Resident Evil: Requiem Review: An Intense Blend of Survival Horror and Action.

It is hard to believe that a decade ago it seemed like Resident Evil might be a dying franchise.
The last mainline installment, Resident Evil 6 in 2012, had not been well received by the fans and, even worse, Capcom had released Umbrella Corps in 2016, one of the most reviled games in the series.
Then Resident Evil: Biohazard arrived like a godsend in 2017, returning the series to its survival horror roots and revitalizing the brand.
This was the game that first got me into series, and what a time to become a fan because ever since then, Capcom have been on a roll.
Over the years, they have released Resident Evil: Village and numerous remakes, which are considered among the best video game remakes of all time.
Well, now we have another banger with Resident Evil: Requiem, the ninth mainline installment.

*Resident Evil* goes back to the Umbrella well with *RE9.*

After finishing my first playthrough, I am excited to say that Requiem is definitely in the top five best Resident Evil games.
It does a truly fantastic job of blending the survival horror of Biohazard with the over-the-top action of 4.
The story follows FBI Agent Grace Ashcroft (Angela Sant’Albano), the daughter of one of the previous game’s protagonists, Alyssa,
Tasked with investigating a mysterious disease tied to the Raccoon City Incident, Grace finds herself kidnapped by Umbrella scientist Dr Victor Gideon (Antony Byrne) and must survive his care facility of horrors.

You have to wonder how these crazy looking, mad scientists keep getting people to help with their potentially world ending experiments.

Grace’s segments of the game are pure survival horror, and I found myself screaming many a time when faced with terrifying zombies.
What makes these zombies so unique is that they retain parts of their personalities from when they were alive.
A massive zombie chef tries to cook human flesh, a maid cuts herself repeatedly on glass trying to keep everything clean, and some zombies even apologise for trying to hurt you when they are killed.
It makes them not only scary but also pretty pitiable.
But the true horror of Grace’s segments is The Girl, a hag-like monstrosity with a weakness to light that pursues Grace throughout the facility.

The Girl is *Resident Evil*‘s scariest stalker enemy since the baby in *Village.*

With Grace’s limited stock of weapons, every fight with the undead could be her last.
It is a good thing then that she is not alone because the one-man army Leon Kennedy (Nick Apostolides) is also investigating Gideon, with Sherry Birkin (Eden Riegel) acting as his handler.
Leon’s segments of the game are when the over-the-top action comes into play and, I have got to say, after a few hours of hiding in the dark terrified as Grace, it is such a relief to kick zombie ass as Leon, shooting them, hacking them up, and cutting them apart with a chainsaw.
I never thought the survival horror of the series could blend so well into the action and yet Capcom achieved this.

How Leon is still doing roundhouse kicks on zombies in his 50s is unknown to me. Not complaining though. Rule of cool, and all.

They even provided different styles of gameplay for different playthroughs, with the choice between first or third person for both Grace and Leon.
I went with the recommended first-person for Grace and third-person for Leon, which felt perfect for their playstyle’s differing atmosphere.
Just as perfect was the game’s use of nostalgia, which can be a slippery slope.
Too much and it will feel like the game is just pandering to fans for cheap points, rather than doing something new.
Thankfully, Requiem offers plenty of new with that old, and the old content is lovingly handled.

Returning to the RPD was just one of many nostalgic moments in *Requiem.*

Well, I have spent so long lathering this game with praise, you have to be wondering if I have any problems with it.
A few, but I really had to think about it for a bit.
For starters, I think we can all agree that there was one antagonist who deserved a boss fight but did not get one.
Along with this, there is one segment of the game which reminded me of the cannon section in the Resident Evil 4 remake.
Since that was my least favorite section of that game, you would be right in assuming it was my least favorite part of Requiem as well.
Finally, there is one reveal towards the end that feels like a bit of a copout, but it was a convenience that made me smile so I can let it go.
And that is it for my issues.
The rest of the game is so good that it overwhelmingly overshadows any bad.

The game looking fantastic also helps matters.

Resident Evil: Requiem is one of the best Resident Evil games.
The story is investing and the gameplay styles of Grace and Leon blend perfectly.
I know it is only March, but it would not surprise me if Requiem ended up topping a lot of best games of 2026 lists.
And, with new story DLC probably dropping at some point, the game is only going to get better.
If you are a Resident Evil fan and have somehow not played this yet, hurry up and do so.
It is one of the series’ best.

Scream 7 Review: A Gutting Disappointment.

I am a fan of the Scream franchise.
I enjoyed the first four movies as a teenager and got back on board with the fifth and sixth film.
While in retrospect Scream 6 had some issues, I was still looking forward to the conclusion of the new trilogy to see how the Carpenter sisters’ story would end.
Then Melissa Barrera was unjustly fired for her comments on Palestine.
Then Jenna Ortega also dropped out.
The director bailed and the script for the seventh film was thrown out.
Needless to say, these events had me extremely worried for Scream 7’s quality.
Unfortunately, these concerns were justified because, after seeing the seventh film, I can say that the Scream franchise has finally had a bad film.

Ghostface walking away from torching the *Scream* franchise.

Before this, the weakest film in the series was Scream 3, but even that had its fun with campy moments and good characterization.
The seventh film has none of that, with an extremely boring and forgettable cast overall, twists that are somehow both predictable and completely stupid, and an eye-rolling amount of callbacks.
The story once again follows Sidney Prescott, as her daughter Tatum (Isabel May) and husband Mark (Joel McHale) are threatened by the return of Ghostface.
With a cast of boring suspects, she must stop the killer before it is too late, all the while trying to determine if Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) has really returned.
Neve Campbell is back as Sidney and, while it is good to see her return, after a pay dispute caused her to leave Scream 6, her character does no have much meaningful development.

Although Neve Campbell does a good job, as expected.

Her character’s husband and daughter also feel bland, and the latter is supposed to be the secondary main character.
Sidney is not the only returning character however because Gale (Courtney Cox), Mindy (Jasmin Savoy-Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding) also return but, for the life of me, I cannot understand why.
I mean, I get why Gale would try to pursue the story of another Ghostface killer, but she does not have enough presence in the film to warrant a return.
Neither do Chad and Mindy, since the two could have been absent and nothing about the story would change.

It feels really weird that the Meeks siblings are back but not Sam and Tara.

So, the characters are a bust, but what about the mystery?
It is always fun to watch a Scream movie and guess who the killers are before the big reveal.
Well, not this time.
The hints towards the killers are so blindingly obvious, I guessed it from their first appearances.
What makes it worse is that in practically every Scream movie, there is a killer with a deep connection to our main cast.
Either that or their motive ties into the themes.
Not this movie.
No, instead the characters playing the Ghost Face killers are barely in the movie before the reveal, and their motivations make zero sense.
In my opinion, these are the worst Ghost Face killers of the entire series.
They have so little screen presence, their plans are dumb and I cannot for the life of me even remember their names.

The killers who got murdered at the beginning of *Scream 6* were better characters than these clowns.

The only memorable thing about this film’s killers is their frequent nostalgia baiting, but that is not the kind of thing I want to remember.
The callbacks to prior films made my eyes roll so far to the back of my head, I was worried they would get stuck there forever.
The only redeeming qualities to this film are that the performances are admittedly decent, some of the action is well-done, and the gore made me wince.

If you are a fan of gory horror movies, you might get some enjoyment from the horror. Some.

Other than these few positives, Scream 7 is a disaster.
The new characters are dull, most of the old ones do not have a reason to be here beside nostalgia, said nostalgia is handled in an extremely annoying way, and, to top it all off, the film has the worst killers of the franchise.
Scream 7 is the worst Scream film and it is not even close.
They should have gone with the original plan for this movie and never fired Melissa Barrera.
It would probably have been good and not… whatever this was.
If I were to rewatch the Scream movies, this is one I will undoubtedly skip.

Send Help Review: Bloodiest Survivor Episode Ever.

Long before he entered the realm of superheroes with his Spider-Man trilogy and, much later, Dr Strange movie, Sam Raimi was a master of horror comedy, most commonly known for his Evil Dead trilogy.
Well, with his latest film Send Help, Raimi has returned to his horror comedy roots, delivering both a funny and gory movie following two highly questionable people.

Prepare for your opinion on the characters to switch a bunch in this film.

Send Help stars Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, and tells the story of Linda Liddle (McAdams), a socially awkward yet hard working woman who has more than earned a promotion at the company she works for.
These hopes are cruelly dashed with the arrival of her new boss Bradley Preston (O’Brien), a petulant man child who only has the position of CEO because he inherited it.
When the two are stranded on an island as the sole survivors of a plane crash, they find their positions reversed, with Bradley now at the mercy of his cruel boss, Linda.
What follows is a battle of wills between the two, improved by great character writing and fantastic performances from both McAdams and O’Brien.

Not to mention a whole lot of fake blood.

The script does a great job of flipping the initial situation on its head.
After the crash it is extremely cathartic to see the immature Bradley be put in his place by Linda and have to count on her survival expertise to survive.
However, as the movie goes on and we get more insight into Linda’s psych and the actions it drives her too, Bradley becomes more pitiable.
This culminates in the most uncomfortable scene of the entire movie, which will have every man who watches cringing into the back of their seats.

This scene had me experiencing *Misery* flashbacks. If you know, you know.

Speaking of, this movie is very gory.
The first moment of bloody violence on the island had me sitting back and thinking, ‘Oh, yeah, this is a Sam Raimi film!”
His style is all over the movie, from its great dark humor, to the gory sequences, delivering a pretty enjoyable movie overall.
Granted, I do think the ending felt kind of lackluster, but that does certainly not destroy the film.
The film maintains a great conflict between its two lead characters, both of whom are backed up by excellent performances from their actors, delivering a funny, disturbing, and all around good time at the movies.
I recommend checking this one out, especially if you are a fan of Sam Raimi’s horror comedies.