Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City has received an R-rating for its over-the-top violence. Johannes Roberts' upcoming feature film, the Resident Evil reboot serves as the latest cinematic adaptation of Capcom's ultra-violent video game series of the same name. Originally, the games found their way to the big screen with writer-director Paul W. S. Anderson's film franchise, which spanned six movies, all led by Milla Jovovich. But while the films performed well commercially, grossing $1.2 billion in worldwide revenue, they were greatly criticized by fans for their loose links to the source material. But the reboot now seeks to remedy the critical failure of the past adaptations.
Billed as an origin story set in 1998 Raccoon City, Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City is being touted to return to the survival horror roots of its franchise. Unlike the previous movies, the reboot features a cast stacked with fan-favorite characters, including Clair Redfield (Kaya Scodelario), Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia), and William Birkin (Neal McDonough). Earlier, Roberts teased that the movie would be "super scary," although at that time he did not indicate if the scares would restrict which audiences can actually go and watch the film. But now that the film has officially received a viewership rating, it's been made clear that Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City is certainly not for the faint-hearted.
According to a report by Bloody Disgusting, the MPA has officially announced that Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is rated R. The rating has been motivated by the film's strong violence, gore, and language, which MPA believes is not suited for people under 17 unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian.
As longtime franchise fans might recall, all six of Anderson's Resident Evil films were also R-rated, but their content restrictions stemmed from high-octane, brutal sci-fi action, which is not the case with the reboot. Rather, Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City mainly gets its R-rating for its unsparing scares, as the movie is decidedly more horror than any of the previous films. The same has been teased by multiple first-look images, which have offered ominous looks at the movie's grisly monsters, mist-drenched atmosphere, and unsettling Umbrella experiments.
Clearly, the R-rating reflects well on the movie's ambitions to hearken back to Resident Evil's ruthless storytelling. Since Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City is mainly pulling material from RE1 and RE2, it's significant for the movie to authentically capture the unnerving dreads of the games. This would have been impossible without an R-rating, as the games themselves were deemed terribly frightening by players and critics. Hopefully, the rating will help the movie deliver its promise of authenticity and avoid the mistakes of the Jovivich films. Although to know for sure how the film is utilizing the content restriction, fans will have to wait for a full-length trailer.
Source: Bloody Disgusting
