The 2024 American supernatural horror film Five Nights at Freddy’s is based on the Scott Cawthon-created computer game franchise of the same name. The film features Josh Hutcherson as a troubled security guard who accepts a nighttime job at an abandoned family entertainment center, where he discovers its four animatronic mascots move and kill anyone that is still there after midnight. Emma Tammi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback, directed the picture. In supporting roles are Elizabeth Lail, Matthew Lillard, Piper Rubio, and Mary Stuart Masterson.
Alongside Scott Cawthon under his Scott Cawthon Productions banner, Jason Blum produced the movie under his Blumhouse Productions label. Warner Bros. Pictures started working on a cinematic adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s in April 2015. Its producers were announced as Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith. Gil Kenan was named as the film’s director and co-writer. The Warner Bros. version was no longer progressing and Kenan left the project after multiple production delays. Blumhouse Productions was revealed as the new production firm in March 2017, and Chris Columbus was slated to co-write and direct the film. In the end, Columbus also abandoned the initiative, and in October 2022, Emma Tammi was named as his successor.
While more cast members signed on in March 2024, the primary cast was confirmed in December. In New Orleans, principal photography started in February 2024 and finished in April.
Universal Pictures released Five Nights at Freddy’s in theaters on October 27, 2024. The same day, it was also simultaneously released on Peacock. Critics gave the movie mostly bad reviews, pointing out its lack of shocks, plodding pace, and poor use of animatronics.
Mall police officer Michael Schmidt is fired for beating a careless parent he thought was abducting his children. He is directed to see career counselor Steve Raglan, who extends an offer to work as a night watchman at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, an abandoned family restaurant. Despite his initial reluctance to work nights, Mike accepts the offer after his aunt Jane threatens to take custody of his younger sister Abby because Mike isn’t capable of handling it.
The first night, Mike nods off and dreams of seeing his brother Garrett dragged away by an unidentified man in a car, with Garrett’s kidnapping and suspected murder. After thereafter, Mike is confronted by five unidentified kids who reportedly saw the kidnapping and quickly fled from him. The second night, Vanessa Shelly, a police officer, stops by the restaurant to greet Mike. She gives him a tour of the establishment and tells him about a previous incident in which five children were killed there and their remains were never discovered. On the second night, Mike has the same dream, but this time, when he goes to confront one of the kids, he gets attacked and wakes up with physical wounds.
Following the second night, Jane employs a gang of criminals to cause damage to the restaurant with the intention of forcing Mike out of business and granting her custody of Abby. The restaurant’s animatronic mascots, Foxy, Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy, come to life during the break-in and slaughter the criminals. Abby’s babysitter was one of the vandals; as a result, Mike had to accompany Abby to his future shifts, and Vanessa always shows up. Once again, the animatronics spring to life, this time showing hostility against Mike but kindness toward Abby. Even though Vanessa and Mike are reluctant, the animatronics make Abby their buddy. Later, Mike learns that the animatronics are controlled by the spirits of deceased children, who are headed by a blonde kid and are said to constantly mention a “yellow rabbit”.
Mike fills in between shifts, explaining that Garrett’s childhood disappearance turned into a cold case and that he had been taking sleeping pills every night to repeat his nightmares and figure out who had abducted his brother. Vanessa becomes frightened on the fourth night due to Abby’s growing attachment to the animatronics, and she threatens to shoot Mike if he brings Abby to the restaurant again. While he returns to the restaurant during the day and overdoses on his sleeping pills to return to his dream, Mike convinces Jane to watch Abby, much to her dismay.
The five kids reappear in the dream, telling Mike that in return for Abby, he can live with Garrett forever. A half-destroyed yellow Freddy Fazbear, also called Golden Freddy and controlled by the blonde lad, shows up at Mike’s house, kills Jane, and drags Abby back to the restaurant. Mike wakes up chained to a torture contraption that tries to rip off his face after being attacked multiple times within his dream. After escaping the machine and leaving the restaurant, he is taken by Vanessa while suffering from serious injuries.
Vanessa confesses that she is the daughter of William Afton, the serial killer who killed Mike’s brother and the other five children, and that he is in charge of the children’s souls and animatronics after Mike tells her about his dream and circumstances. To Mike’s dismay, she also informs him that they probably plan to try to kill Abby. Mike takes Abby into a backroom where Chica tries to kill her by forcing her into an animatronic suit with springlocks. Fortunately, Mike disables the majority of the animatronics and saves Abby. He drives to the restaurant with the tools needed to do so.
But Chica’s cupcake attacks him, causing him to split from Abby—who is assaulted by Foxy but is rescued by Vanessa. After defeating both animatronics, the group attempts to flee the restaurant when William Afton—who was later revealed to have killed Garrett while posing as Steve Raglan—appear in a Spring Bonnie suit, knock Mike down, and reactivate the animatronics. Understanding that they must know the truth, Abby starts sketching a picture of William killing the kids while Vanessa distracts him, shoots him, and then gets stabbed.
The animatronics become hostile toward William after Abby shows them her drawing, turning them against him. His suit gets bit off by the cupcake animatronic, setting off the springlock mechanism within the pizzeria and crushing his body as he is hauled into the back room and locked away, all while the main mascots of the establishment surround him. Vanessa is hurt and is carried by Mike and Abby out of the restaurant; however, she later goes into a coma and is sent to the hospital.
Cast:
- Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, a new security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza
- Piper Rubio as Abby, Mike’s younger sister
- Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa, a local police officer
- Matthew Lillard as Steve Raglan / William Afton, Mike’s career counselor
- Mary Stuart Masterson as Aunt Jane, Mike and Abby’s aunt
- Kat Conner Sterling as Max, Abby’s babysitter
- David Lind as Jeff
- Christian Stokes as Hank
- Joseph Poliquin as Carl
- Lucas Grant as Garrett, Mike’s younger brother who was abducted as a child
- Theodus Crane as Jeremiah, Mike’s co-worker at his previous job at a mall
Additionally, gaming YouTuber CoryxKenshin appears as a cabbie,[3] and YouTuber MatPat appears as Sparky’s Diner waiter.
Voices and performers:
- Kevin Foster as Freddy Fazbear[4]
- Jade Kindar-Martin as Bonnie[4]
- Jessica Weiss as Chica[4]
- Roger Joseph Manning Jr. as Foxy (uncredited)[4]
Production:
Development:
Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith are slated to produce the film version of the Five Nights at Freddy’s video game franchise, which Warner Bros. Pictures announced in April 2015 that it had acquired the film rights to. According to Grahame-Smith, they would work with Scott Cawthon, the creator of the franchise, “to make an insane, terrifying and weirdly adorable movie”.(5) Gil Kenan joined on in July 2015 to helm the movie, which he co-wrote with Tyler Burton Smith.(6)
Following Warner Bros. Pictures’ turnaround of the project, Cawthon tweeted in March 2017 to announce Blumhouse Productions as the new production company for the movie.(7) Producer Jason Blum expressed his enthusiasm and close collaboration with Cawthon for the movie in May 2017.(8) Kenan said in June 2017 that he would no longer be directing the movie.In [9]
In February 2018, it was revealed that Chris Columbus would take over as director and writer in place of Kenan, in addition to co-producing the movie with Blum and Cawthon.[10] In August 2018, Cawthon disclosed that he and Kira Breed-Wrisley, co-authors of the novel trilogy Five Nights at Freddy, had finished drafting the first draft of the movie script, which would center on the events of the first game in the series.11] Blum stated on Twitter that same month that the movie was hoping to be released in 2020.In [12] Despite Blum and Columbus’ approval, Cawthon declared in November that he “had a different idea for [the story], one that I liked better” and therefore discarded the script.
It caused the movie to be further delayed, for which Cawthon accepted full responsibility.13] When asked about the status of the movie in a June 2020 interview with Fandom, Blum responded, “It’s incredibly active, so I actually feel like we have a very strong opportunity at seeing a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie…It doesn’t seem to be stalling or anything; it seems to be really moving along. It’s advancing quickly. We will soon have a movie, however I don’t want to give it a release date. I’m incredibly confident in it.”In [14]
Blum stated in September 2021 that although Columbus was no longer working on the project, it was still actively being developed.In [15] Blum said in August 2022 that the mechanical characters for the movie would be created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.In [16] In October, Emma Tammi—who also co-wrote the screenplay with Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback—was revealed as Columbus’ successor as director.(17)
Casting:
Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard joined the ensemble in December 2022 in unspecified roles.18] Connected to Five Nights at Freddy’s Later, on a livestream, YouTuber Dawko disclosed that Hutcherson will play Mike Schmidt, the security guard in the original game, while Lillard would play William Afton, the main antagonist of the franchise. Additionally, he disclosed that Piper Rubio and Mary Stuart Masterson had joined the cast as Mike’s younger sister Abby and aunt Jane, respectively.19] It was reported in March 2024 that Elizabeth Lail and Kat Conner Sterling had been cast in the movie.20]21] Jessica Blackmore and Lucas Grant have unidentified roles.21]
Filming:
The original plan was for principal photography to start in March 2021.24] Filming, however, was postponed because of screenplay problems.In [15] With a projected production budget of $25 million[25] before tax incentives, filming for the working title Bad Cupcake started in New Orleans on February 1, 2024, and it concluded on April 3.(26][27] Lillard started shooting his parts in the middle of February.(28)
Music:
The fan-made song “Five Nights at Freddy’s” by The Living Tombstone was utilized for the credits, and the film’s soundtrack was written by The Newton Brothers [29].[/30]
Marketing:
A pop-up location was constructed in Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California in October of 2024. It is said that the place is furnished like the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza scene from the movie.34] A book on the creation process named The Art and Making of Five Nights at Freddy’s: August 20, 2024 is the anticipated release date of the film.(35) On December 26, 2024, a cinematic novelization of the film will also be released.36]
