When the action finally does get going the movie’s pacing is much improved, and we’d be lying if we said that watching Chris, Jill, and Wesker slay hordes of flesh-eaters within the Spencer Mansion didn't feel just right. However, it does little to help you understand what makes other characters tick other than: they’re badass. Implementing some fresh context like this into a narrative we think we know is a good idea, and should be commended.

You truly get the sense that she was a tortured kid, more so than even her brother, and the childlike scenery works well to establish a creepy tone. Of the four leads, Kaya Scodelario’s Claire Redfield fares best, especially since a short prologue sequence set in an orphanage helps fill out some of her backstory, tying into some of the later gory events to come. It’d be forgivable if most of them were given the chance to develop and grow into the versions of them we know from the games, yet it never happens. It’s like the movie is trying to say: “See, I know what I’m doing,” but it just comes across as patronising. It also feels like it’s trying to win over franchise die-hards by repeatedly having fan-favourite characters like Jill, Chris, and Leon say each other’s surname. Instead, we’re treated to a plodding first opening act plagued by too much exposition and setup. This being primarily a faithful-ish translation of Resident Evil 1 and 2, you’d think that events would start at a similar point. Problems soon arise, however, once our heroes are introduced, and the film doesn’t know what to do with so many of them. It makes sense, therefore, for most of its populace to have conveniently vacated in the wake of Umbrella Corporation’s underground bio experiments slowly appearing. Here, Raccoon City is presented as a dark, grimy, and eery place to live, the unofficial toilet town in an otherwise flourishing (you imagine) US state. The iconic series location referenced in the title is proof enough of this.

It's a greater shame when you realise that, to a certain extent, proven horror director Johannes Roberts clearly gets Resident Evil in a way that Anderson never did. While Welcome to Raccoon City certainly pays better respect to the source material, its squishing of beloved events sees the story and characters all ultimately collapse into a mess - one far pulpier than any of the on-screen zombies we see get gutted. Thank heavens, then, that a reboot has landed with a closer reverence for the games, right? Well, yes and no. Anderson’s progressively baffling film adaptations. Sure, the mainline games may have steadied the course with a return to true survival horror, but we’re still not that far removed from the dark days of Umbrella Corps, Resident Evil 6’s messy intertwined story, and worse yet, Paul W.S. Resident Evil fans have had a rocky ride over the years.

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