Resident Evil

‘Welcome to Raccoon City’ reboots the franchise.

From video game, to movie, to television show.

Over the weekend we learned that, for whatever reason, the Resident Evil series is being rebooted to six more films all over again. Much like the protagonist Alice always finds herself waking up and having to fight her way out of the same situation over and over again, so do we once again find ourselves staring down the barrel of another video game franchise. But maybe, just maybe, there’s some hope to be found: horror director James Wan is producing the first of the six movies.

I’ve often wondered if there will come a time when people will heartily defend the Resident Evil franchise. They’re not perfect movies, of course, and they increasingly have very little to do with the video game franchise they’re based on, but there are moments when Paul W.S. Anderson’s direction and Milla Jovovich’s star-power combined to elevate the whole affair into a kind of pulp extravagance that plenty of films cannot match. Given a bit of distance  —  or at least a bit of separation from a crowded field of VFX-driven action movies  —  maybe these films could get a critical boost to match their box office numbers.

Some day, we’re going to look back at the career of Milla Jovovich and realize she was one of our more underappreciated action stars. While we spend our time arguing with Twitter eggs about representation in movies like Suicide Squad and Ghostbusters, Jovovich and her husband-director Paul W.S. Anderson have just been over in their own little corner of Hollywood, churning out modestly budgeted pulp action movies with a strong female lead. The upcoming Resident Evil release will be the sixth film in the franchise. Six!

As Resident Evil: The Final Chapter prepares to begin shooting later this year, we’re left to wonder whether the film’s subtitle is honest. Is this really the last chapter of one of the longest-running horror franchises? According to one of the stars of the film, it most definitely is.

At some point, the Resident Evil movies stopped being schlocky B-movies that existed solely to allow Paul W.S. Anderson to shoot Milla Jovovich in slow-motion and became, well, whatever they are now. Because they’re certainly something, although we certainly cannot tell you what kind of something they are. We’ve learned to just go with whatever these movies throw at us, so the news that Ali Larter is returning to the series for its supposed final chapter isn’t surprising or unexpected. This series could literally do anything and we wouldn’t even blink. Forget it Jake, it’s Resident Evil.

The 'Resident Evil' video game franchise is one of the most successful of all-time, selling over 61 million units since the first game made its debut on the Sony PlayStation in 1996. The game series was so popular it spawned an equally lucrative film franchise, which includes five movies (and a sixth on the way) that have grossed almost $1 billion worldwide. But, would all that have happened if Gwyneth Paltrow had starred in the movie? Because that almost happened. Find out more about that, and other scary scoop from the 'Resident Evil' movies is this week's horrifying You Think You Know Movies? episode!

It's hard to imagine that before 'The Walking Dead' shot to fame, Capcom's 'Resident Evil' franchise helped spark the pop culture revival of the undead. Now, while a sixth film in the divisive video game horror franchise remains in limbo, German production house Constantin claims to be developing a 'Resident Evil' TV series for the future.

This year, Universal Studios will be invaded by Resident Evil 2 during its Halloween Horror Nights. Now you can get your first look at the real life Raccoon City.