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New Resident Evil film merges first two games, inspired by John Carpenter

Spencer Mansion and Raccoon City Police Department are involved

The upcoming Resident Evil live-action movie is drawing from the first two games, and the director took some influence from John Carpenter in doing so. In a new interview, he also revealed the horror game-inspired film’s title, and how it’ll incorporate visual ideas from the series.

During a SXSW panel, hosted by IGN, director Johannes Roberts announced that Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is the title of his live-action reboot. Spencer Mansion and the police station have been recreated to scale. The plot is an “origin story” using parts of Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, an “ensemble piece” that features Chris and Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Leon Kennedy, and he’s borrowed trappings from the early survival games in the flick.

“That atmosphere, it’s raining constantly, it’s dark, it’s creepy, Raccoon is this rotten character in the movie,” He explains, “that atmosphere of the games, I wanted to put in. We had a lot of fun, down to the fixed-angle playing the first game had, that constant, when we’re in the Spencer Mansion, what’s around that corner? I’ve used some of those techniques, and a lot of those iconic sounds, we’ve had some fun with it.”

The movie is a new start for Resi on the big screen, totally unrelated to Paul W. S. Anderson’s films, and aside from the games, Roberts drew from John Carpenter in putting it together. “I’m a huge John Carpenter fan and I really took to that,” He says. “The way he tells these claustrophobic siege movies, I took movies like Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog and these disparate group of characters coming together under siege, and I took that as my filmic inspiration.”

Roberts is predominantly a horror director, having previously made the Other Side of the Door, The Strangers: Prey At Night, and both 47 Meters Down movies.

You can watch the full interview below:

This is not to be confused with Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, the CG Netflix series due this year, or Resident Evil Village, the next major game, coming in May. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is scheduled for release September 3, 2021.