Cinematic Releases: Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City (2021) - Reviewed

Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Hollywood has been trying to varying degrees of success to bring Resident Evil (originally based off the Japanese videogame Biohazard) to the silver screen ever since it first appeared on Sony Playstation consoles in 1996.  A highly cinematic survival-horror journey involving a group of an elite task force dubbed S.T.A.R.S. who find themselves trapped in a mansion with zombies and other monsters running amok, the game itself was a loose reimagining of the NES game Sweet Home which in itself was based upon the Kiyoshi Kurosawa film of the same name.  So successful was the game it spawned a still-ongoing franchise of games that span across several consoles and PC gaming systems. 
 
The first attempt at bringing this saga to the big screen came in 2002 with Paul WS Anderson’s Resident Evil starring Milla Jovovich, garnering mostly negative reviews but taking in enough money to spawn five more sequels over the next fifteen years.  While highly successful, the films deviated heavily from the source material and became its own thinly veiled kid cousin to the hit videogame series.  Though a win for the studios, the films left fans of the games wanting given how far they strayed from the origins.  Around 2008 though, an attempt to rectify that came with a series of computer-generated animated films, Resident Evil: Degeneration before culminating in the recently released Netflix animated series Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness.

 
Just a few months after that series debuted, now here is Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, a live action earnest attempt to reboot the series while producing a faithful adaptation of the original games.  Starting development back in 2017 shortly after the last PWSA Resident Evil film was released, the film written and directed by Johannes Roberts of the 47 Meters Down low budget sharksploitation thrillers is perhaps the first real fan film to be released wide in movie theaters.  Think of it as one of those Friday the 13^th or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fan films you saw on YouTube but with a cast and crew behind it, where the money isn’t really there but the heart and soul of what genuine lovers of the series have is.
 
Despite ongoing delays with the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with reshoots done months later, Welcome to Raccoon City as a film is as close to the essence of the original first two Playstation videogames as a cinematic adaptation has been yet.  Bringing back nearly all of the original characters from the first game while sneaking in a few from the second, paving the way for a potential new franchise, the film brings together a new cast of talent including Kaya Scodelario from Crawl as the film’s central heroine Claire Redfield.  Ready Player One fans will recognize Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine alongside fellow Game of Thrones actor Tom Hopper as Albert Wesker, though the most recognizable face here is Neal McDonough as William Birkin who goes on to portray one of the franchise’s most iconic monsters. 

 
Something of a monster movie funhouse littered with easter eggs die-hard fans will eagerly spot and gobble up that’s 25% Resident Evil and 75% Resident Evil 2, right down to the emergence of the G-virus, certain lines of dialogue and the first time we meet a zombie face in the series with that now infamous backwards turn the zombie makes in the game’s cutscene.  As said before, unlike the PWSA pictures which just took a skeleton of the first game and ran wild with it, this new reset button of a film displays a genuine top to bottom love for the games and what they introduced into the ever spreading and evolving survival horror-verse. 
 
Though doing a larger scale iteration of Resident Evil with half of the money needed, Welcome to Raccoon City to fans’ delight sports a wealth of practical effects over reliance on occasional CGI and as such feels more homegrown.  To the film’s great advantage is the presence of Alexandre Aja’s longtime cinematographer Maxime Alexandre who photographs the proceedings through his masterful scope cinematography, elevating the production twofold just with his eye alone.  Then there’s the score by Mark Korven, none other than Robert Eggers collaborator on The Witch and The Lighthouse, another startling step in the right direction for the series.  That’s two home runs in a row for the film technically!

 
Yes this bigger-cheaper Resident Evil fanfilm made on a studio dime is exactly that, made by the fans for the fans.  As fan service, Welcome to Raccoon City works pretty well and is far closer to what kicked off this still spreading super-franchise with no end in sight.  While lacking the glossy finish and spectacle of the PWSA ventures, this new attempt to get back to the heart of the games in cinematic form is a mostly admirable one.  Moreover considering this is produced by Davis Films, the same production company behind what is still arguably the greatest videogame film ever made Silent Hill, that’s yet another reason why (if you’re a fan of survival horror games) you need to see this fan film on the big screen immediately!

--Andrew Kotwicki