One of the darkest forces in computer games history is about to hit the big screen with the Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City UK release date nearly upon us (details below). You can can get the latest on the horror film with the sections below on the story, cast, age rating, parents guide and runtime to steady yourself for jump scare city.
The plot is an amalgamation of the earlier games in the series, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, with characters spanning the two. It takes place in the titular Raccoon City where a mutational virus developed by Umbrella Pharmaceuticals has run riot and turned most of the people living there into killer monsters that range from your traditional zombies to experimental test subjects like Lisa Trevor or the ceiling crawling Lickers.
AdvertisementWith the two games being the focus of the story, the film has both sets of characters with college student Claire Redfield returning to Raccoon City to investigate Umbrella and search for her brother Chris, who is an RPD Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) officer. He’s off working with his partner Jill Valentine to hold back the horrors of the town, which leads them to a very creepy mansion. Meanwhile S.T.A.R.S. new recruit Leon S. Kennedy meets up with Claire at the police station for their side of the story.
Cast
The Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City cast includes Kaya Scodelario (Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge) as Claire, Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Jill, Robbie Amell (Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster) as Chris, and Avan Jogia (Zombieland Double Tap) as Leon. They’re joined by Tom Hopper (Terminator Dark Fate) as fellow S.T.A.R.S. officer Albert Wesker, Donal Logue (Kill For Me) as RPD chief Brian Irons, and Neal McDonaugh (Batman: Assault on Arkham) as William Birkin.
AdvertisementLily Gao (True Justice) stars as Ada Wong, who plays all side of the S.T.A.R.S. vs. Umbrella vs. monsters divide.
Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City UK release date
Following a couple of recent delays, the Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City UK release date has now been confirmed for Friday the 3rd December 2021. It comes out in Britain a little over a week later than in the US where it arrives on the big screen on the 24th November 2021, so there will be some plot details to avoid online, but with the film being based on the first two games, most fans will already know how it’s all going to go down.
It will have the release window to itself mostly with the only other film out in the UK on the same weekend being Alicia Vikander and Justin Chon drama Blue Bayou. However, it will have some residual heat from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Encanto and House of Gucci, which are out in mid-to-late November, and then it will have West Side Story to contend with a week later.
The computer game adaptation was initially planned for release in September 2021, so the change of dates isn’t anywhere near as big as it has been in recent years with the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a good sign that the film industry is starting to get back up to speed after so much disruption.
With the early December 2021 release date, it should then come out on DVD, Blu-ray and digital around April 2022, which puts it in a good position for Easter sales if reviews and fan response goes well.
You can follow us on Twitter to see more news and updates on upcoming films, and you can see more on the horror flick in the run up to the release with the official Sony Pictures Twitter page at https://twitter.com/sonypictures.
Age rating and parents guide
The Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City UK age rating has now been announced by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) with a couple of weeks to go before the release date. It has a certification of 15, which ties in with the look of the trailer, which led with a lot of the action horror. The nearest comparable film in the last year is Netflix’s Army of the Dead, which came out with an 18 certificate, so it’s done well to come in with the lower certification.
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In the US it has been given an age rating of R, which is more similar to an 18 in the UK, so it must have been close for the BBFC to call.
In terms of the parent guide notes, you should expect strong bloody violence, horror and gore to be set to 11, which is a step up on the more action oriented previous Resident Evil films, starring Milla Jovovich. The special effects on the final monster in the trailer may not look all that frightening, but things like the Lickers, Lisa Trevor and William Birkin look pretty scary, but we’ll have to wait for the film to come out to see how it all comes together.
We’ll update you with more details on the film as they get confirmed. You can also check out our movie news section to keep tabs on the latest upcoming film release dates, age rating and parents guide details, or visit the movie website at https://www.residentevil.movie/.
Runtime
The runtime for Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City has been confirmed to be 1 hour and 47 minutes, so it’s going to be a mid-length film, which is a bit of a surprise considering the production is shoe-horning the first two games into the one film.
