What initially began as a way to retaliate against negative reviews on a previous family-friendly game release, Five Nights at Freddy’s would soon become Scott Cawthon’s magnum opus, a franchise worth at least $100,000,000 with global popularity.
For those who may be unfamiliar, Five Nights spans 11 game titles, 24 novels and short stories, eight graphic novels and comics, one animated series, and, a hot topic as of late, the upcoming film releasing on October 27th of this year. The movie has been in tumultuous development since April 2015, having seen a long period of uncertainty, a switch in studios, and several rewrites in the last eight years.
The movie has a lot to live up to and take into consideration, with the series being renowned in particular for its complicated, convoluted ‘lore’ (or plot).
On the surface, it’s a horror game where you play as a night-shift security guard, avoiding certain death from animatronics haunted by dead children in a Chuck-E-Cheese lookalike. Beneath that, the antagonist, William Afton, and the protagonist, Michael Afton, are father and son- trapped in a cyclical back-and-forth of vengeance, touching on themes of grief, immortality, and familial estrangement.
“It’s a genius concept for a horror game in a pizzeria,” said Diego Hernandez, long-time fan of the games. “I just got so glued to it, I kept going back.”
For many high-school students, Five Nights is a series they’ve grown up with, the oldest seniors having been 10 with the release of the first two games. The nostalgia associated with the title Five Nights at Freddy’s makes this upcoming feature film a big deal for returning fans.
While the name has become much more mainstream, the movie presents as an opportunity to further streamline its popularity.
“I’m hoping the movie is good, because it can introduce way more people to it in a way they can actually understand,” Jonathon Wilson, a senior and fan-game developer, had to say about the movie’s release.
After the trailer’s leak in June of this year, hopes, fears, and predictions have been posted to all corners of the Internet. “I’m skeptical of how good it’ll be from a critical standpoint,” user explodingbomb150 commented in the fivenightsatfreddys subreddit.
The series’ complicated, gruesome, and emotionally complex plot has sparked much concern among more enthusiastic members of the community, particularly how the PG-13 rating of the movie may impact it. “I so immensely hope it is a serious, disturbing masterpiece it has the potential to be,” wrote Reddit user MichelTygrys, also in the fivenightsatfreddys subreddit.
Despite the problems the movie has experienced in its development and the uncertainty of this interpretation, the release of the film is sure to make waves in the online horror community. “I’m extremely proud of the movie we made together,” Jason Blum, executive producer and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, said in a comment to IGN in June of 2023.
The movie can be seen on Oct. 27th, in theaters or streaming on Peacock, after eight years of rocky development.
