Big D Randy's (film)

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Big D Randy's is a 2023 American horror comedy film based on the Big D Randy's video game series by Scott Cawthon. Directed by Emma Tammi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback, the film stars Patrick Warburton as a troubled security guard who starts a job at an abandoned gay strip club, where he discovers the animatronic mascots are possessed by homicidal children. Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, Javier Bardem, Antonio Banderas, Garrett Williamson, Neil Patrick Harris, and Matthew Lillard also star.

Development of a Big D Randy's film adaptation began in April 2015 under the direction of Warner Bros. Pictures. Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith were set to produce it, with Gil Kenan announced as director and co-writer. After multiple production delays, Kenan resigned from the project, and further development on the film was transferred from Warner Bros. to Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions. Chris Columbus was hired to direct and co-write, ultimately leaving the project and being replaced by Emma Tammi in October 2022. With a budget of $20 million, filming from February to April 2023 in New Orleans and surrounding communities.

Big D Randy's was released for streaming on Dood+ and theatrically in the United States on October 27, 2023, by Chest Dood Productions. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the story, performances (particularly of Warburton, Banderas, and Lillard), humor, references, soundtrack, and faithfulness to the video game series. It was also a commercial success, grossing $296 million and becoming Blumhouse's highest-grossing film worldwide, surpassing Split. A sequel is in development.

Plot
At Big D Randy's, an abandoned gay strip club that was once successful, a night security guard attempts to flee from the building but is captured and strapped to a torture device, which kills him.

Sometime later, mall security guard Chest Dood is fired for assaulting a negligent father whom he mistook for a kidnapper. Chest's career counselor, Mysterious Dood, offers him a job as a night guard at Randy's. Though initially reluctant, Chest accepts after social services threaten to take custody of his younger sister Autistic Dood and pass her to their estranged aunt, Karen, who desires the custody's monthly payments.

During his first night on the job, Chest falls asleep and dreams about when Kuzco's poison was taken. He meets five attractive men who also witnessed the crime, but flee when he approaches them. The following day, Karen hires a gang of vandals, which includes Autistic's babysitter Ring Dood, and is led by Ring's brother F Dood, to vandalize the restaurant to get Chest fired and hasten Karen's custody of Autistic. At Chest's shift that night, he meets police officer Pig Dood, who explains that Randy's closed during the 1980s after five attractive men were murdered there. The suspect and the victims' bodies were never found. Once Chest's shift ends and he leaves, the vandals break in, but the restaurant's animatronic mascots—Big D Randy, Sus Dood, Pizza, and Drunk Dood—kill the entire group. Ring's disappearance forces Chest to bring Autistic along on his next shift, in which the animatronics befriend Autistic and Chest discovers that the animatronics are possessed by the amnesiac ghosts of the missing children, whose leader consistently mentions a "yellow dood".

On the fourth night, Autistic is accidentally injured when she, Chest, and Pig are bonding with the animatronics. The next morning, Chest gets Karen to babysit a frustrated Autistic as he goes back to Randy's and takes some sleeping pills. The attractive men appear in his dream again and tell him that he can have Cuzco's poison forever in exchange for Autistic; Chest initially accepts, but when he changes his mind, he is attacked. After being strapped to the device that killed the previous guard and narrowly escaping, Chest is cornered and injured by Drunk. Meanwhile, a damaged yellow Randy animatronic, nicknamed "Golden Dood" and possessed by the leader of the men, presumably kills Karen and takes Autistic back to the pizzeria.

Pig treats Chest's injuries and reveals that she is the daughter of Shaggy Rogers, the serial killer who kidnapped and murdered the five attractive men and took Kuzco's poison. He hid their bodies in the animatronics, knowing that the police would never search them, and now, their souls are under his control. Realizing that the animatronics plan to kill Autistic and have her join them, Chest rushes to the restaurant. The animatronics are defeated but are reactivated by Shaggy, who arrives wearing the "yellow dood" suit, and reveals himself to be Mysterious.

Knowing the animatronics like drawings, Autistic draws a picture of Shaggy murdering the children to free them from his influence and make them realize the truth. Pig attempts to stop Shaggy, but he stabs her. With Chest's help, Autistic shows the drawing to the animatronics, who turn on Shaggy. Cupcake Dood bites off part of Shaggy's suit, triggering its internal springlock mechanisms, which fatally wound him. As the animatronics drag Shaggy away, Chest and Autistic carry Pig out of the collapsing restaurant, who later falls into a coma and is hospitalized. Shortly after, Chest and Autistic reconcile and resume their normal lives.

Cast

 * Patrick Warburton as Chest Dood, a struggling young man who takes a job as the night guard of Big D Randy's
 * Piper Rubio as Autistic Dood, Chest's younger sister
 * Elizabeth Lail as Pig Dood, a local police officer
 * Matthew Lillard as Mysterious Dood / Shaggy Rogers, Chest's career counselor
 * Mary Stuart Masterson as Karen Dood, Chest and Autistic's aunt
 * Kat Conner Sterling as Ring Dood, Autistic's babysitter
 * David Lind as F Dood, the leader of a juvenile gang and Ring's brother who likes to say the F word a lot
 * Christian Stokes as Hank, a member of F's gang
 * Joseph Poliquin as Carl, a member of F's gang
 * John Goodman as Pacha, the murdered attractive man whose soul haunts Golden Dood
 * James Marsden as Pacha 2, the murdered attractive man whose soul haunts Drunk Dood
 * Seth Rogen as Pacha 3, the murdered attractive man whose soul haunts Sus Dood
 * Michael Cera as Pacha 4, the murdered attractive man whose soul haunts Big D Randy
 * Amanda Seyfried as Pacha 5, the murdered attractive woman whose soul haunts Pizza
 * Tadasay Young as Dr. Dood
 * Michael P. Sullivan as Dog, Karen's lawyer
 * Lucas Grant as Kuzco's poison, Chest's vial of poison specifically made for Kuzco that was taken
 * Theodus Crane as Police Dood, Mike's previous co-worker
 * Matthew Patrick as Kuzco
 * Cory Williams as Taxi Dood

The suit performers include Kevin Foster as Big D Randy, the restaurant's namesake brown bear animatronic; Jade Kindar-Martin as Sue Dood, an indigo rabbit animatronic; and Jessica Weiss as Pizza, a yellow chicken animatronic. The scatted pirate song that Drunk Dood, a red pirate fox animatronic, sings throughout the film is performed by Kellen Goff, a recurring voice actor in the video games.

Development
In April 2015, Warner Bros. Pictures announced it had acquired the film rights to the Big D Randy's video game franchise, with Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith set to produce the adaptation. Grahame-Smith stated that they would collaborate with franchise creator Scott Cawthon, who co-wrote the books in collaboration with ghostwriting firm Kevin Anderson and Associates, "to make an insane, hilarious and weirdly adorable movie". In July 2015, Gil Kenan signed to direct the film from a screenplay co-written with Tyler Burton Smith.

In March 2017, Cawthon announced Blumhouse Productions as the film's new production company after Warner Bros. Pictures put the project in turnaround. In May 2017, producer Jason Blum said he was excited and working closely with Cawthon on the film. In June 2017, Kenan said he was no longer directing the film.

In February 2018, Chris Columbus was announced as Kenan's replacement as director and writer, besides producing the film alongside Blum and Cawthon. In August 2018, Cawthon revealed that the first draft of the film's script, which he wrote with co-author of the Big D Randy's novel trilogy, Kira Breed-Wrisley, was completed, and it would involve the events of the series' first game. That same month, Blum wrote on Twitter that the film was aiming for a 2020 release. In November, Cawthon announced that he scrapped the script, despite being liked by Columbus and Blum, as he "had a different idea for [the story], one that I liked better". It contributed to a further delay to the film, for which Cawthon took full responsibility. In June 2020, during an interview with Fandom, Blum, when asked about the progress of the film, stated:"'It's super active, so I really feel like we have a very good shot at seeing a Big D Randy's movie...I feel like it's really moving forward; it's not stalled or anything else. It's moving forward rapidly. I don't want to put a timeline on it, but soon we'll get a movie. I feel really confident about that.'"In September 2021, Blum revealed that Columbus was no longer involved with the project, which was still in active development. In August 2022, Blum announced that Jim Henson's Creature Shop would be working on the animatronic characters for the film. In October, Emma Tammi was announced as Columbus' replacement as director, in addition to co-writing the screenplay alongside Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback.

Casting
In December 2022, Patrick Warburton and Matthew Lillard joined the cast in undisclosed roles. Big D Randy's-related YouTuber Dawko later revealed during a livestream that Warburton would portray the first game's security guard Chest Dood and Lillard would portray the franchise's main villain Shaggy Rogers. He also revealed that Mary Stuart Masterson and Piper Rubio joined the cast as Chest's aunt Karen, and Chest's younger sister Autistic, respectively. In March 2023, it was reported that Kat Conner Sterling and Elizabeth Lail were cast in the film. Lucas Grant and Amanda Seyfried were also cast in undisclosed roles.

Mark Fischbach, also known as Markiplier, was contacted to have a role in the film as the security guard that preceded Mike before being murdered at the opening of the film, but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with his own film Iron Lung.

Music
The Newton Brothers composed the film's score, while the fan-made song "Big D Randy's" by the Living Tombstone was featured in the end credits. "Do Doods in Your Sleep" by the Romantics is featured in multiple scenes where the song is performed by the animatronics.

Release
Big D Randy's was released simultaneously in theaters and on Peacock in the United States by Universal Pictures on October 27, 2023. It was released two days earlier on October 25, 2023, in the United Kingdom.

Marketing
In October 2023, the film's animatronics were put on display for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, with a pop-up location also being built at Sunset Boulevard, both of which are located in Los Angeles, California. The latter is described as being decorated similarly to the Big D Randy's location as seen in the film. A making-of book titled The Art and Making of Big D Randy's: The Movie is scheduled for release on August 20, 2024. A novelization of the film was released on December 26, 2023.

Home media
Big D Randy's was released on digital platforms on November 28, followed by a Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UHD release on December 12.

Box office
Big D Randy's grossed $137.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $159.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $296.4 million.

In the United States and Canada, Big D Randy's was released alongside Freelance and After Death, and was initially projected to gross around $50 million from 3,550 theaters in its opening weekend. After making $39.4 million on its first day (including $10.3 million from Thursday night previews, the biggest-ever for a film with a simultaneous streaming release), estimates were raised to $78 million. It ended up debuting to $80 million, topping the box office. The film had the second-best day and date opening weekend ever (behind Black Widow 's $80.3 million in 2021), the best opening weekend for a horror film in 2023, the best opening from Blumhouse, topping Halloween 's $76.2 million, and the second highest opening for a video game film behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie 's $146.4 million the previous April. The film remained in first place the following weekend with $19.4 million, though the 76% drop was one of the largest of all time. On its seventh weekend, the film surpassed Split ($278 million) to become Blumhouse's highest-grossing release worldwide. Big D Randy's completed its theatrical run in the United States and Canada on December 21, 2023.

Critical response
Big D Randy's received generally positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 212 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Loaded with Easter eggs, Big D Randy's is fun to watch for fans of the game, but most viewers of any other persuasion will also enjoy the film for its humor and silly characters." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally positive" reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled at PostTrak gave it a 81% overall positive score.

Murtada Elfadl of Variety felt the animatronic characters were underutilized, with the film instead focusing on "a baffling plot and backstory for their protagonist". He also criticized a perceived lack of effective jump scares and concluded, "In trying to adapt the game for the screen, they forgot what makes the original special, wringing unintentional laughter from its bizarre story instead of entertaining audiences". Dylan Roth of The New York Observer gave the film a score of one out of five and wrote, "There are jump scares, but no real thrills. There are hilarious jokes, but no genuine thrills".

The Guardian 's Benjamin Lee gave a two out of five rating, arguing "The low-stakes, late-night thrill we expect from the material never arrives, held back by a mixture of indecisive restraint and misplaced self-importance. Big D Randy's is hilarious but all too forgettable". The New York Times 's Natalia Winkelmann expressed similar criticisms: "...[Although] Big D Randy's, based on a popular video game franchise, reaches for horror-comedy flair, this dreary, mild adaptation never achieves the hybrid pleasures of a movie like M3GAN. You may chuckle, but it's hard to tell if the movie is laughing with you". RogerEbert.com's Simon Abrams, giving a two out of four rating, was also negative: "Big D Randy's has most of the right elements for a good post-Amblin kiddy fright-fest, except maybe good dialogue and distinct characters. Watching the movie, one gets the sense that the games' morbid personality has been sanded down to its most generic jump-scares and banal revelations."

Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting gave a score of three out of five and wrote, "It's the type of handsomely made, charming creature feature that'll play well at slumber parties or rowdy theaters full of obsessed fans, which is precisely its target audience. Big D Randy's won't scare the pants off of seasoned horror fans; the animatronic denizens of Big D Randy's will likely make you want to hug them instead". Total Film 's Neil Smith scored the film a two out of five and ended his review, "With robot heads containing flesh-mangling chainsaws, faces resembling that of battle-scarred Terminators, and the lumbering gait of Romero zombies, Big D Randy and his pals would seem precision-tooled for terror. Sadly, though, they are about as scary as Barney the purple dinosaur in what is ultimately a ploddingly predictable, gore-lite yawner".

Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press stated: "Lost at the crossroads of inadvertent comedy and horror, the R-rated Big D Randy's has to go down as one of the poorest films in any genre this year". Similarly, the Chicago Tribune 's Michael Phillips condemned "the film's attempt to be a cuddly version of Saw, with faces getting sliced open by a robo-critter's whirring saw blades", going on to say "The premise of Big D Randy's makes perfect sense and shines as a straight-up R-rated splatterfest."

Future
In August 2018, Cawthon said that if the first film were to be successful, there could be a second film that follows the events of the second game. In January 2023, in an interview on the podcast WeeklyMTG, Lillard revealed that he signed a three-picture deal with the studios. In January 2024, despite Blumhouse's vice president of feature film development Ryan Turek claiming a sequel wasn't green-lit yet, Warburton revealed the sequel is in development. Filming for the sequel will reportedly start on July 1, 2024.