Resident Evil Reboot: Why Horror Over Action Is The Perfect Change
The upcoming Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is set to prioritize the franchise’s horror elements, not its action ones, and that’s perfect. Capcom is putting a lot of backing behind Resident Evil adaptations at the moment with an animated series, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, released in 2021 and a live-action Netflix series in the works. This is on top of new video games and the recent inclusion of Resident Evil characters Nemesis, Leon S. Kennedy, and Jill Valentine in the asymmetrical horror survival game Dead By Daylight.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is set to return to the story of the first two Resident Evil games. The first of these sees the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team exploring the abandoned Spenser Mansion that has been overrun by victims of the T-virus and houses a secret Umbrella Corporation Lab. Resident Evil 2, set two months after the events of the first game, sees Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield attempting to escape Raccoon City after the T-virus spread there from the Spencer Mansion. The new movie will combine these two stories into one while focusing on remaining faithful to the original spirit of the video games.
For many moviegoers, their primary touchstone for Resident Evil might not be the games but the series of movies that ran from 2002 to 2016. Starring Milla Jovovich, these films took certain story beats and characters from the original video games, but provided action-packed blockbusters. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City leaning into the horror aspect of the video games is ideal, first because the action potential for the series has already been thoroughly explored, but mostly because it is truer to the original pacing and atmosphere of the Resident Evil games.
Having Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City playing with more of the horror aspects of the video games will also allow the filmmakers to examine themes and monsters in a very different light. The action movies that were previously released we able to provide horrific moments and gruesome special effects but some of the darker stories were lost in a haze of bullets. By taking a slower pace with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, the movie can explore elements of psychological horror focusing on the insidious evil of the Umbrella Corporation and depressingly horrific narratives such as the one behind Lisa Trevor (Marina Mazepa).
The timing of the release of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City in relation to other media is crucial for this movie being a potential success. A remake of the first game was released in 2002 that coincided with the first Milla Jovovich movie. That remake was rereleased in 2015 on more recent consoles, and since then remakes for the second and third games have been released to positive reception, with rumors of a remake of Resident Evil 4 set to appear after the release of Resident Evil 8. By refreshing the movies of the franchise at the same time that gamers are refamiliarizing themselves with the true roots of the series, Capcom has an opportunity to rewrite the cultural consciousness of what a Resident Evil movie can be.