Allegedly the movie adaptation of the indie horror game smash hitFive Nights at Freddy’shas finally entered production. With multiple delays, a complete script overhaul, and a very similar concept starring a very well-known actor having already been released, what can horror and video game fans expect when Freddy Fazbear steps out of gameplay and into theaters?
There are definite challenges to adapting a video game to screen. While a plot-heavy and character-driven game likeThe Last of Ushas enough foundationto write a script on, more visual-based and jump-scare-laden entries, likeResident EvilandSilent Hill, flounder.Five Nights at Freddy’sis a jumpscare, youtube-streamer, sensation created by Scott Cawthorn and released in 2014. The gameplay is incredibly simple with the player acting as a security guard left to watch the restaurant Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria overnight but warned that the animatronics wander the restaurant murderously. As the security guard, the player switches between different security cameras as the animatronics move about, creeping towards the security office.
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YouTube is just littered with videosof fans jumping out of their skin as Freddy Fazbear (think Chuck E. Cheese) suddenly faces the security camera or Foxy makes a run for the office. It was only a matter of time and after ten game entries, three spin-offs, a novel trilogy, and a written anthology series, that a film adaptation would be set in motion in 2017 by, of course, Blumhouse. To be fair, Warner Bros. Pictures bought the rights in 2015 but apparently couldn’t reach an artistic compromise with Scott Cawthorn on the nature and approach of theFNAFfilm.
And so, it’s been six years since a film adaptation ofFive Nights at Freddy’swas announced and in that time fan concepts andWilly’s Wonderland(produced by and starring Nic Cage) have been released shrinking the number of approachesFNAFcan take and be relevant.FNAFlore is as much Scott Cawthorn’s as it is the fans. With a Scott Cawthorn and Blumhouse approved script now in the works, here are a few visual directionsFNAFcould take.
All the CGI
Five Nights at Freddy’sis a video game on multiple platforms and, as such, is CGI. WhileCGI can be very hit or miss in horror, recent developments in the technology over the years have rendered very strong character designs and better engines that begin to eliminate the “uncanny valley” of computer-generated audience immersion. But it is still CGI and horror works best when it is tangible.
So while a heavy CGI hand would result in a direct video game to screen character design, there’s still the gulf of attachment to real that becomes ever wider when a real human actor interacting with the CGI is involved. And, frankly, CGI gore never looks as tangible as a good practical blood effect andFive Nights at Freddy’sis at least subconsciously bloody in gameplay.
Human Suits
Willy’s Wonderland, less an imitator and more parallel thinkingthat got its product out ahead ofFNAF, uses a combination of humans in creature suits designed to look like possessed animatronics with a little CGI to smooth out transitions.Willy’s Wonderlandis a similar structure, a mute overnight “janitor” (Nic Cage) is besieged by devilish animatronics, and a great testing ground for the direction of theFNAFfilm. The creature suits work giving a wide range of motion and eliminating the uncanny valley with the infusion of “real.”
Where it doesn’t work is also that it’s… a human in a suit. In wide shots, the suits tremble humanly in motion while in tight shots the CGI details smooth out. The other hurdle of the human suit is, again, gore. Budgets are real andlarge costumes requiring puppeteeringare rarely affordable to be created in duplicate or easily cleanable to allow for heavy blood and viscera splatters on them. As a result,Willy’s Wonderlandfor all its Satanic, animatronic spine ripping glory features no detailed shots of the character creatures performing these acts. This is an areaFNAFcould push to the next level.
Animatronics For Real
Using animatronics is a tall order budget and schedule-wise but not impossible. In the near-decade sinceFNAFfirst landed on Steam, fans have not only expanded the lore in fan-fiction, they’ve been building Freddy Fazbear and all his pals. There’s an entire subculture of people digging up abandoned Chuck E. Cheese animatronics to be refurbished as well as designing actualFNAFanimatronics themselves.
So if people without studio budgets are doing it as a hobby, it is possible for a studio-backed film. And the nature ofFNAFis a slow burn with the animatronics movingin the periphery before launching an attack. The truly disturbing element of the monster character robot isn’t in the perfect recreation… it’s the exposed metal inner workings as it comes for the player’s face. The jerky, cycle of motion, until Freddy Fazbear suddenly chomps a child’s entire head in his mouth.
Of course, while using actual animatronics would open the film to showcasing more visual mayhem, it’s also another budget concern because while an animatronic’s “skin” could be more easily cleaned and reused, unlike a human actor, if the robot breaks down in the film that’s curtains for the day.
Do It All and Make It Bloody
The challenge now for theFNAFfilm is to rise above the entries that have come before it and give the fans that have built the world what they want. Scott Cawthorn has mentioned several times his efforts to find the right script that encapsulates the soul ofFNAFwithout betraying what it is, a first-person bottle horror story.
It’s not really fair to callWilly’s Wonderlanda copy or any of the fan concepts imitators as the idea of animatronics murdering people in a theme restaurant has been around since the first kid saw Chuck E. Cheese “skinned” in a landfill. But was hasn’t been done is an insane, gory, bloody, neck break paced film where an anthropomorphic animal robot gets its hands dirty. One approach to the visual isn’t going to do it. The characters ofFive Nights of Freddy’sneed to grab, run and have their skin ripped off to expose the terrifying metal inner workings of a nightmare.
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