Five Nights at Freddy’s has been a staple in the horror genre and has represented how games don’t have to be super elaborate (in terms of gameplay and graphics) or make the user spin in circles confused about the game’s mechanics to create a unique and memorable experience. Indie developer Scott Cawthon decided to try his hand at one last game before he gave up on game development back in 2014. Little did he know that the game he made would be picked up by famous YouTubers such as Markiplier, Pewdiepie, and Game Theory, and eventually be so popular as to lead to a feature-length movie.
Desura, a videogame and online video platform, released the game on Aug. 8, 2014, over nine years ago. Shortly after on Aug. 20, the popular PC game platform Steam released the game as well, giving even more people access to it. With this release it caused a ripple and grew into a huge horror icon, becoming one of the foundations for what a good horror game should look like.
Cawthon intended this to be his final project for the gaming world as his past games never received much attention. However, the game he made as a last shot became a huge hit with fans. Just a few months after releasing the original game, Cawthon released its sequel, which was in high demand after the huge splash that the original made in the horror genre. The other games that came after only increased his overall success.
Unexpectedly for its creator, his passion project also turned into a whole subgenre of horror games. FNAF has been credited with the revival of “mascot horror,” a horror subgenre that vilifies typically child-friendly mascots. Many of the game’s fans created parodies upon parodies out of love and respect for Cawthon’s original creation. The success was so much for Cawthon that he devoted himself to creating a whole FNAF universe and also to funding fan projects within the universe he created. By the time of the release of the movie, there were nine total official FNAF games.
Fan animations and many other types of video content have been made in honor of the franchise. When Blumhouse Production announced late last year that they were making a FNAF movie, people were excited, to say the least. The movie finally came out on Oct. 27. It grossed 250 million dollars in under a month, breaking multiple box office records. The movie also broke records in its first weekend for the “The highest PG-13 North American opening horror movie” at the box office.
Like many highly anticipated movies, however, it polarized its audiences. Common critiques were that the movie didn’t do the original game justice because the makers had to censor it in order to achieve a PG-13 rating. Critics are also calling it lackluster and saying it doesn’t have any of the core components of horror. Meanwhile, the original fandom is going crazy over it, giving it an audience score of 87% on movie review site Rotten Tomatoes and saying that, while it was censored, it was still an enjoyable movie. Overall, it is clear that, even though the movie has met criticism, the public would be willing to support a sequel – and the FNAF franchise has never been shy about making one of those.
