One of Resident Evil’s most iconic moments is also one of its simplest: the ‘Turning Around Zombie’, a title bestowed by series creator Shinji Mikami. It’s a striking scene that evokes George Romero while introducing you to the shambling undead before the mob hounds you around Spencer Mansion’s cramped corners and dingy corridors.
Zombies would be at the forefront of the series for the first few years, overrunning the neighbouring Raccoon City as the outbreak rapidly escalated into campy Dawn of the Dead schlock. But they never quite hobbled beyond the borders. Unlike most other zombie series (including the Resident Evil films, funnily enough), the pandemic would be contained as the US government launched a thermobaric bomb at the city, reducing it to a smouldering crater.
Ever since, zombies have been a rarity for the series. Sure, there are variations on the idea, like Mold seeping into humans and turning them into mindless, destructive drones. But the classic Romero flair hasn’t been seen outside of the remakes and CGI films since Resident Evil 6 over a decade ago, despite being an iconic part of the Resident Evil mythos. It’s time for that to change.
Resident Evil 9 Is All About Where The Series Began
Capcom revealed earlier this month that Requiem will reveal the “hidden truth” behind the Raccoon City outbreak. The trailer even walks us through the drab RPD ruins where Leon Kennedy once fought back the undead while being stalked by a lumbering Tyrant.
Rumours abound that Leon will return as a playable character alongside the newly introduced Grace Ashcroft, daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, who also escaped the zombified burg in Outbreak, the series’ first co-op game. Everything is hinging on where the series began, circling Raccoon City like a swarm of hungry, infested sharks. It’s hard to imagine honouring that 30-year legacy without embracing the Romero roots, and there are a few ways Capcom could do that.
Romero once even directed a live-action Resident Evil 2 trailer, marrying the game’s inspirations with its inspirator.
The Zombies Are Dead, But That Doesn’t Matter
No zombie will have survived the explosion, leaving the city an eerily empty and desolate ruin. If any of them had, the US government would have failed to contain the outbreak, and we’d be overrun with undead by now. Capcom will have to get creative. But we’ve seen villains throughout the series utilise Bio Organic Weapons (or as they’re better known: BOWs) to further their goals, so we could easily see the classic brain munchers return as a fitting distraction to thwart Ashcroft’s investigation.
We could also see a similar outbreak, mirroring the series’ beginnings. It wouldn’t be the first time that Capcom has dabbled with another Raccoon City-level disaster. Revelations follows the aftermath of Terragrigia, a futuristic city in the Mediterranean that was besieged by Hunters, unleashed by the bioterrorist group Veltro. Similar to the Arklay County town, the city was destroyed, but instead of a bomb, its solar energy matrix was reprogrammed to reflect the sun’s rays, dissolving any living creature or human being in mere seconds.
The Death Island CGI Resident Evil film even sees mosquito bio-drones attempt to unleash another outbreak in San Francisco, infecting Alcatraz tourists with the t-Virus.
If not another disaster, Capcom could always utilise flashbacks, returning to Raccoon City’s past from another perspective. I’d love to see an Outbreak remake, giving new fans more context on who Alyssa Ashcroft is, given that her one game is stranded on 20-year-old hardware (it’s also multiplayer, and the servers shut down years ago). But more involved segments where we get to play as her during the escape would be welcome, reimagining parts of the classic co-op experience with more narrative meat for the zombies to chow down on.
Whatever ends up happening, I hope that there are at least a few shambling corpses to blow the brains out of when we return to Raccoon City next year. After all, is it even Raccoon City without them?