Freddy Fazbear finally haunts the big screen

QUINN CONSULO, A&E REPORTER

All the way back in 2015, the film rights for the famous horror video game series “Five Nights at Freddy’s” were sold and only now in 2023 has it started filming.

 The film started at Warner Brothers and eventually ended up at Blumhouse, the new kid in horror movie production, having produced films such as “Happy Death Day” and the new “Halloween” revival.

The movie had apparently been through “development hell.” The creator of the games, Scott Cawthon had stated many times how hard it was to finalize a script and only now has it happened.

Recently the cast has been revealed, Matthew Lillard, known for being in the live action Scooby-Doo movies and the first “Scream” movie as William Afton, the main villain and evil animatronic builder of the series. If this series continues, we may even see him as “Springtrap” the evil animatronic that came alive after William died inside it in Five Nights at Freddy’s 3.

Josh Hutcherson, known mostly for just “The Hunger Games”, is playing a character named “Mike.” The character starts working at Freddy’s to take care of his younger sister “Abby.” This is interesting as there is no character in the games with that game. She seems to be an analog for “Elizabeth”, Michael Afton’s sister and the spirit possessing the “Circus Baby” animatronic in the games. It is highly likely that this character either is directly or is an analog for Michael Afton, the theorized main character of the majority of the series of games.

One thing that makes me very worried about this adaptation is that “Vanessa”, the villain of the latest game “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach”, has been cast and is in this movie. The reason I find this very worrying is the fact that Security Breach takes place many, many, many years after the first game, which this seems to be an adaptation of. I’m mostly worried about the possibility of her being “Vanny” in this film, as she is possibly one of the weakest villains in horror game history.

This movie may finally give clarification on some of the wild details and theories made about the games, as it has never really been 100% clear on the wild things that happen in the games. We don’t even really know who the main character in most of the games is for sure.

The thing that I am very excited about with this film is the prospect that the Jim Henson Workshop are making the famous murderous animatronics of the games in real life. The fact that they are being done with practical robots instead of CGI brings me hope that this won’t be that horrible of a film as there seems to be attention put into making it right.

While I don’t expect this movie to be amazing as a film itself, I’m sure it will suffice for what Five Nights at Freddy’s is, a fun horror filled story about the hauntings, both literal and figurative, that one man brought upon his family.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is being filmed from right now into mid 2023, directed by Emma Tammi. Jason Blum, producer of the film has said it is likely to release in 2023 but there is no definitive release date as of yet.