Blumhouse Is Finally Spilling on Its ‘Five Nights at Freddy’ Movie

I was exactly one generation removed from the whole Five Nights at Freddy’s craze. By the time it was starting to take off, I already felt I’d already outgrown the “YouTube horror” thing. During PE class, me and the girlies who’d do nothing except walk around the track would trade stories from our lives, and since one of them was a year or two younger, she knew ALL about FNAF. If it weren’t for her, I’d have absolutely no idea what this franchise was even about.

Similarly, when I heard about the movie, I thought it would just be one of those projects that got picked up but would never see the light of day. Lo and behold, not only is it alive and well, we’ve finally gotten some new information about it. Blumhouse—yes, the Blumhouse that brought us M3GAN and other similarly campy horror films—is finally making the film a reality. Knowing game creator Scott Cawthon’s political values, I have to wonder if we should even be giving this franchise this much attention, but ultimately the Freddy train is showing no sign of slowing down at this point.

How similar will the Five Nights at Freddy’s film be to the game?

Per Blumhouse’s Instagram account:

The film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.

Starring Josh Hutcherson (Ultraman, The Hunger Games franchise), Matthew Lillard (Good Girls, Scream), Elizabeth Lail (You, Mack & Rita), Kat Conner Sterling (We Have A Ghost, 9-1-1), Piper Rubio (Holly & Ivy, Unstable) and Mary Stuart Masterson (Blindspot, Fried Green Tomatoes). Five Nights at Freddy’s is directed by Emma Tammi (The Wind, Blood Moon) and is written by Scott Cawthon, Emma Tammi and Seth Cuddeback.

The film’s iconic animatronic characters will be created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is produced by Jason Blum and Scott Cawthon. The film’s executive producers are Bea Sequeira, Russell Binder and Christopher H. Warner. Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse production, in association with Striker Entertainment.

In other words, it sounds like it will be following the rough plot of the first game, but with added exposition. If you’re unfamiliar with what all that entails, I’ll try to provide a summary without giving too much away.

Freddy Fazbear’s is a pizza joint á la Chuck-E-Cheese, founded by two men named Henry Emily and William Afton. Afton had a penchant for murder, starting with Emily’s daughter and eventually moving onto various children who’d come visit the pizza place. However, the ghosts of his victims would come to haunt him, and while attempting to hide from them inside an old springtrap animatronic suit, he’s crushed and trapped inside.

With these unsolved murders and supernatural spookinesses still lingering, we enter the plot of the first game, where a man named Mike Schmidt takes a job as the overnight security guy at Fazbear’s Pizza. The only contact he has with the outside world is from the guy over the office’s phone, who leaves him instructions and advice every night—mostly on how to avoid the animatronics, which roam the halls and are liable to kill any “exoskeleton” without a suit.

I’m judging from the expanded cast that they’ll either go a little bit into the “lore” of the game, or those extra voices will be the voices of the animatronics. And the involvement of Emma Tammi, who directed the 2018 supernatural western thriller The Wind, is extremely intriguing. No matter what, this movie will be a trip, to be sure. Maybe it’ll even outdo the Mario Bros. movie (but apparently, that’s not saying much).

Where can I stream the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie?

The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie will be going day and date, with Blumhouse releasing the film in theaters and on Peacock Friday, October 27th—perfect spooky season timing.

(Featured Image: ScottGames)

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