Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

Of course it had to happen. When I reviewed RESIDENT EVIL 6: THE FINAL CHAPTER back in 2017 there was indeed very much a sense that this series, based on 'the highest-grossing video game franchise of all time', had come to a definite end. These days, however, old franchises aren't allowed to die gracefully. Instead they get rebooted, and if HALLOWEEN and SCREAM can do it, to name but two, then why not RESIDENT EVIL?

So for this seventh film we're back in 1998, and in case you miss that date caption there's lots of music and plenty of technological devices from the period shoehorned in so that teenaged future archaeologists can gasp at the sight of Palm Pilots and pagers actually being used by living people. 

Racoon City, home of the Umbrella Corporation, is now slowly dying, with most company employees and townsfolk already gone. Then a mysterious leak at the local plant turns most of those left into flesh hungry zombies and it's up to the few non-zombified survivors to fight for their lives. 

There are some familiar faces in RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACOON CITY including Kaya Scodelario (best known to readers here for playing the lead in Alexandre Aja's alligators on the rampage picture CRAWL) and TV's Tom Hopper (Umbrella Academy and Black Sails). There's a familiar director behind the camera as well. Johannes Roberts is best known for mediocre child back from the grave movie THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR, mediocre shark movies 47 METERS DOWN and its sequel, and mediocre home invasion picture THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT. 

For someone with a bit of a track record with directing modern-day exploitation movies Mr Roberts still hasn't got the hang of how to make this kind of stuff worthwhile and entertaining viewing. Elements from the Resident Evil games are present and correct but it's all unforgivably at the expense of plot and pacing. A scene where a petrol tanker crashes is wasted and ends up being laughable, and there are numerous scenes where tweaks to the dialogue would have added immensely to the virtually non-existent characterisations. Sad to say, but RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACOON CITY, is a bit of a comedown from the highly entertaining RESIDENT EVIL 6: THE FINAL CHAPTER.

Sony's Blu-ray contains three short featurettes that last just over ten minutes in total but that's it for extras.

RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACOON CITY is out on Digital Rental, 4K UHD, Blu-ray , and DVD on Monday 7th February 2022. It's already out to download and keep.