience as humanly possible in a very short 107-minute runtime. It’s worth mentioning that the franchise fan-folk will also see an appearance from Lisa Trevor (not exactly as she is in the original source), and one more well-loved character (although this arrival happens in a mid-credit scene). No, the mysterious final cameo is not Barry Burton, yes I am sad that we didn’t get the classic ‘Jill Sandwich’ and ‘master of unlocking’ dialogue lines…

Speaking of dialogue, Welcome to Raccoon City’s script is so reminiscent of the games, it feels like an in-joke. The almost robotic conversations have angered a few fellow reviewers, however I feel like it takes me back to the original source, a nostalgic nineties vibe of voice actors that weren’t paid enough and therefore delivered lines with wooden undertones. I was reminded repeatedly of playthroughs you see online; I wouldn’t have been surprised if a streamer popped up in the corner of the cinema screen and narrated their actions as they work their way through the film. 

It’s worth discussing the successful aspects of this movie too. Firstly, the practical makeup is a great throwback; the reveal of the ‘first proper zombie’ in Spencer Mansion is taken directly from the original gameplay, and the recreation of that face with makeup is truly spot on. The inclusion of (spoiler alert) the zombie dog, the Licker, and the Tyrant in all their gory glory were a thrill as well, even if the CGI will look a little outdated in a couple of years.

Furthermore, the sets are phenomenal. The police station and the mansion are almost identical to the gameplay, right down to the smallest details of the police desk that Leon is sitting at when the zombie invasion really kicks off. Also related to that scene, a highlight of this movie has to be the use of Jennifer Paige’s 1998 hit, Crush. It hit the nail on the head for comedic timing and added a much-needed break from the tension that the plot was attempting to build. This smattering of humour which happens every now and then  reminds the audience that this film really isn't taking itself too seriously and is fully aware of its quirky origins. 

All the nostalgia in the world, however, can’t save this movie from a very important point. It feels like this should have been made when zombies were still interesting and relevant in pop culture trends. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City comes at a time when zombies have somewhat fallen out of style. Last decade saw huge box office success with movies like World War Z (2013), Warm Bodies (2013) and Train to Busan (2016), whilst the undead also graced our screens in The Walking Dead (2010 – present). Although the previous Resident Evil film franchise was still undead and kicking in the 2010s so this film probably couldn’t have been then, it leaves you wondering, did this Resident Evil reboot just arrive five years too late?

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