Five Nights at Freddy’s . Don’t go in expecting high art. Go in expecting animatronic murder carnage. It is the most faithful video game adaptation since the first Sonic , and Josh Hutcherson deserves a medal for running away from puppets.
Yes, for the first time in a decade, vinyl is old news. Blu-ray collectors are back. When Barbie hit digital purchase, Warner Bros. reported massive sales of the 4K steelbook. People are realizing that if you own the disc, Disney can’t edit The French Connection to remove a curse word, and Netflix can’t pull your favorite indie film without warning. Enough doom and gloom. Let’s get to the good stuff. Here is your cheat sheet for what’s worth your screen time (October 23 – October 29): WowGirls.24.03.12.Lily.Blossom.Fuck.Me.XXX.1080...
The most successful media of 2023 (and early 2024) proves the opposite. Look at The Last of Us . Yes, it was based on a game, but you didn’t need to play it. Look at Succession . Look at Past Lives . These stories don’t require a pre-existing emotional investment. They earn it. While the movie theaters are struggling to sell tickets to The Marvels , something interesting is happening on the small screen. The hottest new genre isn't sci-fi or fantasy. It’s the prestige procedural . Five Nights at Freddy’s
But the vibe is shifting. The audience is getting tired. We aren't just suffering from "superhero fatigue" anymore; we are suffering from sincerity fatigue . It is the most faithful video game adaptation
Horror works because it has to be clever. You can’t hide a bad horror movie behind a $200 million CGI dragon. If the script is weak, nobody screams. Audiences are flocking to horror because it delivers the one thing that the Fast & Furious franchise forgot to pack: In a horror movie, anyone can die. In a Marvel movie, nobody stays dead. The Streaming Shake-Up: Bundles Are Back (And So Is Piracy?) Just when we thought we had cut the cord, the cord has grown tentacles and come back to strangle our wallets.
In this week’s deep dive, we are looking at why the reboot boom is finally busting, and what strange, beautiful new media is crawling out of the wreckage. Here is the dirty secret that studio executives don’t want to admit: Watching modern entertainment feels like homework.