Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a smorgasbord of fan service. Part of said fan service is the many different creatures and monsters showcased in the latest trailer. Since Welcome to Raccoon City is an unholy abomination of Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2’s stories mashed into one, there are a lot of fun ghoulies to spot. So, let’s go through the trailer and see what we can spot. It will be like a scary episode of Pop Up Video.
Zombie
0:02
Zombies are the staple monster of Resident Evil. The slow, shambling husks of former humanity aren’t dangerous on their own but can be overwhelming in large numbers. In the Spencer Estate, they didn’t appear in large numbers but instead came alone or in duos in the tight corridors. As such, it was hard to run around them and made confrontations not necessarily difficult, but resource-draining. In the remake of the first game, if zombies weren’t dispatched completely, they could come back as crimson heads. A crimson head was much faster and far more aggressive, attacking players with their new claws. Resident Evil 2 confronted players with larger mobs of zombies and showed the true power of zombies.
Licker
0:03
Lickers, much like crimson heads, are another evolutionary step for zombies. Their name comes from the long tongue which can snake out of their toothy mouths to impale or grab their prey. They first appeared in Resident Evil 2 and plagued Leon and Claire’s journey through the police station. Lickers are far more mobile than zombies, able to leap far distances, climb ceilings and walls with their monstrous claws, and scuttle quickly to attack. Despite these advantages, lickers have one great weakness. Because they lack eyes, it is possible to sneak around them if one is quiet enough.
Lisa Trevor
0:39
Lisa Trevor is a surprising Resident Evil monster to me. I never thought she would see the big screen but is the one I’m most excited about. Poor Lisa was introduced in the Resident Evil remake. She and her family were caretakers for the Spencer Estate before being captured and experimented on by the Umbrella scientists working there. Poor Lisa’s father and mother died in the experiments, but she inexplicably survived everything they threw at her. This morphed her into something hideous, but also indestructible. Her body played host for the prototype Nemesis parasite which was instrumental in the creation of the G-Virus. She wears the faces of the female research staff she murdered. It is speculated that she’s looking for her mother’s face. Shackled and left for dead, she wanders the grounds of the Spencer Estate.
Cerberus
0:55
There are two variations of the “zombie dog”. The first is the Cerberus which was specifically designed at the Spencer Estate facility to be used by the military. The second is your standard dog that has been infected by the T-Virus. However, due to the iconic look of the Doberman used in the first game, it is the one most commonly used.
Alexia Ashford
1:19
This one hasn’t been confirmed but is speculation. At 1:19 in the trailer when going through the Umbrella footage, we see a canister labeled “Ashford Twins”. Alexia was a brilliant researcher that developed her strain of the T-Virus, called the T-Veronica Virus. By undergoing a cryogenic sleep, she was able to “achieve coexistence” with the virus. She serves as one of the bosses in Resident Evil: Code Veronica. I doubt that we’ll see her in the film, but with the appearance of Lisa Trevor, I can’t be too certain.
William Birkin
2:04
Like, Alexia, this one is speculation on my part. Towards the end of the trailer, we see a monster full of teeth, spikes, and eyeballs climbing down. Based on the set and design of the monster, I think this is William Birkin after he has turned and gone through several evolutions. In particular, this looks like the final boss fight from Resident Evil 2 on the train. Birkin has been confirmed as a character and is seen several times in the trailer. He is played by Neal McDonough.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and its monsters make it look like an absolute train wreck of a film. Cramming two separate plots of this scope into one film is the perfect recipe for disaster. But, if all you want is a monster movie to celebrate Thanksgiving with, then this is the movie to see on November 24, 2021.
