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

A Binge too Far #51: The Firestarter duo (1984 – 2022)

 

Drew Barrymore as Charlene in Firestarter (1984)

Stephen King’s Firestarter (1980) horror novel about a young girl with the rare ability of pyrokinesis is one of the best examples of his early work, and it was adapted for the big screen as a blockbuster film in 1984, a mini-series in 2002, and a bombastic remake ensued recently, in 2022. For this article we give a brief look to the two theatrical releases, while the mini-series will be tackled in the next instalment of the more appropriate Static Age column.

 

Firestarter (1984) poster

Firestarter (1984)

 

While hippies in college and desperate for money, Andrew McGee (David Keith) and Vicky Tomlinson (Heather Locklear) participated in a medical experiment that involved a dodgy hallucinating drug. Most of the participant had horrible side-effects, but the protagonist couple gained the power of telepathy. What’s more, years later, their daughter Charlene (Drew Barrymore) inherited a variation of the power, in the form of pyrokinesis. Now the government (specifically a team lead by Geoge C. Scott) is after the young girl and her ability to set things on fire.

 

Looking like a John Carpenter film all the way through (and the horror legend was indeed attached to the project early on), this 1980s horror classic was instead directed by Mark Lester [a masterful craftsman who in the next year would offer us the last word on action cinema, in the form of Commando (1985)], and while it is a bit slow during its first half, the finale becomes a spectacle like no other, with real fire special effects dominating the proceedings (the generous $12 million budget allowed the film to look big and rich). It’s a pity that it didn’t set the box-office at fire though, as it grossed a mere $18.9 million in worldwide rentals.

 

Firestarter (2022) poster

Firestarter (2022)

 

Andrew McGee (Zac Efron) and Vicky Tomlinson (Sydney Lemmon) participate in a medical experiment involving a hallucinating drug that ends up giving them the powers of telepathy and telekinisis. As a bizarre result, their daughter Charlene (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) ends up with the power of pyrokinesis, and is now the most wanted person by the Department of Scientific Intelligence (DSI) that wants to study and use her ability to set the world on fire, literally.

 

Produced by Jason Blum and Akiva Goldsman (for Blumhouse Productions and Weed Road Pictures) on a comparatively generous $12 million budget (that cannot explain the terribly CGI fires on display) and with director Keith Thomas [The First Omen (2024)] at the helm, this plays like a standard modern horror programmer, that is never scary, nor atmospheric. The score by John Carpenter (who finally got involved with this), Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies is much better than the actual film. It was hated by critics, and it grossed a mere $15 million, but audiences caught up with it on Peacock.

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