It might not be on your radar, but there's no denying Five Nights at Freddy's is a pop culture phenomenon. What started with a video game in 2014 has become a multimedia franchise with an active and passionate fanbase.
Plans for a movie adaptation were announced in 2015, and it's something fans have been anxiously waiting for ever since. Finally, on Friday, October 27, 2023, Five Nights at Freddy's lands in theaters and streams on Peaco*ck.
"Once you start Googling Five Nights at Freddy's, you realize it's a really big deal," explained director Emma Tammi.
The movie, inspired by the original game, follows a guy called Mike, played by Josh Hutcherson, who is trying to hold his life together. As well as being haunted by his brother's disappearance a decade ago, he's also caring for his 10-year-old sister and desperate for a job. Running out of options and at risk of losing custody, he reluctantly takes an overnight security guard gig at an abandoned theme restaurant: Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. However, strange things start to happen.
The world of themed restaurants has been a fascination of Tammi's for many years.
"As a kid, I was familiar with animatronics at family-themed restaurants. The whole world of Freddy's felt nostalgic to me in a really powerful way," she confirmed. "It evoked feelings and imagery that I not only had really fond memories of, but also kind of weird fearful feelings about too. I thought, 'Well, man, that's the perfect genre mash-up, and what a cool world for a movie.' Turning this into a film was a no-brainer, so being a part of that was an honor."
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The filmmaker dove into the increasingly popular online trend of people derelict and forsaken locations to find the darker tones in the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, or FNAF, as fans also know it.
"I referenced a lot of photos around that for sure, and even abandoned theme parks and stuff like that," Tammi explained. "The character of abandoned places that used to be intended for amusem*nt and family fun is a haunting combination of something that used to be colorful and vibrant with this deterioration and erosion that just gives these spaces a whole other vibe. The pizzeria is a character in and of itself in the film, and certainly in the game and other franchises."
"As a character, studying what that would look and feel like, pulling images of these abandoned amusem*nt spaces was hugely helpful and inspiring."
As well as themed restaurants and abandoned theme parks, the director and her cast drew on a wide range of cinematic influences.
"There were so many," she said. "One that Josh referenced when I first spoke with him, which was so on point, was Donnie Darko. He was referencing that in terms of his performance, but that is such a fun, unique tone and one of the reasons why it felt important to pull a lot of different references from different types of movies and filmmakers."
"When it came to camera movement, I was hugely inspired by shots from Scorsese's Casino, among other things that you wouldn't necessarily think are an exact comp for Freddy's. I think that created a unique and dynamic blend for what was this specific, quirky story and world."
Because she wanted the film to feel "timeless," Tammi wanted to be a little vague for the most part.
"If you look carefully, there's one surveillance camera shot that has a little date imprint on it, but we did make a specific choice not to shout out the year," she revealed. "We wanted to let it be something you feel and discover on your own. As much as we lean into the period of 2000, and in the flashbacks, we're referencing the 80s and 90s, you can step into the story, and if you don't notice things like the phones, it feels pretty present and evergreen. I wanted the story to have a timeless feel and these fun, era-specific references."
Although Five Nights at Freddy's has been on the cinematic cards for almost a decade, Tammi only came on board to direct in October 2022. Production started just a few months later, and she didn't have long to get what she needed in the can.
"You are correct; it was not a lot of time," she laughed. "We started on February 1 this year, shot for 43 days, and wrapped in early April. We hustled and accelerated our post-production schedule to make the release for Halloween possible as it was such an amazing opportunity."
"Obviously, a horror film coming out on Halloween weekend is the dream, but on top of that, the fan base has been so excited for this film for so long, so to have the opportunity to get it out this year was really exciting. We know they're hungry for it."
She added, "I was still QCing video files for the streaming files a couple of days ago, so we really only just finished it."
With no offense intended to the human cast and crew, the stars of the show are the animatronic mascots, which were made from scratch by Jim Henson's Creature Shop and not CGI.
"It's always a real wildcard if you're planning on creating things like this in post," Tammi mused. "If you have endless time and endless resources, you have the opportunity to get it right, but it's really comforting to be able to see something in the camera and say, 'Okay, that's got the look and feel of the thing that we want.' There were times that working with the animatronics slowed down our schedule, so we had to build in a lot more time for them, but it was so worth it."
"We were able to have these experienced real-life moments between our cast and the animatronics that would have been different if we were only doing CGI for bringing the characters of the animatronics to life. So it was really important to us to have those characters be practical, tactile, and something our 10-year-old character Abby could touch, feel, and hug."
Tammi and her team had multiple versions of the characters made that were "more durable" and able to withstand particularly robust elements of production "and then our hero animatronic versions too" for the regular scenes.
As well as the animatronics, Tammi got grassroots with creating and constructing the iconic Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria.
"We built it from scratch," the filmmaker exclaimed proudly. "Our production designer, Mark Fisichella, and his incredible team built that from the ground up, and we had an exterior that was separate from the interior set. They were both spectacular and felt like they could have been real pop-ups."
"We should have opened a restaurant after this movie was over because it was ready to go," Tammi laughed.
Five Nights at Freddy's is rated PG-13; however, rumors have been circulating online amongst the FNAF fan base that an R-rated cut of the movie might follow. However, Tammi revealed there are no current plans for that to be a reality.
"We knew that some of the fan base would want an R-rated version of this film," she said. "On the one level, we wanted to be inclusive of the younger audiences and knew we were going to hit the PG 13 rating, but for the audience that also wanted that level of violence, if you will, or at least insinuation of violence, we really wanted to still include elements that felt dark."
"Of course, there are a lot of dark elements to see in the lore, but in terms of some of the kills and everything, it was just all execution dependent. We really wanted to ensure that we were showing the right amount and doing creative things to insinuate what was happening or show what was happening without fully seeing it to still fit in that PG-13 category."
The director added, "I would say not to expect an R-rated version on this one. We're really happy with how the PG-13 tone landed; it felt like the right fit for this particular film. We're sticking by it."
What does the future hold for FNAF? There is plenty of source material and a fan base ready to consume more movies.
"I think we would all love to if this first one does well, and it seems like there's an appetite to move forward with future movies," Tammi explained. "I think we would all be so excited to do that. Here's hoping."
With the FNAF animatronics on display as part of the Blumhouse: Behind The Screams exhibit at Universal Studios Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights, could a haunted house inspired by the movie be on the cards for next year's event?
"That would be incredible," Tammi confessed. "We were focused on the movie this year, and those incredible haunted houses take a long time to plan and execute. I would be so excited if that happened in the future, but for this year, I was so delighted the animatronics could be on display, and we could represent FNAF in some way for Halloween Horror Nights. Honestly, it was so cool and very moving."
