New horror from Five Nights at Freddy's studio wants you to close your eyes
You're getting a gimmick-y treat in front of Five Nights at Freddy's.
You might've seen the weird teaser Blumhouse shared last Friday, October 27, alongside a short cryptic message to start promoting their new horror movie, Imaginary. Now, thanks to the American audiences who have already watched Five Nights at Freddy's in theaters instead of on Peacock, we know what the gimmick-y first trailer is all about (via IGN).
Yes, the full trailer asks viewers to cover or close their eyes and listen to roughly 50 seconds of audio that play over a black screen. Basically, a little girl is playing with her imaginary friend. There's a door opening, creepy music coming from a music box, and "thundering footsteps" before the preview tells people to open their eyes and absorb glimpses of fear as a towering monster is revealed. Apparently, the movie itself will be a regular experience, but this is an exciting and certainly different way to kick off the marketing campaign for a horror movie that's been flying under everyone's radar and is now set to release on March 8, 2024. The original synopsis reads as follows: "A woman returns to her childhood home to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is very real and unhappy that she abandoned him." The movie is directed by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2).
This could be yet another big win for Blumhouse, the mainstream horror studio that has quickly become Hollywood's biggest with both recognizable-IP movies and original projects that cost relatively little to make and typically bring in large sums of cash. This year alone, the studio has released M3GAN, Sick, There's Something Wrong with the Children, Unseen, Insidious: The Red Door, The Passenger, Totally Killer, The Exorcist: Believer, and Five Nights at Freddy's. The last two (released in October) are an interesting phenomenon to examine, as the sequel (first of a planned trilogy) to The Exorcist underperformed despite all the money and marketing that went into it while FNAF has been breaking all kinds of records over the past weekend.
In case you didn't know, Blumhouse and James Wan's Atomic Monster (another modern horror powerhouse) are finalizing the details to merge in the near future, and it's hard to argue against the union after the oversized success of recent collaborations: M3GAN earned $180 million worldwide on a $12 million budget, and Insidious: The Red Door made $188 million while only spending $16 million on production costs.
Looking for good horror picks to watch on Halloween and beyond? Don't miss our lists of the best horror films available on Netflix right now, the top 10 best folk horror flicks, and the 10 horniest horror films ever.
