TheFive Nights At Freddy’sMovie has long been regarded as ‘that thing that may or may not be happening,’ with Warner Bros. acquiring the film rights in April 2015 (less than a year after the first game came out) before 2017 saw Blumhouse take the wheel. The idea of suh a movie faded into background, the subject of obscure leaks and hearsay rumors, until 2023 finally brought us cast reveals and actual trailers. The whole thing is still super surreal; I can’t quite believe that game-accurate animatronics are on the big screen after years of development hell.
The trailers have really gotten me excited. The colors, the set design, the props—all of it looksperfect. The renderings of the animatronics are dead-on, exact replicas of the original FNAF cast. They’re rendered with a dose of muck and disrepair that really brings to life their descriptions of abandonment. Even though I’ve never actually been to a Chuck E. Cheese (the restaurant that inspired the game), the trailers really capture what I imagine a real Freddy’s to look like, combining the rundown vibe of the first game with the industrial aesthetic of the second. This is without mentioning Springtrap himself being revealed, raising my hopes for an on-screen depiction of a springlock failure. Maybe? Possibly? Pretty please?
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However, I have one qualm. While I’m confident that the film will be fun, and I’m hopeful that it’ll sort out FNAF’s ludicrous lore into a plot that hits all the right beats, it doesn’t really look scary. There are some bits that give me confidence, but I’m worried that the adaptation to a film format might see some horror aspects lost in the cracks. It can be done, but it’ll take some really solid directing and writing to make these well-known monsters scary again.
Let’s address the two elephants in the room, which I don’t actually think are dealbreakers. First, the red eyes, which made the animatronics look baked out of their mind in the original trailer. I’m not the biggest fan of them, but there are some shots of Foxy with those eyes that really make it work, so I have some faith. Secondly, FNAF has been overexposed to death—more the subject of memes than the macabre. With its latest entry, Security Breach, being more of a kiddie game than any series title before, William Afton and Freddy Fazbear have been turned into lovable fandom self-caricatures. However, fan creations (like the FNAF VHS subgenre of analog horror, something that thefilm looks to be incorporating) are still scaring people to this day in spite of us all being used to these fast-food robots. It’s entirely possible to keep this type of horror fresh.
So what does concern me? Well, have you heard of that Banana Splits horror film? The one that had the same premise of mascot machines hunting people down, to a less-than-favorable response. I worry that the FNAF movie will be a goofy slasher flick in the vein of Banana Splits, something that wouldn’t gel with pretty much all FNAF games. The main villain is a mass murderer, sure, but the gameplay is about surviving. You’re stuck in a claustrophobic office with nothing but the sounds of metal footsteps and fanblades to accompany you. It’s more about suspense than thrills, which is why the scenes that take place in the arcade or the hallways give me pause.
Of course, I don’t expect the full movie to take place in one room (though that would be interesting to see attempted), but the animatronics just don’t scare me when they’re not banging down doors or looking down camera lenses. Without the strategic staging of the games, the robots feel more like hulking costumes that could be taken down by a swing of something heavy.
I’d also like to point out that much of FNAF’s horror comesfrom its secrets. Nowadays, the lore is far too complex, and its status as a punchline is not without merit—but back in its heyday, it added a new layer of fear to the game. Newspaper clippings appearing and disappearing, wall decor twisting into crying children, and the infamous Easter egg of Golden Freddy were all in the background; the game didn’t draw attention to any of it. It all gave the sense that something more was happening behind the scenes, an aspect only built up by the Atari-style minigames in the sequels. Uncovering the truth and gazing at the plot’s dark underbelly elevated the creep factor of the games tenfold. The film really needs these background details—ghosts hidden in the frame of a shot or pictures on the wall changing between cuts would really make this horror fan’s day.
I’m not hoping for anything that tries to wring screams out of the audience (though the Saw trap we see in the trailer might be heading that way), but rather, I hope the FNAF movie plays to the subtle horrors of the franchise. Secrets, directing tricks, and an emphasis on survival would be great ways to make goofy pizzeria animatronics scary. Maybe throw in a Nightmare Bonnie if you want to scar my inner child.
NEXT:FNAF: Security Breach’s DLC Foreshadowed Its Ending In The Best Way
