Overview
Don't work at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. That's the message at the heart of video-game franchise Five Nights at Freddy's, and has been since 2014. The folks earning a paycheque at the fictional joint, particularly the unlucky night-time employees, tend to get some rather unpleasant company: the restaurant's animatronic animal mascots turning murderous.
In the button-mashing space, the concept has unsurprisingly proven a hit. So far, nine games have brandished the Five Nights at Freddy's name in the franchise's main series, plus a range of spinoffs. Next, however, it'll be cinemas that are splashing that moniker around. Joining The Super Mario Bros Movie and Gran Turismo among 2023's big-screen game-to-film releases, a feature version of Five Nights at Freddy will hit picture palaces in October.
Josh Hutcherson (The Disaster Artist), Matthew Lillard (Good Girls), demonic robots: they're all in the just-dropped full trailer for movie take on the horror favourite. Hutcherson plays a security guard clocking in for this first night on the job, then discovering what's really in store. And those animatronics Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy? They're courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
Also appearing on-screen are Elizabeth Lail (You), Piper Rubio (Unstable), Kat Conner Sterling (We Have a Ghost) and Mary Stuart Masterson (Blindspot). Putting Scream star Matthew Lillard in any horror movie is always a nice touch, too.
Emma Tammi (The Wind) directs, while prolific horror producer Jason Blum is behind the movie via his company Blumhouse, adding it to a roster that's also given us The Black Phone, Freaky, Black Christmas, the Happy Death Day flicks and the most recent Halloween trilogy in the past few years.
And, yes, Blumhouse just brought M3GAN our way as well, because 2023 is clearly the year of the unhinged machines.
Also, Willy's Wonderland riffed on the same concept a few years back, if you're not a gamer and you're wondering why the concept sounds familiar. That movie's highlight: starring the one and only Nicolas Cage.
Check out the trailer for Five Nights at Freddy's below:
Five Nights at Freddy's releases in cinemas Down Under on October 26.