10 Horror Movies That Gave Fans EXACTLY What They Wanted (And They Hated It)

9. Welcome To Raccoon City Adapted The First Two Resident Evil Games

I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer
Sony Pictures Releasing

While the Milla Jovovich-fronted, Paul W.S. Anderson-created Resident Evil franchise varied hugely in quality across its six outings, one consistent bugbear that many long-standing fans of the Resi video game series had, was how vastly different these films were from their purported source material.

Ironically, the best film of Anderson's Resident Evil output was the first one; a feature that barely relied on the gaming franchise bar featuring the nefarious Umbrella Corporation, being set in Racoon City, and obviously having a virus outbreak at its centre. In terms of core characters, that movie relied on completely fresh creations.

Established video game characters were introduced in the subsequent five films, but these figures felt shoehorned in or out of tune with the character they were based on. So, when it was announced that Johannes Roberts' Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City had zero ties to Anderson's work and would instead pull direct inspiration from the first two RE games, fans were ecstatic.

*Sigh*

Where to start with this one? Welcome to Racoon City hit cinemas at the end of last year, and yes, it does have so much in common with the first two Resident Evil games. The problem is, the movie tries too hard to appease fans by cramming in as much classic RE lore as possible.

We had Racoon City, we had Umbrella, we had S.T.A.R.S., we had the mansion, we had the police station, we had the infected dogs, we had lickers, we had scenes directly pulled from the games. Sadly, barely any of this was allowed to breathe, and the end result was a muddled, rushed mess of a film.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.