Blumhouse’s venture into terrifying animatronics holds a light of promise, despite obvious flaws. Five Nights at Freddy’s is the rare film for the production company to forgo the typical R rating and downgrade to PG-13.
Other horror features, such as M3GAN, have had success with this in the past, but there always seems to be something missing. Starring Josh Hutcherson as a hapless security guard, Five Nights at Freddy’s simply offers creepy visuals of foreboding animatronic animals instead of leaning into gory violence typical of slashers.
The film has opened in theaters as well as streaming to an already-established fanbase. The franchise first started as a video game series of varying difficulties from Scott Cawthon. The first video game was released in 2014, and garnered multiple sequels. Players of the horror game assume the perspective of a nighttime employee fighting the animatronic beings coming to life. Almost a perfect setup for a live-action film, it makes many wonder whether Cawthon’s brainchild was inspired by a true story.
The video games sprung from Cawthon’s mind
As surprising as it may be from the person who made the horror show, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Cawthon actually started as an indie faith-based video game developer. Throughout his career, the creative has cited Christianity as a large part of his process, long before he came up with the horror game. When speaking to Geeks Under Grace, Cawthon explained he had been creating Christian content, from movies to video games, for over a decade. It was only later in life that he made the turn to straight horror. As much as he believed in them, these projects failed financially, and he had to consider a career change.
Not married to the idea of creating solely Christian-themed content anymore, he took inspiration from his life. He recalls one of his family-friendly games featuring a beaver was so maligned online that it sparked the inspiration for Five Nights at Freddy’s. Accused of looking like a scary animatronic animal, Cawthon decided that he could make a product that was much scarier. He also based the game on the fear surrounding the robotic animals themselves.
“My inspiration for the game was the fact that EVERY kid was scared of those things! There were a few brave ones, sure, but nearly everyone my age looks back and realizes that those things were terrifying.”
Finally, after so much struggle, Cawthon found mainstream success from the grace of his imagination. Thankfully no children were harmed during the creation of the film or games.