Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
2021 · Directed by Johannes Roberts
Original language: English
- action
- horror
- science fiction
The story
Once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company’s exodus left the city a wasteland…with great evil brewing below the surface. When that evil is unleashed, the townspeople are forever…changed…and a small group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night.
What it’s like
Dim, sickly night-time palettes dominate, with sodium-orange streetlight, flickering fluorescent corridors and the grimy blue-green of a police station basement, shot in a restless, handheld style that keeps the camera close to frightened faces. Its sound is a rattle of gunfire, distant moans and a pulsing, synth-heavy score that spikes whenever something lurches out of the dark. The mood is bleak and unsettled, a sort of decaying-town dread that tilts into full-blown panic, and it suits a late-night watch with the lights off and the volume up. Pacing is brisk, with long stretches of tense hiding and sudden bursts of chase and combat, and the emotional arc follows a handful of strangers forced into an uneasy alliance, learning to trust one another while the city falls apart around them. Violence is frequent and fairly graphic, with gunshot wounds, bodies torn apart and creature attacks, though the gore is more stylised than extreme, and there is steady jump-scare fear throughout. Not for anyone wanting something gentle. It is for viewers who enjoy video-game horror adaptations, creature features and claustrophobic action with a sour, apocalyptic edge.
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