By: Julia Yang

You may not have heard, but Blumhouse Productions is making a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. A Five Nights at Freddy’s movie has been long awaited by its fans and community. Some people have waited 5-7 years for a movie to come out, and fans couldn’t believe it when Blumhouse said it was really happening.

It’s being directed by Emma Tammi and written by Seth Cuddeback and Scott Cawthon — the creator of the FNAF franchise.

Scott Cawthon has been retired from the Five Nights at Freddy’s community ever since June of 2021 because of controversy around his political beliefs. Scott stated that he would not be stepping back entirely, but would play a lesser role in the development of FNAF. Even so, Scott has come back one last time as the FNAF creator to help write and release this movie that his fans have wanted for so long to see.

For those who are interested in watching, the movie is going to be live-action and won’t hold back on any violence or gore. It will be very detailed and explicit with the darkness that is Five Nights at Freddy’s. This means that minors are heavily advised to skip this movie and leave it to another year or four.

There have already been many set leaks and behind the scene pictures and videos of the movie being made; fans seeing these pictures makes them all the more impatient. Here are a few:

Here is a list of the cast that we know of:

• Kellen Goff as Michael Schmidt.
• Bill Skarsgard as William Afton (The Purple Guy).
• Scott Cawthon as The Phone Guy.
• Frank Welker as The Pizzeria Manager.
• Nathan Gamble as C.C Afton (Opening Scene).
• Real Robots-Animatronics as Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Golden Freddy (Fredbear (Opening Scene) and Spring-Bonnie (Opening Scene).

The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie releases on October 27th of 2023, so be ready, and be excited!

For more information, please visit:

• ●  https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiWyaDgkbb-AhVQj4kEHW-HBsIQF noECDsQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmovieideas.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FFive_Nights_at_Freddy%2527s_(2022)&usg= AOvVaw3nyYfSwVNRzD8AmP6nH9kV
• ●  https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjhpvH4kbb-AhXxk4kEHcFACBsQF noECB4QAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.centromachiavelli.com%2Fen%2F2022%2F01%2F20%2Fscott-cawthon-conse rvative-retirment%2F&usg=AOvVaw3t651zTp1yjG1q9hVMVWjj
• ●  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4589218/?scrlybrkr=638dcda4

By: Bijou Kruszka

The Addams Family: everyone has heard of them. With its distinct characters and deadpan, dark humor, the franchise has certainly cemented its place in popular culture. For those unfamiliar, the Addams Family consists of Gomez, the sword-wielding father; Morticia, the dark, seductive mother; Wednesday, the sarcastic daughter; Pugsley, the pain-tolerant brother; Fester, the eccentric uncle; Grandma, the kooky old lady; Lurch, the zombie butler; and Cousin It, a literal ball of hair. So, needless to say, there’s a lot of oddities to be found in these characters. However, they’ve been through a lot of different variations.

While most people think of the Addams family as characters from the silver screen, they actually started off as comic characters. The Addams Family debuted in 1938, as the creation of cartoonist Charles Addams. They appeared in single-panel comics in the publication ‘The New Yorker’. Looking at these comics, it is very clear to see the origin of these characters. However, originally they had no names or dialogue, only known as the Addams family because they were drawn by Charles Addams. Charles Addams drew 150 Addams Family comics in his lifetime.

Inspired by Addams’s comics, David Levy brought the Addams Family to television. Premiering on September 18th, 1964, this version of the Addams family created the characters we know and love today. Their dark sense of humor and macabre personalities captured the attention of many viewers. Plus, the TV show debuted the iconic, snapping theme song, composed by Vic Mizzy. Every Friday night at 8:30pm, viewers everywhere would tune in to watch the odd sitcom. The show ran on ABC for 64 episodes, plus a holiday special, concluding in 1967.

After the end of the television show, the Addams Family went relatively silent until 1991, when Paramount released the film ‘The Addams Family’. The film was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starred Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci, Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd. The plot follows a doppelgänger of Fester trying to infiltrate the Addams family. It was relatively well-received with audiences and critics alike, and led to a sequel in 1993: ‘Addams Family Values’. The main cast from the previous film returned, along with famed actress Joan Cusack. There was also a straight-to-DVD movie ‘Addams Family Reunion’, which replaced Raul Julia with Tim Curry. The film series is probably the most well-known and iconic piece of the franchise.

In 2019, another Addams Family movie was released, but this time the family was animated. The character designs drew heavily from the comics, but they were updated to make it three-dimensional. The movie featured a star-studded cast, with celebrities like Nick Kroll, Finn Wolfhard, Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, and Bette Midler all lending their voices. The movie led to mediocre critical reviews, but grossed $200 million in the box office. So, in 2021, ‘The Addams Family 2’ was released, which followed the family on a road trip. It received much less favorable reviews, and grossed $120 million.

Most recently, Netflix released the series ‘Wednesday’. Where Wednesday differs from previous adaptations is the significant lack of the rest of the Addams family. It only focuses on Wednesday, as she attends a mysterious boarding school. It still manages to keep the deadpan tone of the Addams family though. Directed by Tim Burton and starring Jenna Ortega, this series rose to unprecedented popularity through TikTok, becoming a viral hit with teens everywhere.

The final adaptation on this list is the Addams Family musical. Premiering on Broadway in 2010, this show keeps the macabre humor that the Addams family is known for, adds a musical twist, and is overall an incredibly fun watch. If you want to watch something related to the Addams family soon, you’re in luck. Highland Park’s very own production of ‘The Addams Family’ is opening on April 20th at 7pm. The other showtimes are April 21st at 7pm, and April 22nd at 2pm and 7pm. Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for adults. Everyone involved in the production has worked very hard to make it a good one, and we hope to see you there!

By: Biftu Osman and Hannah Gliedman

The Oscars, also referred to as the Academy Awards, are notable awards awarded to people in the film industry who have achieved artistic and technical excellence. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences presents it every year.

The event was formed in 1927, but the award ceremonies began in 1929, and winners of each category have received a gold-plated statuette known as an Oscar. This year marked the 95th anniversary of the Academy Awards.

On Sunday, March 12th, it was televised nationally from the Dolby Theater at the Ovation Hollywood.

Aside from the awards, the night of the Oscars is one many look at as one of the biggest nights in Hollywood, and this year was no different. The fashion and red carpet started the evening with excitement. Rihanna came in a black leather, pleated Alaïa dress while also being pregnant. Malala Yousafzai arrived in a silver rhinestone Ralph Lauren dress. Cara Delevinge came dressed in a beautiful, red, long dress with a rose on her shoulder, she was dressed by Elie Saab.

Along with some of the best dressed, there were also some stars dubbed the worst dressed at the Oscars. These people include Halle Berry in Tamara Ralph, Eva Longoria in Zuhair Murad, and as much as we hate to say it, Florence Pugh in Valentino.

Even without being named on a worst or best dressed list, many celebrities attended the Oscars. With or without nominations, some of these actors included: Andrew Garfield, Michael B. Jordan, Emily Blunt, Cate Blanchett, Kate Hudson, Ana de Armas, Nicole Kidman, Mindy Kaling, and many more.

Host, Jimmy Kimmel, started out the evening with a bang. He crash landed on stage with a parachute.

There are 23 possible categories films could win an Oscar for. Categories called “big five” are the five most recognizable categories, they include: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, is a horror/sci-fi film that came out in March of 2022. The movie, along with its directors and lead actress, won 7 Academy Awards.

The movie won the Best Picture award out of the 10 films nominated, as well as the majority of the other Oscars.

Against four other nominees, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert received the best director award, Michelle Yeoh won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as the lead character in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, and the movie received the award for Best Original Screenplay.

Brenden Fraser won the award for Best Actor in a Lead Role, as his character Charlie, in the movie ‘The Whale’.

Outside of the main “best five” categories, we personally believe the following categories are equally as significant to the Oscars; Best Animated Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing.

• Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’ won Best Animated Film over four other nominees.
• ‘Nalvany’ won the Oscar for Best Documentary, beating out four other nominees.
• ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
• The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects went to ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’.
• Finally, ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ received the Best Film Editing Oscar.

There were a couple firsts during the Oscars this year.

The award for best original song went to “Naatu Naatu” from the movie ‘RRR’, which marked the first time an Indian song won this category. The song also beat out Rihanna for the song “Lift Me Up” from the movie ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’.

When Michelle Yeoh won the award for best actress, for her performance in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, she became the first Asian actor to win in the best actor category.

There were also many interesting and exciting moments throughout the night besides the awards. Many artists came to sing, these people include Lady Gaga singing “Hold My Hand” from the movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and Rihanna sang “Lift Me Up’”

There were also moments of remembrance throughout the night. Lenny Kravitz performed “Calling All Angels” from his 2004 album in the memorial tribute. John Travolta came out to honor his late co-star Olivia Newton-John. This year’s tribute also honored Vangelis, Jean-Luc Godard, James Caan, Ray Liotta, Angelo Badalamenti, Burt Bacharach, Angela Lansbury, Robbie Coltrane, Tom Whitlock, Mary Alice, and Douglas Kirkland, among others.

Overall, the Oscars were a very exciting and memorable night that honored and emphasized many different actors.

By: Mya Olson – Williams

As many book lovers know, an announcement was recently made about the cast list for the film adaption of Colleen Hoover’s popular novel, ‘It Ends With Us’. It’s caused lots of controversy and received much criticism. Casted as the main characters, Lily Bloom and Ryle Kincaid, are Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Although both are great actors, here’s who I would cast for the main roles, as well as the others.

Lily Bloom – Elle Fanning

Lily Bloom has an innocent, sweet, and delicate character. Elle Fanning shows that in her appearance and voice. Lily is a natural redhead and also quite young in the book. Elle is extremely close in age, just one year older. If the actress playing Lily was older, that could change people’s perception of the plot and character development. Elle also looks amazing with red hair, so much so that it looks very natural. Although Blake pulls off the new hair color, you can tell that it’s dyed.

Ryle Kincaid – Theo James

In the novel, Ryle comes off as this intimidating, powerful, and uptight guy. Theo James has a defined resting face that can almost give you chills. He has a soft and sweet smile, but also a straight face that makes me a little bit uneasy. That’s how I imagine Ryle to be, someone with deceiving looks. I bet Justin Baldoni can totally play his character, but he looks super sweet and gentle, somewhat unlike Ryle.

Atlas Corrigan – Dylan Minnette

Atlas Corrigan is the definition of a gentleman. He cares about his loved ones very much, and protects them with everything he can. Dylan usually plays sweet and innocent characters in movies and TV shows, which is why I think he’d fit Atlas’ character perfectly. He’s really good at wearing his heart on his sleeve while acting, and that’s one of the most important things needed from the actor who plays Atlas.

Allysa – Sarah Hyland

Allysa is your stereotypical fun, outgoing, gossip loving, supportive best friend. She’s always encouraging Lily to do what’s best for herself and have fun at the same time. I wanted to find an actress who resembles my vision of what Allysa looks like in my head, and she is exactly that. Sarah Hyland looks just like she’s fun and confident, like Allysa.

Marshal – Joel Courtney

Marshal is super funny and sweet. He’s the guy who makes you laugh when you need it after a rough chapter in the book. Joel Courtney is the exact same way in the movie ‘The Kissing Booth’. He plays a great friend and a fun, loving guy, which I think is absolutely perfect for Marshal’s character.

Although I’m sure everyone casted for this movie was chosen for a reason, these are who I imagine as a cast for the main characters. I can’t wait for the real cast list to come out, and see if the movie does justice to the book!

By: Jessica Garcia Saligan

Introduction

A good show to recommend if you like watching Drama and Supernatural shows is ‘Manifest’, there’s 4 seasons.

There’s a group of people that get on a plane and next thing you know, once they get off, passengers think it has been only a few hours but in reality it’s been 5 years.

Each season has around 10-16 episodes and each episode is 42 minutes long. ‘Manifest’ starts off with the airport offering people to give up their seats for an amount of money, the only thing is that they will arrive later.

The group of passengers and crew of the commercial airline get on a plane; 828. The flight starts off like a normal flight and all of a sudden a storm appears. At first it was only a little turbulence but that’s when a really big storm hit and made the plane start to shake and started going all over the place. The plane lost signal and couldn’t get anyone on the line.

After a little while they finally made a stop at this one airline and that’s when the whole plane was surrounded by cops, news, and and even the government. All the passengers were all confused on why the plane was surrounded and that’s when the governor tells them that they have been missing since April 7th, 2013, and when they returned, it’s November 4th, 2018. They had been missing for 5 years and were presumed dead.

A few of the passengers have a little voice in their head that tells them to do something where they are at, when they try to ignore it the voice gets louder and louder, and that makes them follow what the voice is telling them. But the voices are somehow connected with the investigation the passengers are doing.

Throughout the episodes, and the season, a few passengers try to figure out what happened to them, to see if it was set up by the government like an experiment.

If you want to find out more, you can watch the show on Netflix.

By: Bijou Kruszka

In 1974, Stephen King released his novel ‘Carrie,’ a story detailing the horrific experiences of a teenage girl dealing with high school bullies and an aggressively devout Christian mother. The book quickly became very popular, and its iconic film adaptation in 1976 only boosted its reputation.

Few people would see the source material and think that the obvious next step was a Broadway musical; but Lawrence Cohen, Dean Pitchford, and Michael Gore had a creative vision. They spent years writing it, casting it, and
getting enough money to get it off the ground. By 1984, they had enough of their project to start production.

Cohen, Pitchford, and Gore partnered with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Britain to begin production of ‘Carrie: the Musical.’ However, since the writers lived in America, they handed off creative control to a British director, Terry Hands. This was where things started to go awry. Miscommunications between the creatives were abundant. The most famous was between Hands and producer Fran Weissler.

When discussing costuming over the phone, Weissler commented that she wanted the high school students to look similar to the classic musical ‘Grease’. Somehow, Hands misinterpreted ‘Grease’ for Greece. Yes, you read that right, Greece, like the country. Hands then made the artistic choice for all the students to wear togas, while doing dances at prom and in gym class.

This only foreshadowed the catastrophes to come.

Another bizarre creative decision was found in the set. The creative team really wanted to highlight the show’s finale, in which Carrie and her mother die. So, they constructed an enormous white staircase for the two to sing their final song on. This staircase took up a significant portion of the $8 million budget, and appears for a mere 10 minutes. These creative decisions were incredibly strange, and would only be a part of the overall failure of ‘Carrie.’

On top of bizarre creative decisions, there were also many technical failures. One way things did not go as planned was the blood. Anyone who is familiar with ‘Carrie’ knows that the most infamous part of the story is when Carrie gets pig blood poured on her after she is crowned prom queen. So, it was a key element in the adaptation. However, with test runs of corn syrup mixtures, it became very clear Carrie could not actually be covered in blood. The mixtures clogged Carrie’s microphone, and would cause all her cast mates to slip and fall. Instead, the creatives opted for a bright red laser light show. Now, Carrie appeared as more of a rockstar than a bullied teen.

Once this light show started to go off, a screen descended from above the stage in order to divide the character Sue, from the rest of the cast. However, this massive screen’s quick descent was automated and couldn’t be controlled easily. This led to multiple near-decapitations.

All these technical problems should have postponed the show’s opening, but unfortunately, the show went on as scheduled.

On May 12, 1989, ‘Carrie: The Musical’ opened on Broadway. Critics and theatre-goers alike were horrified at what they saw. The togas and laser light shows were nothing like the ‘Carrie’ viewers knew and loved. The songs, while some were good, felt odd and misplaced in the story.

One song that particularly upset the audience was “Out for Blood,” in which characters Billy and Chris kill a pig to use for blood to prank Carrie. With the ensemble chanting “blood” and “kill the pig” while the leads danced and sang under bright red lights, the audience was unsettled to say the least.

Every night it performed, after the final blackout, the audience erupted with boos. Once the lights went up, there was some applause, a pitying compliment towards the actors for doing what they could with what they had. The critics were less pitiful though, with every major theatre review absolutely scorching the production.

After five days of performing, ‘Carrie: The Musical’ closed, cementing itself as one of the shortest runs of a musical ever, and one of most horrible failures in Broadway history.

By: Ayamei Her

Note: In both season 1 and season 2, it mentions some sensitive topics such as: eating disorders, body dysmorphia, depression, self harm, abuse, sexual abuse, racism, and drug abuse. 

If you don’t know what ‘Ginny and Georgia’ is, it is Netflix’s current #1 show and it is full of drama and intensity. In season one, the show introduces a mother with her kids in a car together, on their way to a new town to live in. Georgia (the mom) has moved her two kids (Ginny and Austin) around through many cities and towns. Georgia wanted to settle, and she wanted stability, so she decided on the small town of Wellsbury.

Ginny was upset about the move, she always felt like Georgia was always disrupting her life once she felt as if she had settled in, although Ginny was worried about fitting in and making friends, she made friends quickly with Maxine, and her twin brother Marcus, who lived across the street from Ginny and her family.

At her new school, Maxine introduces Ginny to her friends Abby and Nora, and they become a friend group and combine their initials together to make a name for the group which is “MANG”. 

The first complication is that Ginny develops feelings for her best friend’s twin brother Marcus. Despite those feelings, Ginny starts dating a boy name Hunter. Ginny sneaks Marcus into her room nearly every night though, keeping him close and exploring her feelings for him. Eventually, she cheats on Hunter with Marcus, but inevitably, with time, everyone finds out about Ginny and Marcus’s secret affair. 

Now, with Georgia, she is one of my favorite characters because her back story is just so deep; her character does so well with hiding it. She is clever, playing mind games with people, while most of all trying to be the best mother she can be for her kids. Georgia has a very rough past and decided to hide it from her kids to protect them, she ran away from her abusive home and joined a dangerous biker gang who protected her while she was pregnant with Ginny, raising her alone at the age of 16.

Georgia has done some unspeakable things such as kill people who she felt she had to protect her kids from. She says from time and time again that she does everything for her kids and to protect her kids. 

A private investigator was sent to see into Georgia’s past to see who she really was. He finds out that she has been through a life of crime and pain and tells Ginny that he knows about her mother’s life, and that he doesn’t want someone with a past like Georgia’s to be around Ginny and her brother Austin. After Ginny was told, she put the pieces together and left home with her brother, and that’s how they ended season 1. 

Season 2 starts with showing that Ginny and Austin went and stayed with her father for awhile, and it shows that her mother is angry at Ginny, but misses her kids very much and still has no idea that Ginny knows of the crime Georgia committed. Soon, Ginny tells her father about her self harm, but begs him to not tell her mother, so he secretly puts Ginny in therapy so she can get the professional help she needs.  

During this, Ginny moves back to her mom’s and starts the angsty teen rebel phase where she starts to skip school, smoke, and spontaneously dyes her hair. 

While Ginny starts to seriously date Marcus, Maxine and Nora continue not being friends with Abby and Ginny, but Abby and Ginny start to become friends.

During Ginny and Marcus’s relationship, everything was going great and they seemed to be perfect for each other. But Marcus starts to have a depressive episode and feels like his happiness is only coming from Ginny. He says that it’s not fair to have his happiness depend on one person, and he can’t love her if he can’t love himself, so he decides to break up with Ginny.

Ginny and Abby decide to reconnect with Maxine and Nora, and they all become friends again. During Maxine’s show, that she was acting in for school, Marcus takes Ginny out in the hall and they break up which leaves Ginny heartbroken. 

I won’t spoil the ending of season 2 in case you haven’t watched it, but I would recommend watching the show if you like a roller coaster of emotions and tons of new surprises.