What exactly is Five Nights at Freddy’s?
The horrific-funny adaptation of video games was a hit this weekend in the United States. Decryption of the phenomenon.
Long before being projected on the big screen, the animatronics of the universe of Five Nights at Freddy’s have had happy times on video game platforms, such as Steam. True starlets highlighted by YouTubers, robotic puppets have been able to cultivate the passion of a community over the years. The proof being, the undoubted success of the cinematographic adaptation of the first game in the franchise, designed by Scott Cawthon. The film, directed by Emma Tammi (Cursed Earth), surpassed expectations at the US box office over the weekend, taking in $78 million in three days, for a budget of $20 million. Either the best start for a horror film, beating then Scream VI ($44 million) and There Nun 2 ($32 million).
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“OThey look like creepy animatronics”
Originally, the game designer Five Nights at Freddy’s, Scott Cawthon, had a string of commercial failures. It was also thanks to the bad publicity of his games that Scott Cawthon got the hang of it. This is following the flop of Chipper & Sons Lumber Co, a game dedicated to children, which Scott was able to extricate himself from his curse. At the time, the players did not fail to express all the discomfort generated by the main characters – a family of somewhat frozen beavers. The game was judged as “initially unintentionally terrifying“. It was in particular during this period that the term “animatronic“ springs from the keyboard of an Internet user saying: “They look like creepy animatronics.”.
After 20 years of failure in the industry, Scott Cawthon took the comments literally by turning his faults into qualities. The designer has launched into a much darker universe, where it is about surviving a distressing night in a point & click game (no movement possible). Under the watchful eye of Steel Whool Studios and Desura, the objective of the first game is to survive the nights (from midnight to 6 a.m.) without being killed by the animatronics which are activated after dark. It’s then a matter of awakening all your senses to check the doors, cameras and battery management as best you can – concentration is at its peak. In fact, the negative outcome of the game (occurring in the form of screamers) can only surprise the player and create grotesque scenes as the shock is great.
The startle community
What greatly contributed to the success of the franchise is obviously the rise of YouTubers at a time when video game enthusiasts were very popular on the platform. Between 2013 and 2017, big YouTubers like Squeezie or PewDiePie influenced the trend Five Nights at Freddy’s with videos having millions or even tens of millions of views. At that time, it was necessary to take a risky approach to the twists and turns of independent horror games. Beyond the game play craze, YouTube videos promulgating theories on the FNAF universe surfaced and gave rise to real collaborative work initiated by fans of the universe.
Scott Cawthon cleverly slipped clues into different games, the community just had to piece together the puzzle, like a Father Fouras riddle. In short, the mystery of the plot was carried at arm’s length by the community, determined to uncover the secret hidden behind these bloodthirsty puppets. The franchise is known for the creative window it grants to its community, fan art as well as music groups (The Living Tomb Stone and JT Music) monopolize the myth in subjective hypotheses.
This trend of the 2010s propelled the phenomenon which did not fail to mark its eighties-inspired aesthetic as much as the atypical design of these monsters: animatronics which tend towards anthropomorphism and inevitably suggest this phenomenon of uncanny valley. The exoskeletons add a dose of horror to those looks that seem to be staring at you. The success of the first game was such that Scott Cawthon could only glimpse a franchise of video games dedicated to the nightmarish universe of these murderous machines. There are no fewer than 10 video games (not counting derivatives), as well as novels and merchandising which has sold 33.5 million pieces worldwide in 2023.
Considering this all-consuming passion, it made sense to adapt the video game into a film – a project fans have been waiting for for years. The terrifying Universal and Blumhouse adaptation is finally visible, and the public is there: in addition to the 78 million raised in the United States in the first weekend, FNAF has already crossed 100 million in revenue in the rest of the world. In France, it will be released on November 8, and here is its trailer. Not even afraid ?
