Sony is bringing Resident Evil back to its roots as new images of its upcoming Resident: Evil Welcome to Raccoon City movie have landed. The film is set to reboot the franchise after the previous, increasingly bonkers series of films finally came to an end and Milla Jovovich hung up her dual-wielding pistols. As the Welcome to Raccoon City images show, this one is going back to the original two games themselves, not just for inspiration but for look as well.
One image features Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) and Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia) standing in a hallway looking like they’re about to turn into a wall before a monster jumps on them. Claire is wearing her iconic red jacket, and the Raccoon City police force uniform on Leon looks almost directly ripped out of Resident Evil 2. Another Welcome to Raccoon City photo shows us that we’ll be heading into Spencer Mansion at some point as Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), and Richard Aiken (Chad Rook) walk around it with their guns up, and the final, creepiest image is of Lisa Trevor (Marina Mazepa), who has clearly had some bad stuff done to her by the Umbrella Corporation. The pictures look so in line with the original games (and so cheap) that it’s easy to imagine them going all-out faithful and speaking in monotone voices while only being able to move like a tank.
It’s not just the images that are affirming Welcome to Raccoon City‘s desire to be closer to the games than its predecessor. Capcom worked closely on the film, and every character in the film is from the games. The movie’s writer/director, Johannes Roberts, told IGN that he wants to make a true horror film, not a sci-fi movie, or whatever the hell the previous films evolved into. The film will lift from Resident Evil 1 and 2 and feature a setup involving a police station under siege, which was a heavy part of the second game.
“This movie really had nothing to do with the previous franchise,” Roberts said. “This was all about returning to the games and creating a movie that was much more a horror movie than the sort of sci-fi action of the previous films. I was hugely influenced in particular by the remake of the second game and I really wanted to capture the atmosphere-drenched tone that it had. It was so cinematic. The previous movies were very bright and shiny whereas this movie was dark and grimy, entirely shot at night.”
If these images are a bit underwhelming for you, not to worry. There’s plenty more RE content coming with Netflix delivering a live-action series and its already released animated series.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will land in theaters on November 24, and we have these three images in the meantime.
Published: Aug 30, 2021 01:24 pm