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.