That poor Josh Hutcherson – he can’t catch a break. For years he was terrorised in The Hunger Games as Peeta, forced into all kinds of death-matches and mentally tortured to boot. And just when he thought he’d picked up an easy job working security at a family restaurant – the kind with those creepy animatronic singing animals that kids love and adults know are deeply sinister – it turns out that’s cursed too. Yes, Hutcherson is the human lead of the long-awaited Five Nights At Freddy’s movie, which adapts the popular horror video game series in which those pesky animatronics come to murderous life after dark. Watch the first teaser:
Still hungry for pizza after all that? Then head down to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, and you’ll be in for a big surprise. This adaptation comes from Blumhouse, with Emma Tammi in the director’s chair – and original game creator Scott Cawthon among the writers. As well as Hutcherson, it brings the big-screen return of Matthew Lillard – and best of all, the creature effects bringing Freddy, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken and Foxy the Pirate Fox to life are being handled by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Here’s hoping the actual puppets don’t turn out to be murderous too.
Can this one continue the recent trend of video game adaptations done properly? Will it satisfy fans of the games and newcomers alike? Will there be a tie-in pizza for us to devour while we watch the characters try to survive Freddy’s rampage? We’ll find out when Five Nights At Freddy’s comes to cinemas from 27 October.