TheFive Nights at Freddy’smovie is closer than ever to realization. Blumhouse Productions are collaborating with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to bring the iconic animatronics to life on the big screen while on board to face the evil is Josh Hutcherson as Security Guard Mike Schmidt. Also on board is Matthew Lillard as the villainous William Afton, Piper Rubio as Mike’s younger sister Abby and Mary Stuart Masterson as an unnamed villain.Set to begin filming in February 2023, there are a lot ofFNaFfans with high expectations looking at the production under a microscope.TheFNaFfranchise has a huge and highly invested fanbasewho pour over every potential lore clue and know everything about the Purple Guy. With such high expectations and a long time in development, what does theFNaFmovie have to do to succeed?RELATED:The Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie: Everything We Know So FarIn development since 2015, concrete details about the long-awaited adaptation only truly started appearing in late 2022. Blumhouse founder Jason Blum revealed that pre-production work had begun on the film and that Jim Henson’s Creature Shop would be handling the creation of Freddy and friends.The cast announcements were madein December along with confirmation that filming will begin in February 2023. Other than this information, plot details remained under wraps.The plot summary on the film’s IMDb page reads “A troubled security guard begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.” Of course, there is no way to verify this information, but it seems likely that the film will at least in some ways follow the events of the first game considering the characters that have been cast.One of the main problems that the film will have to avoid is lore dumping.TheFNaFfranchise is incredibly lore dense, but much of this lore was revealed over time in different mediums. Overloading on mythology will only slow down the film, there need to be some mysteries left to uncover at the end, especially if the studio is hoping to make sequels in the future. Pacing is what made the earlier FNaF games so popular, the gradual threat building over the five nights and understanding the increased frantic nature of the mechanics to survive amplified the scares.Another important aspect of the franchise that has to be nailed is, of course, Freddy Fazbear and friends. With the involvement of theexperts at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, it’s less likely that this aspect will be going awry. The photograph shared by Jason Blum showed a sculptor creating a scale model of what appeared to be Freddy himself. From what the photo shows, it looks like Freddy is going to be pretty accurate to the design of the game.
Rotund and apparently sporting his trademark bow tie Freddy looks spot on so far. As long as it doesn’t veer off wildly franchise fans should be happy. Another key element that has to be gotten right is how the animatronics look in attack mode. The multiple sets of teeth and visible inner animatronic frame as they bear down on players are ahuge part of the frights in the gameand it’s an aesthetic feature the movie can’t afford to get wrong.
An unknown quantity at this point is how or even if the game’s power-saving resource management will come into play. If it’s going to be a main feature of the film, it’s hard to say how this will be accomplished. It seems more likely that the frantic security camera switching will be the aspect that makes it to the film. Power outages could also certainly factor but translating the door-closing, battery-powered premise into the movie could be difficult. Although this could be fixed by the use of a generator as part of the plot after all horror movies love rickety old generators that could fail at any moment.
This brings up a final important aspect of theFNaFfranchise that needs to be captured well on screen. The environment and setting are just as important as the design of the animatronics. The first game isset in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a still operational restaurant that is already beginning to build a negative reputation for itself. The security office is cramped, cluttered, and oppressive. Cut off from a quick escape by being positioned at the end of 2 long corridors, the office is a claustrophobic space both safe and uniquely placed to be a target. The atmosphere needs to be cultivated correctly, the isolation emphasized. The rest of the restaurant also needs to have that uniquely messy and chaotic environment that only kid-focused restaurants featuring animatronics have.
In summary,there’s a lot that could go wrong with aFNaFmovieadaptation but there is also so much more opportunity to get things right. From the little we know of the film right now, things seem to be on track for a great adaptation of the game. Only time will tell and once filming starts there are bound to be more updates on the plot and setting of the film. One thing’s for sure, Freddy fans are going to be keeping this production under a microscope.
