The stars and director of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter came to New York Comic Con Friday to talk zombies, Alice, and a return to Raccoon City.
The Final Chapter is the sixth movie in the Resident Evil franchise, which is the most successful video game film franchise to date, with over $1 billion made worldwide. Series director Paul W.S. Anderson calls this film his scariest yet (which is quite a feat, considering he also directed Event Horizon).
Coming Full Circle
After the events of the fifth Resident Evil film, the remaining heroes stood atop the White House and looked down upon the mass zombie hoards. Alice has been all over the country in her quest to discover her past and fight Umbrella, but this film finds her in a very special place – home.
“It’s a return to Raccoon City, or what’s left of it after we dropped a bomb in it in the second movie,” Anderson said. “This is the movie where we discover the truth about (Alice) and about the Umbrella Corporation. We’re bringing it full circle. What is Alice’s origin, what is the purpose of the Umbrella Corporation, those questions will all be answered. I think this movies going to have a level of emotional engagement that most people wouldn’t expect from a Resident Evil movie.”
To discover her origins and get revenge, Alice (Jovovich) must return to the place it all began. She will even face off against the AI Red Queen once more. She will be joined again by ally Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and a newcomer, Doc (Eoin Macken). For Eoin, getting to go back to the beginning was the perfect way to join the series.
“I was so excited to do it because I used to play the game, the first one, and I couldn’t play the game with the sound up (because it was too scary),” he said. “These movies are so much fun. There’s scares, there’s lots of action, and (the cast and crew) are all so welcoming and it was wonderful.”
Jovovich has noticed the cultural impact that the female-driven Resident Evil films have had.
“I had this girl come up to me, and she grew up in a country where women aren’t allowed to go to school, and she somehow saw the first Resident Evil. She told me that it inspired her to run away and go to school. I invited her to the set and she came with her sister and it was so beautiful,” she said.
“I feel like being part of this female-led franchise is that we were doing it before it was cool,” Jovovich said. It’s happening more and more but we were the original gangster.”
She also notes that the first film came out during a time when zombies weren’t on everyone’s television sets every week.
“I remember back when we did number 1, nobody would touch a zombie movie. I hadn’t seen a good zombie movie that wasn’t vintage on VHS, and to see how people have embraced the undead since 2001 or so is amazing. This whole world for everybody that had been undiscovered for so many years.”
Anderson believed it was important that while the films diverge from the video games heavily when it comes to content, the tone and love for the series be evident.
“The movie was made by people both in front of and behind the camera who loved the video game,” he said.