Chilling Encounters: Experience Goosebumps with Resident Evil Requiem

A surprising announcement at the end of the summer Gamefest presentation on June 6th unveiled the ninth installment in the legendary Capcom Survival Horror Series: Resident Evil Requiem, slated for release early next year.

Devoted fans of the franchise, which has inspired films, TV shows, and more, quickly began analyzing the trailers. These trailers spotlight the protagonist, Grace Ashcroft, daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft from the 2003 title Resident Evil Outbreak. Requiem is set to take place in Raccoon City, the fictional hub infamous for battling the spread of zombified T-viruses.

At a demo in LA last week, the game director introduced Requiem, emphasizing its core theme of “addictive horror,” noting that Grace Ashcroft presents a far more vulnerable and frightening character compared to the military-trained protagonists of earlier entries.

I heard the audience’s reaction to the demo before experiencing it myself—screams and gasps filled the air. As I stepped into a dim room alongside dozens of others, I was met with a shocking scene. Everyone would likely scream if they found themselves waking upside down on a gurney. This snippet of Resident Evil Requiem made it hard not to cringe in shared distress as the gameplay unfolded, with Grace attempting to escape her bindings. Ultimately, she breaks free, transitioning from cutscenes to first-person gameplay, providing various options to search for items in settings that resemble deserted hotels and hospitals.

As you can expect, some rooms still possess working electricity, but Grace predominantly navigates through eerily lit environments, shrouded in an unsettling crimson emergency glow. While searching for a locked door and the key to the fuse box, she faces something lurking in the shadows. Just as she discovers tools necessary for escape, she stumbles over a body. Before she can grasp who it is, a grotesque, massive creature resembling a wild beast appears, characterized by enormous black eyes, large ears, menacing teeth, and oversized hands.

The creature seizes the body and starts to bite into it, evoking a striking resemblance to Goya’s depiction of Saturn consuming his son. I felt goosebumps tingling on my arms as the creature reappeared during the gameplay preview, punctuated by the terrified screams of the player. Eventually, the demo offers a moment to regroup, displaying a pause menu that allows switching between first and third-person perspectives. Gasps and murmurs fill the crowd, noting that this is the first Resident Evil game allowing viewpoint changes (except for the previous title, where this feature was introduced as a paid update in 2021).

The closing line, “This is an overture to our darkest symphony,” flashed on the screen before the demo wrapped up, leading us into a shadowy corridor towards the exit. “What was that?” someone muttered behind me. While not every Resident Evil installment has challenged the boundaries of video game horror, this particular presentation made a strikingly unsettling debut.

• Resident Evil Requiem is set to launch on Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC on February 27, 2026.