The Best Monster Cut From Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City

Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City almost featured one of the game series most famous monsters. Despite the Milla Jovovich-fronted Resident Evil movies collectively grossing over $1.2 billion, they were often criticized by the fanbase for having little in common with their source material. Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City was a total reboot that planned to correct that, with the 2021 reboot adapting the first two games in the series and featuring fan-favorite monsters and characters.

Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City was also an attempt to reposition the series for North American audiences, as the previous entries made most of their money overseas. Sadly, Resident Evil 2021 – which should have been two movies – proved to be a disappointment critically and commercially. The film was hampered by a low budget, which resulted in some sub-par CGI effects, and the story faltered trying to balance too many characters and subplots. Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City also tried to set itself up for a sequel, but that’s looking very unlikely.

An early draft of Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City featured some interesting differences from the final movie. There were brief roles for game characters Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers, in addition to larger-scale action sequences. The final version of Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City introduced some new creatures to live-action – most notably Lisa Trevor – but many of them like the Licker or zombie dogs had been seen in previous movies. Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City also cut one of the game franchise’s best monsters in the Crimson Heads.

These are basically mutated zombies and made their debut in 2002’s Gamecube remake of the original Resident Evil. In the game, players not only had to shoot zombies but burn their bodies too, because if a corpse was left alone, it would eventually revive as a Crimson Head. These zombies earn their names due to the crimson hue of their skin, and in addition to moving much faster than the regular undead, they also grow claws that dish out more damage and were generally tougher to kill.

The Crimson Heads were a fantastic, unnerving addition to the remake and they appeared in an early version of Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City’s – which has many game differences – script. In this iteration, the undead are slowly mutating into Crimson Heads throughout, with the creatures eventually attacking Chris and Jill in the Spencer Mansion. Like the game, they have claws and reddish skin, and around the midway point, they replace the traditional zombies. Crimson Heads would have been a great monster to add to Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, but they were either cut due to time or budget. The main setpiece they appeared in, where Chris and Jill fend off waves of the undead still appears, though they are attacked by the classic zombies instead.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3486 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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