While it started life as a YouTube oddity, the Five Nights at Freddy's video game series has built a massively dedicated fan base in a very short period of time. Plans for a feature film have been around for a while, but little has come of it recently. However, it appears that has all changed as Scott Cawthon, the creator of the game series recently sent out an image that would seem to confirm the adaptation has found a home, and it may be the perfect studio, Blumhouse.
Blumhouse is an independent studio that focuses on the horror genre specifically and has had one of their biggest years to date before the end of the first quarter of 2017. The studio is responsible for both Split and Get Out and it appears that now they've got their eyes on Five Nights at Freddy's as a future major release. It must be real, as the tweet above is actually the first one Scott Cawthon has ever sent.
In addition to their recent films, Blumhouse has built up an amazing track record when it comes to horror, being responsible for franchises like Paranormal Activity, The Purge, and Insidious. If the plan is for Five Nights at Freddy's to really go all out as a horror film, there's really no place better for the movie to be made.
The basic premise of the Five Nights at Freddy's game series is fairly simple. In the original title, the player takes on the role of a night watchman at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a Chuck E. Cheese's-like restaurant that includes animatronic characters that wander around to entertain the children. The only problem is that the animatronics wander around at night too and if you don't keep your eye on them, they will murder you. Survive five nights of this and you win, that's it.
The game first got noticed as it became popular with the YouTube "Let's Play" crowd who would post videos of themselves playing the game and screaming in terror during the game's signature jump scare moments as the animatronics would attack. However, as Scott Cawthon created sequels, with a remarkable speed, people began to discover that there was a lot more going on with the games. There was a fairly deep lore being created about how the animatronics were coming to life and some terrible events that have occurred in and around the pizza parlor. Each successive game is now mined incessantly for hidden details that will complete the story. Even I'm intrigued by the lore of the series, and I've never played a minute of the games.
This is the first news we've heard about a Five Nights at Freddy's movie in quite some time so we don't really know what state the picture is currently in. Previously, Monster House director Gil Keane was attached to helm the project with Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg in charge of the script but it's been over a year since any of that was announced so it's possible any or all of them have left the project in that time. If Blumhouse is starting over from scratch then it could be a while before Five Bights ever arrives on screen. Scott Cawthon could probably make another half dozen games before now and when the movie is released.
Are you ready to spend Five Nights at Freddy's?
