The likes of Jill Valentine (John-Kamen), Albert Wesker (Hopper), and Leon Kennedy (Jogia) are all present and split time between the first game’s Spencer Mansion and the second’s police precinct, both lovingly re-created. The plot takes certain liberties by reorienting fan-favorite characters to try and make the amalgamation work, mostly in vain. Though, for how often this captures the game’s spirit, it also feels in over its head by trying to adhere to fan expectations while simultaneously taking its own strides. The survival horror aspects are sporadically well-realized, too replicating the games, yes, but also feeling indebted to the likes of Romero and Carpenter in their heydays.

It’s creepy and tense but admirably self-aware, framing shots with an occasional Dutch angle or split diopter and accompanying scenes with sporadic, joyous soundtrack cues – one scene featuring “Crush” by Jennifer Paige is a small stroke of genius. The film hits its most proficient stride during this setup through the halfway mark, replicating the isolated small-town terror of the games while reveling in some of its unintentional camp. Claire Redfield (Scodelario) experiences it all firsthand as she comes riding into town looking for her brother, Chris (Amell), and they try to make it through the night with a population quickly mutating into the undead. Practically deserted, constantly raining, and with something seriously, deadly wrong underneath as the corrupt Umbrella Corporation has left it to rot and die, along with all of their savage experiments. Roberts is a skilled craftsman of unpretentious genre schlock in his own right, and he sets an accurate tone introducing the audience to his Raccoon City. If there’s one thing that translates over, it’s the atmosphere. Blending the plots of the first and second games together, this is an adaptation founded on fan service, perhaps to a fault. Director Johannes Roberts ( 47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night) now helms the reboot that seeks to do just that. It’s no real shock that fans have long clamored for a “proper” adaptation in line with what they expected the first time around. Instead of replicating the moody tension and dread, they were concerned with slick gunplay and grandiose action that led to an initial mixed reception but has given way to certain cult acclaim (you should go watch Retribution again with an open mind). They were also decidedly not indebted to the games at all past certain characters, locales, and broad plot points. The initial run of films that ran from 2002 through 2016 were mostly spearheaded by husband-and-wife filmmaking duo Paul W.S. With Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, the reins of the cinematic adaptations of the hugely popular Capcom horror games are passed from one B-movie auteur to another.

Wesker umbrella corps