A Binge too Far #59: The Decadent Arts and Sinful Crafts of the Five Nights at Freddy's duo (2023 – 2025)

Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) poster

Based on the same-titled video games that spawned a whole universe of novels and action figures, this duo of horror films from Blumhouse was panned by critics, but became a sensation for audiences.

 

Five Night at Freddy's (2023)

Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023)

 

Mike (Josh Hutcherson) lives with trauma – inherited by his missing brother who was taken many years ago – and doesn’t seem able to put his life together as he is a certified loser that keeps getting fired by one dead-end job after the other. His newest gig is as a security guard in an abandoned pizzeria that back in the 1980s was massive attraction for youngsters, mainly due to a selection of animatronics human-sized toys. But spending the nights in the old building won’t be an easy feat.

 

Made on a modest $20 million budget – which surprisingly managed to afford some pretty stunning mechanical special effects – by producers Jason Blum and Scott Cawthon, this is rarely creepy, and it is rarely lively enough to maintain your interest. Director Emma Tammi [The Wind (2018)] does a competent job, but most of it is standard (by the numbers) coverage, and it doesn’t really offer anything inspired. The critics took note and commented negatively, but somehow audiences loved it as it grossed a stunning $297.1 million – an excellent amount that spawned a sequel.

 

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (2025)

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (2025)

 

Although this was made a couple of years after the original, it is set a year after the events of the first film and it finds Abby (Piper Rubio) reconnecting her animatronics friends from the local abandoned pizzeria when she feels left out of science class, but as the deadly robots offer an emotional hand of help, they also offer pain.

 

Once again directed by Emma Tammi, this doesn’t really take advantage of the potential that creepy animatronics could have – it is only really scary on very few occasions – and it even spends a lot of time to unnecessary character development, in a needless attempt to present itself as a serious suspense picture, forgetting that it needs to be a horror movie. Nonetheless it grossed a bombastic $237 million, so who am I to judge?

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A Binge too Far #56 – M3GAN unleashed (2022 – 2025)

 

A stunning frame from M3GAN (2022)

Hold on to your vaginas!

 

M3GAN (2022) poster

M3GAN (2022)

 

Following a horrible car accident due to heavy snow falling that kills both her parents, young girl Cady [Violet McGraw from Doctor Sleep (2019)] is taken under the custody of her aunt Gemma [Allison Williams from Get Out (2017)] who is a brilliant robotics engineer that works for a massive toy company, and amidst her new project M3GAN which is a human-like android learning and adapting in correlation with its surrounding environment, namely the kid that it identifies as the user. M3GAN (played by Amie Donald and with the aid of some excellent special effects of every kind) is a stunning design that advances both Gemma’s career (just before its commercial launch she is named the company’s most valuable asset) and her role as a parent as she becomes Cady’s best friend and protector. However, the robot doll gets out of control and will go as far as murder to protect her best friend.

 

Based on a story by Akeka Cooper (who also penned the screenplay) and James Wan (who also produced, with Jason Blum), this was directed by Gerard Johnstone, and it is fun, eerie, and outright entertaining science fiction horror, so lively in fact that it can only be compared with the genre’s biggest hits from the 1980s. A refreshing and thrilling ride that was made on a modest $12 million, it went on to gross $181 million (a sequel has already been expectedly announced), becoming a filmgoer phenomenon and a meme-producing global trend. Many films from Blumhouse make a lot of money on conservative budgets, but this is an outstanding work that will stay with audiences forever. If you can see only one film from this article, do yourself a favor and let it be this one.

 

 

M3GAN 2.0 (2025) poster

M3GAN 2.0 (2025)

 

Big tech corporations with connections to secret military agencies steal precious code and create Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), an AI robot that goes on a murder spree, seemingly on her own accord, leaving no choice to Gemma (Allison Williams, who aso produced with James Wan, and Jason Blum), but to resurrect M3GAN (returning Amie Donald) in order to protect her and Cady (returning Violet McGraw).

 

Built on the riches of the first film’s popularity and with a $25 million budget, this is a massive upgrade on the original – with the scope change echoing a certain James Cameron franchise, that bears similarities to plot as well – but whereas everything is indeed bigger and better (especially when it comes to the cutting-edge CGI employed), it lacks the eeriness of its predecessor, so much that the end result cannot really qualify as a horror movie, but rather as an action sci-fi opus. However writer/director Gerard Johnstone feels very confident with the material and provides some brilliant staging, especially during the spectacularly-choreographed ballet-styled action sequences. Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster were hoping that this would elevate them to bigger studio status, but the audiences didn’t fell for the plan and the film grossed a mere $39.1 million