Witness the destruction of Raccoon City from a new perspective
Regardless of how Weapons director Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil film turns out, 2026 has already provided us with a pretty damn good live-action take on the franchise, thanks to a prequel short film that sets up Resident Evil Requiem. In addition to being a solid adaptation of the events surrounding Requiem, it also boasts some star power: It Follows and Longlegs star Maika Monroe plays the lead in Capcom’s new short.
The three-minute movie, titled “Evil Has Always Had A Name,” follows a mother and daughter as they experience the widespread infection and destruction of Raccoon City in 1998. The short film offers a brief and chaotic look at what residents of Raccoon City would have experienced during the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. You can even hear the Nemesis from RE3 scream “STARS!” at one point during the short, placing it during a specific moment in the Resident Evil timeline.
“Evil Has Always Had A Name” has a somber twist, and does a great job of establishing how zombies turn in the Resident Evil games. It’s not an immediate regression into being a shambling, undead vessel, but a rather slow one. The short also supports how Resident Evil Requiem‘s developers are evolving the series’ zombies, imbuing them with actions and behaviors that recall their previous lives.
The events of “Evil Has Always Had A Name” and the early Resident Evil games will be at the heart of Resident Evil Requiem, which picks up decades after the Raccoon City Destruction Incident and sees the return of RE2 star Leon S. Kennedy. The game will also introduce a new character, Grace Ashcroft, who has ties to the Resident Evil Outbreak sub-series.
Resident Evil Requiem will be released on Feb. 27, on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. This year’s bigger Resident Evil movie is slated to hit movie theaters on Sept. 18.
