Five Nights at Freddy’s fans emerging from the shadows to see an long anticipated film. This beloved video game has been adapted into a movie where the adored characters Freddy , Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy are featured as menacing animatronics coming straight out the screen, reaching for you.
Video Game Lore
The FNAF lore has endless theories and different stories and timelines. But the basic tale of this franchise is the video game backstory.
In Five Nights at Freddy’s 1, players are introduced to the majority of the storyline that viewers see in the movie adaptation. FredBear’s Family Diner opened in 1967 by Willaim Afton and Henry Emily. Together they created two “spring lock” suits, which were designed to double as both mascot costumes and animatronics.
The diner featured the two fun loving characters Fredbear and Spring Bonnie. With the extra money made from the diner, in 1983 the two business partners opened a sister location, Freddy Fazbear Pizza, featuring the new animatronics Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy the Pirate. Afton starts to spiral out of control mentally from the loss of his son. There are series of events that lead him here; but, William Afton basically lures and kills 5 children and stuffs their bodies in the 5 Freddy Fazbear Pizza animatronics, Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, Foxy and Golden Freddy. Their souls possess the animatronics and they seek revenge on Afton.
Book Lore
The book lore is considered canon to the video game lore, however there are some major differences.
Charlie, whose father used to own Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, met up with her childhood friends in her hometown. It had been ten years since their friend, Michael, had died at the pizzeria, so they decided to pay a visit.
They broke into the eerie, abandoned building only to find that the animatronics that Charlie’s father created were still there. Up to this time, Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Pirate Fox had not moved at all…or had they?
Later on, one of the friends admitted that he saw someone dressed in a yellow Freddy Fazbear suit on the night Michael died. Charlie then tells everyone that her father also opened Fredbear’s Family Diner, which only featured a yellow version of Freddy Fazbear, and went out of business when her little brother went missing. While exploring, they are caught by Dave the security guard who later on abducts one of the friends while wearing a Spring Bonnie suit. While researching, the friends discovered that “Dave” is actually William Afton who co-owns both of the restaurants and is the one responsible for the missing kids. He confesses that the animatronics are possessed by the ghosts of his victims, which is why they are able to move on their own.
Afton attacks them while wearing the Spring Bonnie suit, but Charlie murders him by setting off the suits’ spring locks.
Audience members and fans viewed the movie in interest and confusion?
Though it was said the movie was mainly adapted from the book series of this franchise, it wasn’t really aline. If you compare all of the storylines known, the movie follows its own with themes from both the video game and book series lore. Some fans like Jen said “I would have rather seen more of the intriguing lore that’s within the games displayed because I feel like it’s more known than the books..”
Many video game fans were angered by the choice of the movie adaption while others like Sammy said “Even though a lot of the beloved lore wasn’t represented, the movie was very enjoyable and it was fun to see my favorite characters on the big screen”.
Another controversial fan topic is the choice of the youtuber coryxkenshin. Coryxkenshin is known for playing horror video games like Five Nights at Freddys. Though he has a large fan base, many FNAF fans think Markiplier, another big youtuber who is known for playing games like FNAF, would’ve been a better choice. “I like coryxkenshin but Mark would have made so much more sense, he was one of the first big youtubers to play five nights at freddys”, explained Jen.
However, others like Sophia said, “I think it was very iconic for the producers to feature a youtuber who is well known for FNAF content in the movie. Although I feel like Markiplier would have been a better choice, coryxkenshin is the next best thing.” According to an article on SlashFilm, Mark’s non-presence was nothing more than a scheduling conflict. Mark did not appear in the movie due the production of his own movie “Iron Lung”.
With the endless theories, thoughts, opinions and suggestions we end the explanation of the lore here.
Luckily, you can still view this intricate tale in theaters, and it can be streamed on Peacock.
It was filmed in New Orleans, Louisiana by Universal Pictures. The budget was $20 million and took over six years to complete.
So why did it take so long? According to the producer, Jason Blum, “Hollywood can make the mistake when they’re adapting a super popular book or a super popular game to start out at the very beginning to make a movie that not only will satisfy the fans of the book or the game, but bring a larger audience,” said Blum. “There’s always that pressure to bring a larger audience.”
Filming only took a long 2 months while just putting production took double. The result of this complicated production was an amazing beloved movie.
Including the little easter egg at the end. The spelling of “come find me”. The word is that this implicates a sequel. Who will we find? Afton? Or another adored character?
“We can’t wait to meet you”… I mean see you in the sequel!!!
