Vintage Vibes and Fresh Finds: Appreciating Matthew Lillard, Scooby-Doo and FNAF (2024)

Taylor Staples, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne

·4 min read

Taylor Staples

Taylor Staples

I never was one for jump scares.

I always liked Halloween, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel my heart start to beat 10 miles an hour when I saw someone in a scary clown mask walking down the street when I was a kid.

I’ve also always hated haunted houses and when amusement parks do “fright nights.” Why anyone enjoys being chased around somewhere and having people breathing down your neck is beyond me, but I digress. Whether in real life or a video game, I’ve always hated jump scares.

My childhood best friend was fearless, though. We would always play computer games together, and she always wanted to find scary indie ones, so we found a few that were palatable for me, but there would still come points where I would jump out of the chair, cover my face and make her take control of the mouse. Loud and abrupt noises are, to this day, what freaks me out the most. It could be something that’s not even scary and I would jump out of my chair.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” a PC game from 2014, was one of those games that I refused to play. My fear of being jump-scared was (and is) so bad that I can’t even watch other people play games like this.

I would be lying, though, if I said it didn’t intrigue me. I’ll still put on a “Markiplier Plays: Five Nights at Freddy’s” YouTube video; I’ll just cover the screen with my hand. It’s the same with watching horror movie recaps on YouTube. It’s not really “watching” the movie, but it’s still giving me the rundown. Regardless of what a scaredy-cat I am, a lot of the games and movies I’m scared of have really interesting stories behind them.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” for example, has some insane game lore. I won’t get into it, especially because most of it is actually fan theory that has and never will be confirmed by the creator, but it’s essentially about these possessed animatronics that terrorize this whole family and make the dad go insane, if he wasn’t already.

I’ve never seen a single “Saw” movie, and I never will, but you’re darn right about my watching a spoiler recap and rundown of the whole movie, if not the “Kill Count” on YouTube. I view it as a win-win.

Now I can recite all of the “Saw” plots to anyone who asks without having to put myself through the misery of watching all the gross stuff. It’s fun to get invested from afar.

Halloween time was so good last year. The “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie was coming out, and I remember being so excited. All the fan-made music I listened to over the years, as well as the hours of “lore” videos, and also just my general love for Josh Hutcherson, had me so pumped. When I found that both he and Matthew Lillard were in the movie, I knew nothing was stopping me from seeing it.

Lillard hasn’t been in a lot, to be honest, but he’s totally smashed everything he has been in. For example, “Scream” from 1996, need I say more? His character, Stu, was such an eccentric, animated character, and he nailed it. Scooby-Doo, too? He played up the anxious character of Shaggy so well, and the live-action adaptation he was in from 2002 is, to date, one of the most iconic Scooby-Doo movies. He went from playing those to then being the villain in “Five Nights at Freddy’s” who, in all honesty, is a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, and he nailed that, too.

Scooby-Doo is another fun franchise to look back on because it kind of has a legacy that I truly feel will never die. It’s one of those shows that just keeps getting adapted every year. My personal favorite adaptations are “What’s New Scooby-Doo?” (2002), “Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated” (2010) and the “Scooby-Doo” movie (2002). I kind of like the live-action movie because it’s campy. It’s not the best, and the CGI on Scooby doesn’t look great, but the actors are stars in their own right.

There have definitely been some misses. The “Velma” show that came out on Netflix last year is definitely not a favored one, and neither is “Scoob!” (2020). “What’s New Scooby-Doo?” is the one I personally grew up with, and was the seventh remake since the original “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” in 1969. I recommend anyone who hasn’t to go on Max, Hulu or Tubi right now and watch it, and fall is the perfect time to do so.

The animation is a huge step up from its predecessors, the theme song is by far the best, and the mysteries are top-tier. I do love, though, how it started being remade as early as the mid-’70s. Warner Bros. knew they had a good franchise on their hands.

Vintage Vibes and Fresh Finds: Appreciating Matthew Lillard, Scooby-Doo and FNAF (2024)

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