Five Nights at Freddy’s is a point-and-click survival horror video game about a night time security guard at a Chuck E. Cheese’s-like pizza joint, who finds himself being attacked by a group of deranged animatronic characters. The first game was so popular it spawned four sequels while catching the eye of executives at Warner Bros - which, at one point, was reportedly ready to go forward with a Five Nights movie adaptation.

Despite subsequent reports that Five Nights at Freddy’s was moving ahead at WB with Poltergeist director Gil Kenan at the helm, a film has yet to materialize. In early 2017, game creator Scott Cawthon declared (via Steam) that the movie was “back at square one” and blamed the industry “as a whole” for creating the problems that were blocking the movie from seeing the light of day. However, the film industry now seems to be working for Scott Cawthon and Five Nights at Freddy’s, or at least that is the indication we are getting.

It’s far from a confirmation but a tweet from Scott Cawthon (see the photo below) showing a director’s chair with the name “Freddy” written on it, in front of a screen emblazoned with the Blumhouse Productions logo, would appear to indicate that a Five Nights at Freddy’s adaptation is finally moving forward.

Blumhouse Productions is a name that has become synonymous with low-budget horror, following a string of incredibly successful movies in the genre. Their movies include the highly-profitable Paranormal Activity series, the controversial and money-making The Purge series and the last two films from M. Night Shyamalan, including Split. Blumhouse is currently riding high again with the success of Jordan Peele’s racial-hot-button-pushing horror film, Get Out.

Taking even a cursory glance at Five Nights at Freddy’s, with its emphasis on straight-forward survival horror, weird characters and jump scares, it’s easy to see why Blumhouse would be attracted to the project. The fact that the property already has a built-in audience, and a fairly passionate one at that, only makes it that much more appealing.

With its story about animatronic pizza-joint characters coming to life, one can easily envision a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie that combines comedy and fright. However the movie finally turns out, you can bet Blumhouse will keep the budget very low, will put a big emphasis on jump scares and will almost certainly turn a profit at the end of the day. Maybe the property will even develop into their next on-going franchise.

Source: Scott Cawthon