Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 has just brought on a director-writer so talented it sticks out like a sore thumb, but there’s no need to get carried away: it should stay only a light helping hand.
When an adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s was announced in 2015, we wanted to believe, given the formula’s incredibly simple and effective nature of these claustrophobic games, where cuddly-looking animatronics transform into monsters after dark. When the film hit theaters in 2023, we lost even more faith in Hollywood; and in humanity, since this dud dominated the box office, pulling in nearly $300 million on a $20 million budget.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 certainly didn’t perform as well, with “only” $240 million at the box office on a budget that rose to $36 million, but it remains an undeniable commercial success for Universal and Blumhouse. And for Scott Cawthon, the creator of the games involved in this affair.
So it’s only a matter of time before Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 lands on screens. And there should be at least a small surprise since a brilliant director-writer has joined the project to lend a hand.
IT FOLLOWS THE MONEY
It was at Sinister Creature Con, a horror and sci‑fi convention held in Sacramento, that actor Skeet Ulrich dropped this improbable nugget: David Robert Mitchell would be involved in writing Five Nights at Freddy’s 3. Yes, the director-writer of It Follows and Under the Silver Lake, who has become one of the most interesting and original voices in contemporary American cinema, will be back in the writer’s chair for the project. He first came to prominence in 2010 with The Myth of American Sleepover, and he’ll return this summer with The End of Oak Street, an intriguing film starring Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, and dinosaurs. And word is he’s also prepping the It Follows sequel, titled They Follow, where Maika Monroe will reprise her role.
The information, relayed by World of Reel, comes from Skeet Ulrich’s X account, via JonnyBlox, who captured the actor’s words, given that Ulrich appeared in FNAF2 as Henry Emily:
“We’re waiting for the script for the third one to do it. The guy who wrote It Follows is writing it right now, apparently, and there would be a lot of Matthew Lillard and me.”
The first two Five Nights at Freddy’s films were written by Scott Cawthon, the creator of the games, with support on the first by Seth Cuddeback and Emma Tammi. No doubt he will remain central on the third, and David Robert Mitchell has been hired to help. But why would the director of It Follows and Under the Silver Lake get into this? Probably for a paycheck, since this is a pure studio film. And if it lets him keep making his own movies, all the better.
In 2015, It Follows enjoyed a nice run, with more than $23 million at the box office on a budget of about $1 million, and a wave of enthusiasm that put it on everyone’s radar. That paved the way for Under the Silver Lake, which unfortunately failed in 2018, with $2 million at the worldwide box office on an estimated $8 million budget. But we love it so much that it earned a spot in our ranking of the best films of the 21st century so far.
The End of Oak Street thus marks its return to the cinema after several years away. And everyone (especially Warner Bros. and David Robert Mitchell) is left with questions, since whispers suggest this peculiar dinosaur movie cost around $80 million to make. Here’s hoping it turns out well and becomes a hit. Release in theaters on August 12.
