Welcome to Raccoon City for Resident Evil, Paul W.S. Anderson handed off the reins to Johannes Roberts. And he did a respectable job. The previous Resident Evil movies weren’t able to do this, but this instalment can provide a more graphic real-life picture than that of a video game. The zombies in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City are more like the Army of the Dead in terms of practicality and special effects. We do miss the hordes of undead, though, don’t we? Or perhaps they’re just acting the way we’ve always seen them, dashing and diving for the camera.
However, this film more accurately captures the atmosphere of the Resident Evil video games. Following Alice’s departure, we are introduced to our favourite characters, Chris and Claire Redfield (Robbie Amell and Kaya Scodelario), Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), and eventually William Birkin (Neal McDonough).
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Plot Summary
In terms of the plot, everything that happens in the film takes place over the course of about 6 hours, from midnight to 6 in the morning (the time at which Umbrella Corporation decided to nuke the city). As six o’clock approaches, the movie gathers up speed, almost like a ticking time bomb. Events move more quickly, there is greater commotion, and naturally, more undead appear.
The outbreak takes place in September 1998, specifically on September 30, just like in the video game. The Spencer Mansion and Chris and Claire Redfield have both returned from the games. It is obvious that the creators successfully adapted the mansion’s appearance and atmosphere from the game. In reality, the movie itself has a tonne of Resident Evil Universe allusions, some of which are mentioned here.
- Raccoon City Orphanage: This place is an operations unit for Umbrella Corporations, the same pharmaceutical company responsible for making the T virus. Children were raised as candidates for tests for viral weapons.
- The T Virus: Umbrella Corporation aimed to create a virus that would turn people into biological weapons. The result would not be an army, but a horde of weaponized undead. When such an undead kills, basically bite, another normal person, it transmits the virus to him or her. In this way, the soldiers increase their numbers.
- Lisa Trevor: Lisa Trevor hails from the 2019 remake of the original Resident Evil game from 1998. She, too, was subjected to a virus called Progenitor that granted her superhuman strength. Her grisly appearance is because she collects faces and wears them.
- The Monsters: Welcome to Raccoon City gave some of the most renowned undead characters from the video game. Yes, we got zombies, but we also got infected crows, the Cerberus, or the zombie dog, i.e., a Doberman infected with the T-Virus. We got the Licker, another fan-favorite mutant human with an exposed brain, no eyes, and a long tongue. Finally, we got William Birkin, the boss of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. If you have played the original Resident Evil or its remake, you will recognize him immediately. Just like in the game, he injects a vial of G-Virus and turns into perhaps the ugliest monster ever.
The Technical Aspects
Accentuating the mood is one of the colour grading’s key functions in a horror movie. And a strong colour grade will be shown in every well-known horror film. Consider The Grudge, IT, and the Insidious series. These are only a handful of names where colour was important. Color was not stressed in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which is undoubtedly an additional flaw. Dark surroundings would have enhanced the effects of the film much more. Thankfully, like in Army of the Dead, the director opted for realism over computer-generated imagery when creating the zombies. They were obviously wearing prosthetics, which made them look much more horrifying. If any special effects were used, they were only for the details.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Ending
The conclusion didn’t fully satisfy. Yes, Sherry Birkin, the daughter of William Birkin, Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine, and Chris and Claire are still alive. However, the brutal murder of the boss is what gives a gory film like this a good conclusion. Although it may seem juvenile, killing monsters in the way they deserve has a certain coolness.
The majority of Resident Evil video games and the movie both ended with a rocket being fired directly into the monster boss’s face. But it could have taken more inspiration from the 2019 reboot of the video game Resident Evil 2. The finale level—which features William Birkin in monster form—takes about 25 minutes to complete. Approximately six to seven minutes of the movie are devoted to this sequence. In other words, William Birkin may have been present more.
Umbrella Corporation, on the other hand, stops the zombie apocalypse by razing Raccoon City. The mid-credits sequence serves as evidence of what is in store for our heroes.
The Mid-Credits Scene
The mid-credits scene demonstrates that there will be another film in the series, one that fans won’t want to miss. The antagonist of the Resident Evil video games, Ada Wong, who is played by Lily Gao, revives the villainous Albert Wesker, who was shot near the end of the movie. The primary adversary of the video games with Chris Redfield as the central character is Wesker. These two individuals play important roles in the Resident Evil series. Ada presents Wesker with his distinctive glasses as the scene comes to a close. These two will undoubtedly serve as the project’s adversaries. Now that the protagonists and the adversary are essentially all in one spot, it will surely contribute more to the Resident Evil narrative.
Johannes Roberts is the writer and director of the 2021 action horror movie Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
