The movie adaptation of cult videogame Five Nights At Freddy’s was Peacock’s biggest-ever launch and film studio Blumhouse’s top opening of all time. So, despite some pretty mixed reviews, it’s hardly surprising that Five Nights At Freddy’s is coming back. Speaking at this week’s CinemaCon event, Universal revealed that a sequel to the horror movie is already in development, with Blumhouse later posting on X that it is due to land in the fall of 2025.
The film got lots of rather damning reviews when it opened – it’s currently sitting with a truly terrible 32% on Rotten Tomatoes – but nevertheless it did big numbers. The Hollywood Reporter says the opening was an impressive $78 million. And game adaptations are hot right now, with the Mario and Sonic movies making lots of money while more serious game adaptations such as The Last of Us and Fallout, which launched this week on Prime Video, getting plenty of kudos from the critics.
More FNAF and the return of The Blair Witch too
While the sequel to Five Nights At Freddy’s wasn’t a complete surprise – director Emma Tammi had previously said that “we have some loose ends that I think are going to have to come back in a sequel to be tied up” – Blumhouse’s other news was rather unexpected. The studio is also “reimagining” key Lionsgate movies including the (in)famous Blair Witch Project. The original 1999 movie was one of the first movies to really leverage the power of the internet, with its faked found footage leading many people to believe that its filmmakers were real people who’d encountered something seriously scary in the woods.
This isn’t the first attempt to recapture the Blair Witch Project‘s magic. There was a sequel, which was rubbish, and a reboot, which was also rubbish. But as Empire magazine says, “let’s face it – if anyone has a solid chance at making something good out of older horror titles, Jason Blum’s team have a solid track record”.
Blum said: “I’m a huge admirer of The Blair Witch Project, which brought the idea of found footage horror to mainstream audiences and became a true cultural phenomenon. I don’t think there would have been a Paranormal Activity had there not first been a Blair Witch, so this feels like a truly special opportunity and I’m excited to see where it leads.”
The sequel to Five Nights At Freddy’s is due in 2025, while the Blair Witch Project reboot doesn’t currently have a release date.
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