Unlock a new level of fear with these Resident Evil 4 remake mods

Play as Keanu Reeves, give yourself a chainsaw, and fight Shrek

Capcom’s hotly anticipated Resident Evil 4 remake might only be out in demo form right now, but already a growing army of talented modders are unleashing waves of weird and wonderful content for it.

Below, you’ll find nine mods that turn the game on its head. Some of these community creations dial up the scares; others upend them completely. But all offer fresh ways to play, and give you an exciting glimpse into the modded mayhem that awaits if you’ve decided to spice up the vanilla game or its free demo.

Make sure to read our full Resident Evil 4 remake walkthrough for everything you need to find treasures and complete requests like the Blue Medallions and Pest Control or to find all Clockwork Castellan locations in the game.

Play as Keanu Reeves

It’s a fact: inserting Keanu Reeves into any game automatically makes it better. Nothing against Resident Evil 4’s protagonist Leon Kennedy, but playing as an almost photorealistic Reeves, looking just as detailed as he does in Cyberpunk 2077, gives the game even greater action spectacle. It’s like a horror John Wick. 

Even the unchanged voice acting works, Leon’s stoic lines not sounding out of place coming from the mouth of Reeves. Plus, you can’t deny he looks good in that sheepskin leather bomber jacket, and that’s no easy feat.

• Keanu Reeves mod by Crazy Potato

Wield a chainsaw

In the 2005 original, Leon has only a combat knife as his melee-based means of protection at the start of the game. In 2023, however, mods give you the ability to swap that knife for something with far more bite - like a massive, rusty chainsaw.

Now you can go toe-to-toe with the ever-terrifying Dr Salvador, AKA Chainsaw Man, and fight him at his own game. Press LB/L1, and you’ll parry his chainsaw with yours, sending sparks flying. OK, so your chainsaw doesn’t have any extra moves, and essentially functions as the knife it’s masquerading as, but it’s still fun to whip it magically out of your back pocket and give your sack-headed nemesis a taste of his own medicine.

• Chainsaw Knife mod by linkthehylian

Fight giant villagers

As if the game's village siege couldn’t get any scarier, this mod gives your enemies an unprecedented growth spurt, making them 25ft tall; whipping out your binoculars to watch a supersized Ganado stomping around with a pitchfork the length of a telephone pole is one thing; getting chased by a dozen of them is a different level of terror.

Fear very quickly turns to farce though as the enraged townfolk start awkwardly bumbling around an area that’s about five sizes too small for them.

• Chainsaw Demo Titan Ganados mod by EXQRAY

Survive ultra-hard mode

The aptly named ‘Mindblowing Difficulty’ mod ramps up the punishment and adds an assortment of extreme challenges to overcome. For example, Dr Salvador’s now bigger, faster, and takes even more shots to put down. There are also loads more villagers spilling out into the already packed streets, just as crazed as ever.

And, you’ll have longer in their company too, since this mod doubles the length of time before the demo ends. If you’ve miraculously managed to reach the end of the demo without breaking a sweat, this mod is for you.

• Chainsaw Demo Mindblowing Difficulty mod by EXQRAY

Meet and kill Shrek

Everyone’s favourite green ogre enters the fray in this deeply off-putting mod that reimagines Chainsaw Man as Shrek. True to form, he clearly wants you nowhere near his swamp, attacking you on sight with a level of bloodlust never before seen in a Dreamworks picture.

Sometimes Shrek’s ungainly proportions clip through the environment, but that just makes the whole thing more unsightly. While Dr Salvador cuts an intimidating figure, there’s something even worse about being stalked by a silent, unmerciless Shrek as he relentlessly gives chase. The character’s voice actor sharing a name with slasher icon Michael Myers suddenly makes a lot more sense.

• Shreck mod by Iven 

Make Leon a baby

Rediscover your inner child with this bizarre mod that replaces Leon’s head with a big baby. Those who’ve played Resident Evil Village might recall a similar mod for protagonist Chris Redfield. In fact, the same creator made both.

Of course, the baby head you’re seeing isn’t actually a de-aged versions of our hero. Instead, it borrows the head of Chris and Mia’s child in Resident Evil Village, Rosemary. Easily the creepiest Leon head replacement so far, but it’s still early days.

• Baby Strikes Back mod by JTeghius Kittius

Enable nostalgia mode

Combine two mods and relive the original game in all its blurry, standard-definition glory. The first is the CRT filter, a retro overlay that mirrors how the GameCube-era Resident Evil 4 looked when you played it on your chunky TV all those years ago, complete with horizontal scan lines and digital noise.

• CRT Filter mod by BonusJZ

The low fidelity adds a certain grime and scuzz, which makes the horror feel even nastier. But there’s nothing nasty about the second mod, which changes Leon’s 2023 outfit to his vintage 2005 threads, complete with blurry boot-cut jeans and weird rubberised undersuit. So much time has passed it’s actually come back into fashion.

• Original 2005 game suit mod by HOLS

Obtain the mighty banana

Anyone who says the pen is mightier than the sword has clearly never used a banana in martial combat. In this mod a half-peeled one replaces your pistol, and it makes for just as deadly a sidearm.

If you want to really make a meal for yourself, try whipping out your knife after downloading this mod - you’ll now find it’s transformed into a giant spoon. Even the icons in your briefcase’s inventory screen change into a banana and spoon, making it look less like your field kit and more like your school lunch box.

Play as long as you like

In the vanilla version of the Resident Evil 4 demo, you can only play the village siege section for a few minutes before the church bells ring and summon all the villagers inside, ending the demo. That’s no longer the case with this mod, which removes the church bells and lets you fight as much as you like.

Not only that, but this mod gives you the option to toggle infinite ammo and durability too, so you can play entirely free from pressure.

• Church Bell No More mod by praydog