Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a love letter to the games that doesn’t just borrow names and monsters—it bottles the grimy, end-of-the-world-in-a-small-town atmosphere and lets it seep into every shadowy hallway and flickering streetlight. Johannes Roberts leans into a scrappy, old-school horror vibe where tension matters as much as action, and the movie’s best pleasures come from its tactile details and winking Easter eggs that make the world feel lived-in and ominously familiar. Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, and Robbie Amell give the chaos a human anchor, keeping the film brisk and watchable even as it revels in B-movie creature-feature fun. If you want a slick, polished blockbuster, this may feel rough around the edges—but if you’re craving an entertaining, game-faithful night of sci-fi horror with real fan-friendly texture, it’s an easy recommendation.

“Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” is clearly trying to be a love letter to the early games—grimy small-town dread, Umbrella paranoia, and a night of escalating chaos. The problem is it crams too much lore into too little time, so the plot can feel jumpy and the characters often come off as sketches rather than people you’ll actually care about. The low-budget look isn’t automatically a dealbreaker, but here it sometimes undercuts the tension and makes the big moments land with a thud, especially as the finale rushes to the finish line. If you want a coherent, character-driven horror-thriller, you’ll likely be frustrated; if you’re a forgiving fan who just wants familiar names, locations, and some creature feature vibes, you might still get a bit of pulpy fun out of it.