Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City – An Average Horror Film

Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City is based on the first and second installments in the survival horror game series. It recreates the events of the two games and takes us through the night when all hell breaks loose. It is also a reboot of the Resident Evil film franchise.

For fans who are familiar with either the games or the previous movies, it might be an entertaining recollection of a plot they are already familiar with. For those who are not familiar with either the movies or the games, Welcome to Raccoon City can be a standard zombie horror movie that introduces the world of Resident Evil with Raccoon City and the Umbrella Corporation.

As a film in itself, the movie does not perform too well. This is evident from its IMDb rating of 5.2.

The Creepy Ghost Town

Welcome to Raccoon City is no more than the classic jump-scare horror movie. Lights flicker or turn off completely right on time to elicit some screams. Though not plenty, jump scares are some of the scariest parts of the movie, while it could have been much more.

Right from the beginning, the creepiness is present, a sense of impending doom, and the jump scares add on to the effects. The eerie music will give you the chills at all the right places. However, it felt like a better job could have been done with the zombies by using them better.

Image Courtesy: Metacritic.com

The story is told from the perspective of several people. This achieves the objective of a horror film, showing different encounters with the infected. Moreover, the CGI feels unreal, not really fitting into the scenes. Particularly one scene with the affected dog.

The City and its Saviors

With a deadline to the end of Raccoon City, one can expect that the situation will get worse from the beginning. The horror awaiting the citizens of Raccoon City is established early on in the movie when Claire Redfield makes her way to Raccoon City and encounters an infected person. Moreover, one can predict the course of the movie from the beginning as we see the infection spreading to different people.

Image Courtesy: IMDb

If viewers are attentive to detail, there is a lot of questions. Characters just seem to know about things without any prior reference being made in the movie itself. Claire Redfield knows that something is wrong with the city. But her savior complex with no thought about whether she will survive or not is chilling and unreal. When she does encounter her “friend” from her childhood, how she recognizes the friend’s true identity is a mystery.

Wesker’s role is not well established in the movie. We come to know he is working for someone else to expose Umbrella, but what exactly is his role, except as an officer of the Raccoon Police Department is not known. Hopefully, his actions will have more gravity in the next movies. He does get his iconic black glasses though.

The Locations

The Spencer Mansion has been spectacularly re-created. Alpha Team explores the Mansion and discovers the secret lab underneath it. We only see the staff that has been infected, but no more dangerous creatures. The infected gathering outside the RPD’s gate also can be recognized as something from the games.

Image Courtesy: Resident Evil Wiki

Final Thoughts

As mentioned, the reboot of the Resident Evil franchise can be an entertaining piece for those who already know the characters and the story behind the games and the Raccoon City incident. While others might find it entertaining, the story leaves the viewer with a list of questions that need to be answered.

Image Courtesy: IMDb

The role of Wesker and William Birkin needs to be explained. Importantly, how is the entire city forsaken and shut down by the government feels like a questionable thing? The fact that the movie makes it seem as though the Umbrella Corporation calls all the shots in the city, from closing its borders and shooting those trying to leave to making announcements aggravates this.

Hopefully, viewers will find answers in follow-up movies, if the franchise moves forward once again. Otherwise, they might have to settle for the existing movies.

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