Evil Lies Within
A lot of adaptations try hard to do their own thing, with mixed results. For every movie that changes things around in a way that fans – and even the creators – love (The Mist, Fight Club, IT) there are dozens of films that decide that a tangential connection to the source material is enough, beginning somewhat in line with the source before veering wildly in terms of storyline. Your The Vampire’s Assistant’s, or original Resident Evil movies. Even though they’re often stuffed with fanservice the adaptations suffer by taking too many liberties or trying to fit too much into a small period of time.
''That's gotta be the Orphanage… Hang on Sherry!' -Claire Redfield
What appears to be the front entrance of the Raccoon City Orphanage on the set of the #ResidentEvil reboot film.
?: Unknown#residentevilmovie #residentevilreboot pic.twitter.com/3eX6G6COPK
— BIOHAZARD Declassified (@BIOHAZARDcast) December 5, 2020
Is the Resident Evil movie at risk of becoming too overstuffed? Maybe. Rather than focusing on only one game, the new movie is instead splitting its focus between the events of the first two – or, as it would appear, the remakes of both, as the above set photo shows off the exterior of the orphanage – a location which wasn’t present in the original game.
That’s not to say we won’t see some classic locations from both games, though! Thanks to previous set photos we already know that the Raccoon City Police Department will be a major setpiece in the upcoming movie, and thanks to twitter account Residence of Evil we also have some new set photos of the Scottish Rite Club – which is being used for the interior sets of the Spencer Mansion, where the first game was set.
Our First Look at the interior of the Spencer Mansion in the upcoming #ResidentEvil Movie Reboot! ???♂️
Filming for the movie recently took place at the Scottish Rite Club. #ResidentEvilMovie #ResidentEvilRevoot pic.twitter.com/YT1Z2nbOup
— RESIDENCE of EVIL (@ROEnetwork) December 1, 2020
So, is Resident Evil at risk of being overstuffed? Maybe. It’s trying to fit two games into one movie – not an easy feat on its own, but then you add in the fact that on top of the heroes of each game there’s two characters who were the respective big bad’s in each, as well as the rumoured appearance of Resident Evil legend Lisa Trevor. To fit within the constraints of a movie something’s got to give. The best bet would be to compress the storylines so that they happen concurrently, but this could affect the prospects of further adaptations down the line, such as Nemesis – a game which occurs concurrently with Resident Evil 2, and features Jill Valentine in the starring role.
Where do you stand on the reboot? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter, or on Facebook.