Honing in on the horror elements of the Resident Evil video games, Johannes Roberts’ (47 Meters Down, The Other Side of the Door) Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is about to bring Capcom’s landmark franchise to life for a whole new generation of fans when it releases this November 24.
Starring a stellar ensemble cast made up of Kaya Scodelario (Crawl, Maze Runner), Hannah John-Kamen (Unwelcome, Ant-Man and the Wasp), Robbie Amell (The Babysitter, Code 8), Tom Hopper (“Game of Thrones”, Terminator: Dark Fate), Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap), Donal Logue (Blade, Zodiac), and Neal McDonough (Minority Report, American Horror Story), with Roberts on writing and directorial duties, this new adaptation transports audiences back to 1998 when Raccoon City, once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, 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, a disparate group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night.
To celebrate the launch of a cinematic return to the hair-raising roots of the Resident Evil franchise, SCREAM sat down with Scodelaria who discussed going beyond the call of duty when it came to researching every single incarnation of the game to ensure her performance as Claire Redfield resonated with fans not just when shooting hordes of zombies and fighting crazy creatures, but also when it came to providing a lot of the emotional lifting in the movie, something that many video game film adaptations rashly neglect.
Words: Howard Gorman
