Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, out in theaters November 24, takes its cues from the original iconic video game - which is a good move for a film meant to be a reboot of the franchise on the big screen. The story focuses on the forlorn town of Raccoon City, suffering in the wake of the shady Umbrella Corporation's abandonment.
Star Kaya Scodelario plays Claire Redfield, a spunky college student intent on investigating the corporation. The actress spoke to Screen Rant about leaning into the horror elements of the story and returning to the basics of the video game.
Screen Rant: There are so many scenes in this movie that just drew me back to that original game. You play Claire, and you and Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), both grew up in Raccoon City's orphanage. What brings Claire back to Raccoon City?
Kaya Scordelario: She left at quite a young age from the orphanage and she turned her back on Raccoon City. She's been on the streets for a while, and she comes back because she's found some information that she needs to share with her brother, Chris because she's pretty sure that something isn't right with the town.
Now Chris stayed in Raccoon City and became a police officer and grew closer to William Birkin. Can you talk to me a little bit about Claire and Chris's relationship upon her return?
Kaya Scordelario: It's definitely very strained. It's quite tense, which I think is quite a realistic depiction of siblings. There isn't a big happy reunion at all. They turn into little kids and start petulantly arguing with each other as soon as they see each other. But you can still see that there is love there, and there is a bond there. She's quite frustrated with him. She feels as though he isn't seeing the truth, and he very quickly learns that she might just be right.
This is a pretty true adaptation to the first two games. Were you a fan of the games growing up, and what stood out to you about the games when you did your research for the project?
Kaya Scordelario: I've never played the games as a kid. Unfortunately, I got stuck playing Crazy Taxi and The Simpsons Movie Game. I didn't get the cool games. My mom didn't let me have the cool games, but I then revisited them once I read the script and quickly realized why it would be so cool to translate that into a feature film because there is such an amazing narrative already. It is a story. It isn't just a game, and it's super immersive and utterly terrifying. That's what we wanted to do with our movie. We wanted to take that tone, the survival horror genre, and really root our movie into that.
This film really captures the tone of the first few games, largely in part due to the director, Johannes Roberts. Can you talk to me about working with Johannes on this film and what his style added to Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City?
Kaya Scordelario: Johannes was really adamant about making it a survival horror picture, and there were days on set where we took a lot of time to focus on building tensions in the scene and building atmosphere as opposed to big car crash sequences or anything like that because that's what we feel the fans really want and have really kind of missed and haven't had in a film adaptation before. He's a true fan of the games, which is great. His heart is really in it, and so we've peppered in a lot of easter eggs and little subtle details that the true gamers will know and will see, and, hopefully, will make them feel quite nostalgic.
I want to talk about the Spencer Mansion just for a second because it is Creepy AF. Can you talk to me about that set? It's amazing.
Kaya Scordelario: Yeah, it's beautiful. It was a big old house in the middle of Canada that was creepy as hell. We shot the whole thing at night, so we were at either the orphanage, the mansion, the police station, all of it. We were physically walking into different buildings, which was awesome. It wasn't green screen. We'd taken a lot of time to actually find physical sets that we could play in. You'd be there at 4:00 AM wandering around, and you'd see a zombie walk past, and you weren't sure if it was part of the movie or not. It definitely adds to the tone of the movie.
I love the classic Resident Evil monsters in this. Amazing job. I do have to ask because with the storyline really taking place in the first two games, do you want your character to go down the same path of the game, or do you want to see something new in future installments of the franchise?
Kaya Scordelario: I'd love to see something new. I think, unfortunately, Claire gets a little bit sidelined in the games, and I'm not ready to let her go yet. I think she's got more what to do. She's definitely got more of a mission. I'd love to see her team up with Joe. I'd love to see her explore her relationship with her brother some more. I think she's got a long way to go, and I'd be really excited to step into those boots.
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