Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
After The Final Chapter half a decade ago, the zombie apocalypse returns with a reboot. Stranger things have happened.
Every aspiring filmmaker with an interest in fantasy horror is in for a treat. Welcome to Raccoon City is a glorified textbook on how not to make such a film. The seventh instalment in the Resident Evil franchise, it is the first reboot of the series inspired by the video game of the same name, and starts off with a non-too novel premise. Following the mandatory prologue (essential for the genre), we find that a town in Nowheresville, USA, is experiencing some disturbing kinks. Residents are bleeding from the eyes and losing their hair, figures are straying into the path of oncoming vehicles and the town’s new policeman cannot find a barber. The villain is the Umbrella Corporation, a pharmaceutical giant that has upped sticks and left the good folk of Raccoon City to fend for themselves. And that means mass unemployment in the area as well as something altogether more ominous…
However, all is not lost, as the local police station is astonishingly well-equipped, with a roomy underground car park housing a fleet of cars, a helicopter and a department of surprisingly well-toned and good-looking officers. Unfortunately, they are an inept bunch, with a shocking lack of peripheral vision and a tendency to shoot before asking any questions. And their language would make a sailor blush.
But it’s not all bad. The actress (Lily Gail Reid) who plays the younger version of our protagonist (Claire) – in the obligatory prologue – does actually look like Kaya Scodelario, who plays her as an adult. Scodelario’s Claire is the only character who behaves like a human being and can do all sorts of useful things, like riding a motorbike and saving people’s lives when you most expect it. Just when we think that another cop is about to meet his end, in steps Claire with all guns blazing. It was a neat trick the first time…
The other good thing about what is essentially a catalogue of cliché is that the gory prosthetics are very gory, although even this is taken to such an extreme by the end that one isn’t sure whether or not to giggle. Still, all the jump scares are where you’d expect them, the sound effects sound just like they do in every other low-rent monster film and when vehicles crash, they burst into flames. If there had been one redeemable character or even a hint of high camp, the film’s repetitive familiarity might not have been quite so wearying.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Tom Hopper, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue, Neal McDonough, Lily Gao, Janet Porter, Holly de Barros, Lily Gail Reid, Daxton Gurjal, Pat Thornton.
Dir Johannes Roberts, Pro James Harris, Robert Kulzer and Hartley Gorenstein, Screenplay Johannes Roberts, Ph Maxime Alexandre, Pro Des Jennifer Spence, Ed Dev Singh, Music Mark Korven, Costumes Jennifer Lantz, Sound Dashen Naidoo.
Screen Gems/The Fyzz Facility/The Tea Shop and Film Company-Sony Pictures.
107 mins. Canada/Germany. 2021. USA Rel: 24 November 2021. UK Rel: 3 December 2021. Cert. 15.
