Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City's official trailer has left viewers with a lot to get excited about, particularly in how it will capture the scariest element from the original two games. Among the frightening creatures depicted in the preview, the most recognizable for Resident Evil fans are the zombie dogs, who are mutated canines that relentlessly pursue and attack the protagonists. While the dogs' inclusion may seem a small detail, their depiction in the trailer suggests the film is striving to capture the same sense of terror as the early games.
The film will adapt the first two Resident Evil games, focusing on a handful of survivors fighting to uncover the secrets behind a deadly outbreak and contain the threat, all while looking for a way to survive. Resident Evil's influence in the survival horror genre comes as a result of its creative creature designs and eerie atmosphere. The series has been criticized at times for shifting its focus more toward action than horror, but the latest movie adaptation appears to be looking for a balance of both elements.
The scenes that have been shown in the trailer give the impression the filmmakers are translating details that made the games so frightening, with the zombie dogs being a perfect example. The dogs have been a staple in Resident Evil since the original game, in which they would catch players off guard by jumping through windows and attack with little warning. A variety of monsters have appeared throughout the series, and while the zombie dogs may seem almost ordinary compared to the more outlandish threats, they are effective for scares because they reinforce the notion the heroes are never safe. Resident Evil 2021 will avoid the mistakes of the Milla Jovovich Resident Evil movies too, which depicted the zombie dogs in multiple entries but only for noisy, suspense-free action sequences.
Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City looks as though it will be successful in delivering scares because it presents every creature as a formidable obstacle the heroes must overcome. Part of the survival horror formula the early games helped shape is the idea that players were totally vulnerable; ammo and health items were limited, so players had to pick their battles carefully. Rather than just being a cheap jump scare, the zombie dogs add to Raccoon City’s foreboding atmosphere by giving the protagonists a reason to stay on guard.
The Resident Evil 2021 reboot understands this element better than the previous movies, which featured Jovovich's Alice getting into fistfights with monsters like the Nemesis, who in the games would have just turned players to paste. The dogs weren't much of a problem for Alice either, but in just the brief glimpses seen in the trailer, these beasts will capture the same sense of dread they evoked in the games. With its mix of cheesy action and horror, the Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City trailer shows a great deal of promise and might be the movie that devotees of the games have been waiting for.
