From Raccoon City outskirts to the big screen
The Resident Evil franchise has had a complicated relationship with Hollywood. After years of loosely connected action films, director Zach Cregger (Weapons) is taking a different approach with his upcoming adaptation, and the latest trailer makes clear he actually played the games.
The film follows Bryan (played by Austin Abrams), a medical courier who picks up a delivery job just outside Raccoon City. Things go sideways fast. He ends up trapped in what looks like an abandoned farmhouse, surrounded by creatures that very much want him dead. The story is original, set on the edges of the Resident Evil 2 continuity rather than retelling it beat for beat.
Cregger has been vocal about loading the film with Easter eggs for series fans, and this new trailer delivers on that promise in a pretty satisfying way.
The Easter eggs fans are already pausing on
Here's the thing: the callbacks in this trailer are not the kind of blink-and-you-miss-it background props that studios throw in to tick a box. They feel deliberate.
The most immediately recognizable nod is a typewriter sitting in the farmhouse, which any series veteran will clock instantly. Typewriters have been the save mechanic across the classic Resident Evil games, and seeing one planted in a key scene is a clear signal to the fanbase. Right alongside it, the trailer shows a box of shotgun shells in what appears to be the same location, another staple item that series players have been hunting through dark corridors since 1996.
The third callback is baked into the premise itself. Bryan's job as a medical courier means the literal package he's risking his life to deliver is a medical pack, a direct nod to the health item that has kept players alive across every entry in the franchise, including Resident Evil 5.
The survival horror tone lands too. The trailer is deliberately paced and tense rather than action-heavy, which puts it much closer to the atmosphere of the games than previous film adaptations managed.
The moment that will stick with you
Beyond the Easter eggs, there is one sequence in the trailer that is genuinely unsettling. Bryan returns to a blood-splattered hospital corridor and spots a very small hand, possibly belonging to a zombie infant, reaching out from a cot.
That single image does more for the film's horror credentials than a full minute of creature effects. It suggests Cregger understands that Resident Evil's scariest moments have always been about dread and implication, not just monsters.
What this means for fans of the games
For anyone who has spent time with the series, this trailer reads as a genuine attempt to honor the source material. The production is not trying to reinvent the franchise as a blockbuster action property. The farmhouse setting, the isolation, the careful placement of familiar items, all of it points toward a film that wants to feel like playing a Resident Evil game, not just being named after one.
The Resident Evil 5 co-op era proved the franchise could go bigger and louder. Cregger is pulling in the opposite direction, back toward the claustrophobic single-player dread that defined the early entries. If you want to revisit what that survival horror tension felt like before heading into theaters, the Resident Evil 5 guides are a good reminder of how the series built tension through resource scarcity and enemy placement.
The film opens September 18. Between now and then, the Easter egg hunting in this trailer is only going to get more thorough as fans frame-by-frame the farmhouse scenes. For broader context on the games referenced in the film, the full gaming guides hub is worth a look before you head into the theater.
