Around the middle of the 2010s there was simply nothing hotter on planet Earth than the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. The games had captured the imaginations of a very hardcore fanbase and with new games coming at a fast clip that fanbase made sure that Freddy Fazbear and Co. were the most talked about thing on the internet at any given time. Naturally the explosion of the franchise resulted in all sorts of licensing and merchandise deals including clothes, toys, and of course a movie deal. The premise of a pizza place’s animatronic mascots turning into ferocious murderers actually lends itself quite well to a movie adaptation, so it seemed that just like with the mainline game series a film would be cranked out in time to take advantage of the whirlwind of popularity Five Nights at Freddy’s was receiving. That… is not what happened.
Following its initial announcement in 2015, the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie ran into all sorts of trouble, blowing through directors and producers and movie studios like the victims in a horror movie. After announcing a sort of full reboot of the project in early 2017, we haven’t heard much about the movie since other than it’s still being worked on. Now the better part of a decade after its initial announcement and Five Nights at Freddy’s is finally ready to release later this year, as announced in this surprisingly awesome new teaser trailer.
I have no idea if the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie will actually be any good, and I have no idea if that’s what the creators even intend for it to be honest. Horror movies in particular shoot for a certain type of camp and humor rather than trying to win any awards for amazing storytelling. One thing I can say though is that this teaser shows just how well the movie captures the vibe and aesthetic of the Five Nights at Freddy’s games, which isn’t too surprising as series creator Scott Cawthon has been heavily involved in the movie since 2017 when they announced that production would be starting over from scratch. I’m not really that big into the games myself, but I’ll definitely be interested in how this movie turns out when Five Nights at Freddy’s hits theaters and Peacock streaming simultaneously on October 27th this year.
