Not so long ago, video game movies were made by people with no interest in video games. One need only recall the shock and disgust gamers experienced while watching Mario and Luigi visit a leather club in Super Mario Bros. or see Jimmy and Billy Lee battle a Vanilla Ice-styled Robert Patrick in Double Dragon. But with its latest trailer, Resident Evil assures fans that director Zach Cregger is approaching the material with the love and devotion of a longtime stan.Any references to the game will probably pass by non-gamers without notice. Instead they’ll just see medical supply delivery guy Bryan (Austin Abrams, who previously worked with Cregger in Weapons) take on a dangerous assignment in exchange for extra cash. While trying to explain his actions via phone to a disappointed girlfriend, Bryan crashes his car in the snow, leaving him stranded in an unfamiliar area while a zombie attack unfolds. That’s more than enough to hook anyone interested in horror, but for fans of the games, Cregger has included plenty of references, even in just the trailer.At one point in the new sizzle reel, Bryan opens the door to an office and sees an old-timey typewriter on the desk. Regular viewers might find that typewriter ominously antiquated, but gamers breathe a sigh of relief at the reveal. That’s because typewriters indicated a safe room and a save point, allowing players to progress without fear of losing their progress before getting devoured by the next undead beastie. Well, that is, if they had the right equipment. In the first few games, players also had to use ink ribbons with the typewriter to save their games, which forced players to make a tough decision. Eventually, later games did away with the ink ribbons and allowed for unlimited saves via typewriter—an option clearly not available to Bryan in the movie.The trailer may not have ink ribbons, but it showcases other limited supplies that were a hallmark of Resident Evil games, a trailblazer in the survival horror genre. Bryan finds a shotgun in the house, which should be enough to defend himself from a few zombies. But when he opens up the firearm, he sees that he’s mising the shells. We then watch him scramble to find the shells, looking in rooms and under beds, before finally discovering them in a drawer and a green box.The fact that Bryan couldn’t just grab a gun and start firing away replicates the scariest part of the video games. Resident Evil and its sequels made the player feel constantly vulnerable, as it forced them to search for pieces to assemble into weapons, and even then gave them limited ammo. The trailer puts Bryan in the same situation, as the box he discovers holds only a handful of shells—which he must quickly load into his shotgun as a zombie runs toward him.The most significant nod to the games may be the one that occurs in the final moment of the trailer when we flash back in time to the moment Bryan agrees to take on the dangerous delivery assignment. When he asks the doctor where he’s going, she responds, “Raccoon City General.” That reveal pairs with another line of dialogue, this one from a character played by Paul Walter Hauser, who explains that “Everything that has happened in this town transpired in a matter of hours.”cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Cregger has previously explained that his movie takes place “on the periphery” of Resident Evil 2 where Raccoon City is having its big night. In that 1998 game, players control rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy and college girl Claire Redfield, guiding them through Raccoon City and visiting key locations, uncovering the role that the Umbrella Corporation played in transforming the citizens into monsters. That includes venerable Raccoon City institutions like the flashy (and derelict) police department headquarters or, in Resident Evil 3, City Hall. But those games never took us to Raccoon City General Hospital, leaving Cregger with a new place to explore in his parallel story.Whatever Raccoon City General holds for Bryan, it’s clear that gamers are in good hands with Cregger. The first movies made by Paul W.S. Anderson used the brand as little more than a launching point for a totally different type of movie while the 2021 reboot Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City went too far in the other direction, cramming the screen with fan service but forgetting to tell an engaging story.Cregger seems to be striking the right balance, making a standalone movie that anyone can enjoy while still paying homage to the games, resulting in a richer experience for those who know where to find the easter eggs.Resident Evil arrives in theaters on September 18, 2026.The post New Resident Evil Movie Trailer Confirms OG Fans Are at the Wheel appeared first on Den of Geek.