Popverse's top stories of the day

• Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon knew that fans needed to hear the right music in the movie to know they were being heard - and the Living Tombstone are grateful he did
• Sliding into your DMs: Dimension 20 creator Brennan Lee Mulligan gets chatty ahead of Fantasy High and its Hollywood Bowl debut
• DC's flagship Batman series delayed a month as Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb's 'H2SH' storyline hits a snag

When Sam Haft and Yoav Landau first started working on music for a then little-known horror game called Five Nights at Freddy's more than a decade ago, they had no idea that they would one day be touring the world with it. The pair, who perform under the band name The Living Tombstone, recently sat down with Australian music outlet Wall of Sound to discuss the success of the music they wrote for the now-blockbuster horror franchise, and to show their appreciation for creator Scott Cawthon... because, according to the band, Cawthon made sure their music would be in a Five Nights at Freddy's movie, even when it wasn't even 100% certain a Five Nights at Freddy's movie would happen. 

Let's back up a bit. It was in 2014 that The Living Tombstone first began collaborating with the Five Nights at Freddy's creator, not long after the very first game came out. 

"At the time," says Landau, "I saw forums talking about this new game that just emerged just a couple of days ago and that got me to think like 'Okay, interesting. What's happening here?' And then I see that they're presenting the story in [...] like a newspaper on the wall kind of thing. And that was enough for me as a way to go off of and say, 'I'm inspired to make a song about this game that just came out.'"

That song, simply titled 'Five Nights at Freddy's,' was released just two weeks after the game came out, and fans adopted it into their hearts quickly. By 2016, the song had reached a whopping 69 million (nice) views on YouTube. Then, when the time came to adapt Five Nights at Freddy's for the big screen, creator Cawthon was bent on getting it into the peoject.

"[Cawthon] he reached out to us really early on," Landau continues, "and that was his vision basically from the very beginning. Even when the movies switched production studios."

"I think this was before Blumhouse was attached," Haft expands, "before the final director was attached. Scott had already emailed Yoav saying 'it's important to me that this song is in this film.'"

Cawthon got what he wanted, of course, with the Five Nights at Freddy's song playing over the credits at the end of the first Blumhouse-produced film. It may not seem like much to the casual viewer, but to artists like Cawthon, who is set to see another film adaptation of his work in the FNAF sequel, and the Living Tombstone, who are currently touring with the video game music they've produced, it's an example of creators lifting each other up and sharing their successes... and to fans, it's a sign that the FNAF they've come to know and love is making it into new media intact.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 comes to theaters December 5.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." We couldn't agree more, which is why we've cobbled together a couple pieces to send a chill up your spine. Join Popverse as we explore:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.