Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
Directed by Johannes Roberts
Once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company’s exodus left the city a wasteland…with great evil brewing below the surface. When that evil is unleashed, the townspeople are forever…changed…and a small group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night.
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What critics compared Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City to
Like Anderson’s films, this one takes inspiration from John Carpenter, specifically Escape from New York and Assault on Precinct 13 .
With a police station as one of its central locations, “Welcome to Raccoon City” angles for “Assault on Precinct 13” vibes but falls short of the 2005 remake, to say nothing of the genius of the John Carpenter original.
Writer/director Johannes Roberts has stated in multiple interviews that his main inspiration for Welcome to Raccoon City were the films of John Carpenter, in particular Assault on Precinct 13 , and that influence is clear in the film’s presentation.
The film plays with Carpenter from the claustrophobic heist of Assault on Precinct 13 to the supernatural slow burn of The Fog .
With the era of Paul W.S. Anderson’s battle-heavy Resident Evil movies now passed, the job of exploiting Capcom’s much-loved game series falls to 47 Metres Down ’s Johannes Roberts, who lays claim to being a huge fan of the original two games (his film draws a lot of inspiration from the 2019 Resident Evil 2 reboot).
Gamers will quickly recognize that Roberts’ dual-track narrative is a combination of “Resident Evil” (Chris’ mission) and “Resident Evil 2” (Claire’s thread).
As overseer of the previous cycle of Resident Evil films, Paul W.S. Anderson nudged the material towards action-fantasy, the better to showcase the gifts of his muse Milla Jovovich.
Roberts now takes over the reins of the Resident Evil series from Paul W.S. Anderson with the prequel Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City .
Eschewing the action-heavy aesthetics of the successful six-film series — beginning with 2002’s Resident Evil and culminating with 2016’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter , all starring Milla Jovovich as kick-butt heroine Alice tasked with saving the world from the zombie apocalypse — Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City attempts to take the property back to its horror video-game roots.
Fewer will remember the failed attempt to reboot the series in 2021.
As the eighth installment in the Resident Evil film franchise and the second attempt at a reboot following producer Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2002-2017 series and Johannes Roberts’ 2021 reboot…
…even the 2021 reboot, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which was written and directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down)…
Then came Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. While the Anderson films weren’t masterpieces, this one made them feel like bona fide works of art.
In another odd choice, while Salisbury and McGregor discuss the Anderson films, the reboot, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and the live-action Netflix show, they completely ignore the four animated films and the miniseries Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness.
…the series was recently rebooted in 2021 with Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City…