Five Nights At Freddy's Trailer: An Animatronic Nightmare Party

Blumhouse has been working on an adaptation of the wickedly popular "Five Nights at Freddy's" horror video game for what feels like an eternity, turning the project into something I'd believe was coming to fruition when I saw it with my own eyes. It wasn't until the announcement of Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard's casting that my skepticism finally started to crack, but once Blumhouse made it known that the film would be getting a day-and-date release between theatrical and streaming on Peacock that I finally allowed myself to get excited. Created by Scott Cawthon, the "Five Nights at Freddy's" game was first released in 2014, and completely took the world by storm. Videos of Let's Players on YouTube reacting to the jump-scare-focused point-and-click survival horror video game would constantly go viral, and its popularity with young gamers helped spawn a franchise.

The first game focuses on a security guard (you, the player) hired as the night watch for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, a far more demented and unsettling take on the Chuck E. Cheese establishment that many are familiar with. As the night goes on, it becomes evident that the animatronic characters can move on their own, and it's up to the security guard to properly allocate the power within the pizza joint to close doors and stay safe from the possessed robots. It's a brilliantly simple premise, as player enjoyment is dictated solely by their own fear responses working against them, and I'd be lying if I said Chica the Chicken wasn't responsible for a handful of my own nightmares as a full-grown adult. And now, we can all scare ourselves once more, as Blumhouse and Universal have revealed the first teaser for the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie.

Ready your flashlights!

While the original game featured a simple premise, the franchise has since spawned a pretty intense backstory, illustrated stories, and tie-in novels. This lore serves as the basis for the new horror movie, which features Matthew Lillard as the brilliant inventor William Afton, who owns the beloved chain of restaurants. He's also a maniac who likes to wear Bunny costumes and kill kids for fun, using his restaurants as his own personal hunting grounds.

Fortunately, when Josh Hutcherson's Mike Schmidt is hired as the restaurant's night guard, it seems like Afton may have finally met his match ... that is, if he can survive the ordeal and not end up stuffed into a Freddy Fazbear suit by a killer animatronic. Based on the trailer above, it's clear that director Emma Tammi knew precisely how to tackle the source material, and fans around the globe are in for one hell of a fun ride. 

"Five Nights at Freddy's" arrives in theaters and becomes available to stream on Peacock on October 27, 2023.