Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, out November 24, takes the Resident Evil franchise to the next level. While it marks the seventh live-action film to be based on the video game, it also serves as a reboot. The film focuses on the dying Midwestern town of Raccoon City, and the pieces it must put back together in the wake of Umbrella Corporation's lies and machinations.
Robbie Amell plays Chris Redfield, a member of STARS (Special Tactics And Rescue Service) who is sent to investigate the Spencer Mansion. He spoke to Screen Rant about transferring his love of the games to the film and working with a director as passionate as himself.
Screen Rant: This is the Resident Evil I've always wanted to see. I felt like when I was going through that mansion, it brought back those memories of playing the game where you don't know what's really in the room, and those scares and the classic monsters. Amazing. Chris took a very different path than his sister, Claire (Kaya Scodelario) when she came back to Raccoon City. Can you talk to me about their relationships and a little bit about Chris as well?
Robbie Amell: First of all, thank you. I'm super glad that you feel that way. I'm a big fan of the games myself and that's how I feel. I think that this is the adaptation that fans of the games have been waiting for.
The relationship with Claire, I think what's really nice that's built out in this movie is you get to see them as kids and you get to see some mistakes are made. A lot of our adult scenes in this movie are coming to terms with decisions we made as children. I think that Chris is a guy with some regret with how he handled things with his sister and probably should have left this town a while ago, but can't bring himself to do it and doesn't have anything or anyone else, anywhere else. He's kind of stuck here and is trying to hold on to what it used to be, or what he thinks it could be. He needs to come to terms with a lot of these things over the course of the movie.
Chris Redfield is such a beloved character in the Resident Evil universe. Did you play the games for research? And if so, what stood out about Chris that you wanted to bring to the screen?
Robbie Amell: I was thinking about it, I've probably played 80% of the Resident Evil games from start to finish. I even played the GameCube one where you shoot the gun at the TV. I went back and played Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 2 remastered. I knew that those were the games that we were basing the movie on.
The big thing was I've spent so much time playing as Chris and, seeing Chris in this world, I felt very comfortable from that side of things. Then, speaking with Johannes [Roberts] about the tone of the movie and his script and what he wanted to bring from the games to the movie it was very clear that we were on the same page and that he was the right guy to be making this film. I felt very confident and very comfortable in the version of Chris that was on screen.
The biggest thing was just making sure that he was a human being and someone that people could relate to and see themselves reflected in. Because I knew that the Chris Redfield, zombie killer, was going to come up at some point, and as long as we earned it, those scenes were going to matter a lot more.
Now you touched on this a little bit, but the film did a really great job of capturing the tone of the first few games, largely due to the director, Johannes Roberts. Can you talk to me about working with Johannes as a collaborator and what his style added to Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City?
Robbie Amell: It was just clear that he was so passionate about [Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 2] and that he was a gamer and he played through them and he knew what he wanted to see. I think that's what it came down to.
Video game adaptations are difficult because you want it delivered for the fan base, but you also want to make something that's fresh. The nice thing about Johannes's take is that he took liberties where it mattered for the story, I think just to further create, to make these characters relatable. People could understand them more and just kind of see where they were coming from, while still holding that heart and soul of the video games.
One of the most iconic locations in Resident Evil is the mansion, and this mansion is creepy AF. Can you talk to me about working on that set? Because it looked incredible.
Robbie Amell: It was amazing. Johannes went to Capcom and asked for the blueprints for the Spencer Mansion and for the police station. Kudos to him and production designers and props and set [decorator]. Everybody absolutely killed it. You set foot in there and you're like, "I am in the video game."
This film here really focuses on the first two games. For your character, Chris, do you hope that the future Resident Evil stories stay faithful to the game? Or do you want to deviate from that path?
Robbie Amell: I think it should be a nice balance of what this first movie is to the first two games. I think that Johannes did such a great job of finding the places to take some liberties and make some adjustments. He modernized the zombies just a little bit. They're still the zombies from the game, but they're a little bit faster. Because if you take the zombies from Resident Evil 1, it's a little boring, you can run around them with no problem.
I think just being a reasonable fan of the games, he took the liberties where it made the most sense. If he continues to do that, then Code Veronica. There's a lot of IP that could be adapted into some really cool stories.
