The footage shown to attendees focused on mood, tension, and dread. It begins with a man walking through the snow toward a house. He enters and finds no one inside. As he moves through the building, he keeps calling out, asking if anyone is there.

From there, things get stranger. He tries using the phone, only to get a dead response. He then calls his girlfriend, and the footage cuts to moments of him moving through Raccoon City. As you can imagine, the city looks grim and dangerous, and the tension builds as he goes deeper into the nightmare—everything taking place at night.

One of the most memorable moments shown was a large, pale zombie in the sewers—a giant, bloated figure resembling Stellan Skarsgård’s Harkonnen character from Dune. Soon after, even more zombies appear, spilling into the frame and chasing after him as the chaos ramps up.

What stood out most about the presentation was what Cregger did not do. The footage avoided obvious nods to the games. It’s been reported that “Aiming for an original story set in the world of the games rather than any of its well-known characters,” and “the writer/director is instead taking inspiration from the second through fourth installments.”

That approach could be a smart move with Cregger’s recent hits. Resident Evil has a built-in fanbase, but a straightforward survival-horror movie could help it connect with a wider audience, too. This reboot could do what the other Resident Evil movies and shows couldn’t: tell one tense, scary story without overcomplicating it.

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Grace Ashcroft is an FBI technical analyst who is sent to investigate a murder mystery that involved her mother’s death. (I don’t think sending someone with an emotional link to the deaths is a good idea.)

During Summer Game Fest Play Days, we were invited to check out an extended gameplay of Resident Evil Requiem. It was revealed that the game will have options for both 1st-person and 3rd-person view. The majority of the gameplay shown was in first person, which captures the feel of Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village. As a result, this helps to create more tense moments as Grace tries to escape inside a building as a giant creature lurks in the shadows. Additionally, be prepared for many creepy hallways and having the ability to turn on and off the lights.

Gameplay Presentation

The beginning of the presentation features a cutscene of Grace waking up and finding herself being restrained upside down on a bed. She finds a way to free her hands thanks to a broken glass. As she rocks her restraints back and forth, she falls down and is able to free her legs. The camera switches to first person, with the person now being able to control Grace. There are many gameplay elements familiar to Resident Evil fans including finding keys to open locked doors, and looking for items to help progress into another area.

Throughout the presentation, a giant hag-like creature is revealed with disturbing eyes and teeth. This horrifying monster stalks Grace and is able to create a hole in the ceiling, allowing itself to roam around the attic to surprise the players in different areas. (That’s a big hell no!)

At the end of the gameplay, the reveal was that there are options for both first-person and third-person view. This will make both fans of the old and new Resident Evil games happy.

Resident Evil Requiem will be released on February 27, 2026.

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The stars were out in full force at the Countdown to Christmas Holiday Celebration. Joining Chabert (A Merry Scottish Christmas, Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up), Wolf (A Merry Scottish Christmas), Cahill (Christmas on Cherry Lane) and Frakes (A Biltmore Christmas) were Luke Macfarlane (Catch Me if You Claus), Nikki DeLoach (A World Record Christmas), Brooke D’Orsay (A Not So Royal Christmas), John Brotherton (Christmas on Cherry Lane), Jonathan Bennett (Christmas on Cherry Lane), Andrew Walker (Christmas Island, Three Wise Men and a Baby), Ashley Williams (Notes of Autumn), Ali Liebert (Friends & Family Christmas), Crystal Lowe (Inaugural Participant, Hallmark Media’s Make Her Mark Director’s Program), Jessy Schram (Mystic Christmas), Cindy Busby (Everything Christmas), Melissa Peterman (Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up), Sarah Ramos (Christmas in Notting Hill), and Lucas Bryant (A World Record Christmas).

Nerd Reactor was in attendance on the red carpet to talk to the stars about their Hallmark Channel films along with topics such as the live-action Gargoyles series with Jonathan Frakes, Double Dragon 2 possibilities with Scott Wolf, Resident Evil with Erin Cahill, and more. Check out the red-carpet interviews below.

A Merry Scottish Christmas starring Scott Wolf and Lacey Chabert premieres on November 24th 10/9c.

A Biltmore Christmas featuring Jonathan Frakes premieres on November 26th at 8/7c.

Christmas on Cherry Lane starring Erin Cahill premieres on Saturday, December 9th at 8/7c.

About Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas

The Hallmark Channel will have all-new movies premiering every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. All-new movies will debut every Thursday at 8 p.m. on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

Featured image courtesy of Hallmark Channel.

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You can check out the full interview with Matthew Mercer, Nicole Tompkins and Stephanie Panisello in the video below.

“I’ve been wanting it for so long, honestly,” Panisello tells Nerd Reactor about Claire, Jill, Leon, Chris and Rebecca working together in the film. “It’s one of those things where you know… and not to be like a girl about it… but it was kind of neat to have other badass women alongside as well. That was kind of neat to see, and I feel like we had never really seen everyone together because we have been able to put the spotlight on whoever story it is. But I think it’s amazing that the spotlight is really on everybody, although we’re dealing with a lot of Jill’s poor, tragic, trauma.”

Resident Evil: Death Island features the return of zombies and how the protagonists will have to push through against all odds in order to save the day. That means they’ll fail at saving people from turning into zombies, but they’ll still persevere.

“I think that’s a recurring theme through a lot of the Resident Evil games is the still enduring and pushing in the face of possible and in some cases absolute failure,” Mercer said. “And it’s not ever at the expense of the hero feeling like they did wrong, but they’re doing the best they can and it’s a situation where they can’t win and help everybody. And that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying, and I think there’s a lot of the story there. Some circumstances you shouldn’t keep yourself from trying to save people and help people.”

The film pays homage to Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 3, and audiences will get to see her continue her journey as she comes together as a team.

“I was just as excited as everyone else,” Tompkins said about Jill’s character. “I’ve also been like ‘Where is she? How is she doing? Like, what’s happening?’ And I think the way that this film gets to explore what’s happening for her and where she’s been. And really one of my favorite parts is her reintegration into what it means to be part of a team. I think that’s really important for her and for her healing and everything in between. So it’s a joy to get to continue to see her story evolve.”

Masachika Kawata has worked at Capcom for decades and is one of the senior producers of the Resident Evil franchise. In Resident Evil: Death Island, he’s attached as an associate producer.

“Alcatraz Prison has a Biohazard/Resident Evil kind of setup too,” Kawata explained. “And then it is kind of a secluded isolated island, so it also makes it perfect for this kind of setting. And then being close to San Francisco, you kind of have familiarity with the real world.”

The protagonists have different relationships with each other, and it was fun for screenwriter Makoto Fukami to figure out how each character would interact with each other.

“This is the first time that Jill and Leon met,” Fukami said. “It was kind of fun in a sense where they kind of know each other but it’s sort of the first time they met. It’s closeness but distance too in a sense. There was a nuance that was interesting to play. Meanwhile, Leon and Chris in the past movies are all the time together, so kind of a buddy cop type of movie. Lastly, Claire and Rebecca together working, so that was another dynamic that was probably good for the fans and fun to work with.”

Eiichirō Hasumi is the director of the film, and his credits include Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness (2021), which was a Netflix miniseries. In Resident Evil: Death Island, he wanted a villain that had his own sense of justice.

“So the five [main] characters are strong, so I wanted [a villain] that can fight,” Hasumi said. “Not in the physical sense, but more in the philosophical sense that they can tell them what’s right and what’s wrong. And he had already a great sense of justice from the beginning, but with the Raccoon City incident, his mind kind of changed, like twisted afterward. But then we wanted a character that can tell the audience, tell the characters ‘What’s right, what’s wrong?’ in a real sense.”

About Resident Evil: Death Island

Resident Evil: Death Island was released on Blu-ray, 4K Steelbook, Digital and DVD on July 25, 2023.

Synopsis: In San Francisco, Jill Valentine is dealing with a zombie outbreak and a new T-Virus, Leon Kennedy is on the trail of a kidnapped DARPA scientist, and Claire Redfield is investigating a monstrous fish that is killing whales in the bay. Joined by Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers, they discover the trail of clues from their separate cases all converge on the same location, Alcatraz Island, where a new evil has taken residence and awaits their arrival.

Features include:

● Genesis of Death Island
● Jill Valentine: The Return
● Motion Capture Set Tour
● Designing Death Island
● Voicing Death Island
● The Birth of Death Island
● Design Gallery

The film is directed by Eiichiro Hasumi with a screenplay by Makoto Fukami. It’s produced by Hiroyasu Shinohara with Masachika Kawata (Capcom), Takaki Okamoto (Capcom), Taki Enomoto (Capcom), Takahiro Suzuki, and Atsushi Furuya serving as associate producers.

The voice cast includes Matthew Mercer as Leon S. Kennedy, Stephanie Panisello as Claire Redfield, Kevin Dorman as Chris Redfield, Nicole Tompkins as Jill Valentine, and Erin Cahill as Rebecca Chambers.

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