Nightmare Fuel / Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

As this is a Nightmare Fuel page, all spoilers will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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At long last, after eight years in development, the long awaited live action film adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy's has finally arrived. As the tragic story of their restaurant unfolds, Freddy Fazbear and his friends bring to the big screen all the Jump Scares and more, including a certain serial killer (played by none other than Stu Macher himself, Matthew Lillard) who always comes back...

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Pre-Release

• The first official photo revealed about the movie is this. The teaser showcases the back of Golden Freddy/Fredbear (with his Five Nights at Freddy's 2 design mixed in with the live action design of the film) standing outside the establishment where the film takes place holding a young child's hand. Just what is going on in this the context of this photo?◊ And who is the child shown in the image? ABBY, Mike's younger sister.
  • The official trailer reveals that Golden Freddy will appear alongside his normal counterpart. Freddy Fazbear was bad enough, but trying to survive against Golden Freddy is impossible.
  • Golden Freddy comes with creepy haunting Icy Blue Eyes, which just makes him stand out even more compared to the other animatronics.
• Just like the original game, the animatronics are deep in the Uncanny Valley. The jerky, unnatural movements, and human like teeth just add to to the creepiness. Children found them endearing. Adults were creeped out by them.
• The shot of the star of the show himself, Freddy Fazbear staring deep into your soul from the Show Stage with bright red eyes. This applies to the theatrical poster with all four animatronic mascots having bright red eyes staring directly at you.
• The very first shot of the teaser is a VHS tape showcasing Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. The VHS footage is of low quality and the three main animatronics look quite creepy in the shown VHS footage.
• According to the sources, the animatronics shown in the trailer are REAL. No, we did NOT stutter. They are REAL. LIFE. ANIMATRONICS. They're expertly crafted suits lifted straight from the game, portrayed by well-trained stunt actors. Foxy is even a genuine, authentic , Uncanny Valley filled animatronic. Courtesy of none other than Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
• Turns out that Mike can't afford money for a babysitter, so he's forced to bring his younger sister, Abby, into the establishment at night on his work shift. You'd think that the animatronics wouldn't target children since they're built to entertain children, right? Not this time, the animatronics are after them both.
• When Mike Schmidt is looking around the establishment, there's a blink and you'll miss it moment of Freddy Fazbear standing right behind him.
• The sequence where Mike is trapped in shackles and ends up coming face to face with deadly saw blades that lower from the face of a Freddy Fazbear mask. It eerily looks like a trap straight out of John Kramer's imagination.
• The silhouette of Foxy the Pirate Fox preparing to run out of Pirate Cove and attack Mike before another shot shows him moving out the cove from a low perspective.
• The distorted hellish laughter from a group of children overlapped with the shots of a screaming employee played is rather chilling.
• There's a sequence in the trailer where Mike is in a forest during the day, and he sees five distinct kids glaring at him before running off into the forest with Mike shown sprawled onto the ground; Newcomers to the series might be confused by this, but for anyone who knows the backstory of the series, they know EXACTLY who those kids are... the five missing children whose souls now haunt the five animatronics.
• Abby seems to feel safe in the ball pit, only to end up being cornered by Foxy coldly staring at her from above the ball pit.
  • And anyone that followed Five Nights lore outside of the games will know that the ball pit is absolutely NOT safe.
• A shot in the new trailer features a child's hand bursting out of Freddy's mouth.
• The jumpscare that occurs on the camera monitors when Mike is asleep in the office can be startling for some.
• Later on in the trailer, in the office, Mike spots the animatronics moving around the establishment on the camera system like statues.
• The appearance of William Afton, aka the Purple Guy, staring at the camera in a creepy manner. Newcomers to the series might not know who he is and his significance to the series at first, but long-time fans definitely know who he is. After all, he always comes back...
  • What makes William particularly unnerving is how... completely normal he looks, in stark contrast to his appearance in the graphic novels. If you didn't know he was a serial killer who enjoys murdering children, you'd be forgiven to think he was just a kindly old man from appearance alone.
  • The reveal of Springtrap in the official trailer, slowly walking through the shadows while ominously humming the Toreador March and brandishing a kitchen knife. Just like Golden Freddy, Springtrap is much worse than his normal counterpart, Bonnie.
  • Upon closer inspection of the trailer, it's shown that Mike is on the phone with his career counselor who's encouraging him to sign up at Freddy's... and William is actually the one on the phone sitting at the desk of Steve Raglan, presumably the counselor Mike thought he was talking to. William is no stranger to using multiple names (his novel counterpart having used the name Dave Miller), making it all the more unsettling as he manipulates Mike into taking the job at the deadly restaurant.

Post-Release

• The first scene of the film has a poor Freddy's security guard nearly escape the pizzeria only to be caught by Foxy and sentenced to have his face diced up by a Freddy mask with saw blades, and we hear his screams as it happens.
  • Behind The Scenes images give us a good look at the Freddy mask's "pleasant" side, revealing that it's been mutilated into looking like the rotting severed head of Freddy Fazbear, with gangrenous skin, chipped and rotted teeth, and torn-up ears.
• The opening credits depict in 8-bit fashion the five missing children being led away from their group, one-by-one. As the last child is being guided into a dark room, Spring Bonnie turns to the audience with an evil grin on his face and a Red Filter of Doom. The whole time, an eerie, fast-paced electronic song is playing with what sounds like a children's choir vocalizing over it.
  • The Red Filter of Doom comes from a hanging red light that periodically flashes in the 8-bit credits, implying that Spring Bonnie took the children to the Parts & Service room.
  • This fan-made remake of the opening intercuts the animated sequence of Spring Bonnie leading the children away with shots of scribbled-over newspaper headlines about the missing children and the closure of the pizzeria, a ticking clock on the wall, and a missing persons poster for one of the children with their face scribbled out. Brrrr...
• Mike sees a man grab onto his lost child, assumes he's a kidnapper (it didn't help that the man was looking and talking angrily at his child before dragging him roughly), and responds by chasing him down and giving him one heck of a beating. It goes to show just how deeply Garrett's abduction has affected him.
  • One can easily imagine the Nightmare Fuel of the event from the perspective of the father who was getting beaten. Ditto for his son, who's fearfully yelling for his dad the whole time.
• Mike's backstory; his little brother, Garrett, was kidnapped by an unknown party while on a family picnic and never found, and he tries to help himself visualize the incident every night just to see if he can remember the culprit. Unsurprisingly, the kidnapper turns out to be William Afton, so Garrett's life was undoubtedly cut short by the Purple Guy himself.
• In his second encounter with the ghost children in his dream, Mike manages to catch up with the boy possessing Foxy, only to have his hand slashed by the latter's hook for his troubles. As Mike processes what just happened, the camera cuts to a terrifying jumpscare worthy of the games themselves: the child suddenly screams at Mike at the top of his lungs, his eyes now black as night as inky-looking tears stream down his face.
  • An easily missed detail is that when Mike wakes up after this, Foxy's right outside the door. Who knows what would've happened if Mike had been just a bit slower to flip the breaker...
• The animatronics hunting down Aunt Jane's goons, including Max and her brother. It's the closest the movie gets to the suspense of the first game.
  • Carl is messing up the kitchen until he hears noises coming from one of the fridges. He opens the fridge and finds Chica's Cupcake inside it, much to his confusion. Carl quickly gets scared when he turns around and sees Chica blocking his way out. The Cupcake then leaps onto Carl and viciously gnaws his face. We get a brief look at the aftermath later in the movie, and it's HORRIFYING. (GORE WARNING)
  • Hank hears screams of agony coming from the kitchen and takes a peek. As he sees what the Cupcake is doing to Carl, he also notices Chica slowly turning her head and staring at Hank. In a state of panic, Hank runs for his life and hides in a small room. He gets annoyed that the room light won't turn on properly, but after he gets it to work, Hank panics even more when he sees Bonnie in the room with him. Bonnie proceeds to bludgeon Hank to death.
  • When Jeff sees Bonnie, he runs to the security room and tries to use the phone there to call for help but all he hears is children's laughter. Jeff notices with the monitor that Bonnie and Chica are deploying the Cupcake at the vent while also glaring at Jeff through the camera. They know he is in the security room and by that logic, so does the Cupcake. Sure enough, the Cupcake tries to force its way in but Jeff is able to fend it off by keeping the vent sealed. However, Jeff's luck eventually runs out when he gets cornered by Foxy. The man tries to go through an exit but the door won't open and he both hears and sees the animatronic at a distance. Suddenly, Foxy does his iconic sprint down the hallway and all Jeff can do is scream in terror as the animatronic closes in for the kill.
  • Max wonders why everyone's taking so long, so she enters the pizzeria, and then is beckoned to the back by an ominous child. She gets into a room and finds Freddy standing motionless. Max hears the child inside the animatronic asking her to come closer. Max gets curious and tries to look inside through the mouth, only for the child's hand to pull her in. As Max is halfway through the mouth, Freddy bites her in two, causing her lower half to fall to the floor. We get to see her severed upper half later in the movie among the animatronics' other victims.
    • Max's death is even worse in the novelization. It's told from her perspective, including her realizing she's been bitten in half, before she expires.
• During her first night at the pizzeria, Abby is led into the main area and has an encounter with the animatronics. Mike, who was unaware she'd left his side (which he'd explicitly told her not to do, due to the dangerous conditions), wakes up to realize Abby's missing from her bed, and then finds her seemingly being attacked by the animatronics! Luckily, it turns out they were just playing with her, but one could imagine what was running through his mind in that moment.
  • Even after we know the animatronics were just playing with Abby, the scene is still extremely unsettling - the animatronics know that they can and have killed, and they don't seem to like Mike all that much. During the whole scene there's a palpable sense that things could get ugly at any moment, and Mike wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
• Their kills notwithstanding, the animatronics at first appear to be friendly ghosts who don't harm children or people the children know, given that they're ghost children themselves. While it appears to be sincerely meant on their part, William's influence leads them to try and kill Abby by springlocking her so that they can add a new member to their crew.
• The fourth night begins as Vanessa just... stares with barely any emotion at a picture of the Yellow Rabbit/Spring Bonnie with five children as echoes of children singing and screaming are heard... then we learn her backstory later on...
• Golden Freddy - Or specifically the ghost child of Golden Freddy, who has dark eyes that always seem to be glaring and a cold, manipulative personality.
  • He draws a bunny in a dream sequence in answer to the question of who kidnapped Garrett. Well before Abby reveals it to the others who have forgotten.
  • He operates under fae rules, only going after Abby after her brother says yes.
  • He is the only one to leave the pizzeria to bring Abby back. Let's reiterate: he can leave the pizzeria, something that very few animatronics across the franchise have been shown to be capable of.
  • The other animatronics, while the system begins to activate when the looters arrive, only become active after the soon to be victims declare intentions to wreck the place, and then become murderous well into the damage. He takes the initiative with the killing of the aunt.
    • Vanessa claims that William Afton is influencing the Animatronics to kill. With Golden Freddy, his eyes remain blue and in general just shows no influence from Afton.
  • Also, he's the only one shown to be able to manipulate doors in the ending with Afton. He's likely the one holding and opening doors throughout the movie.
• Spring Bonnie proves himself to be the biggest threat in the final battle. Despite his animatronic appearance, it's actually a suit... worn by a serial killer, William Afton. Who turns out to be Steve Raglan, the job counselor who saw Mike earlier.
  • He enters as Mike is searching for Abby, with his figure covered in shadow, only lit by the animatronic's white pupils. Spring Bonnie then proceeds to No-Sell Mike's taser, before shoving him backwards and kicking him with considerable force. Throughout the scene, he maniacally gloats about his past and future crimes, with the voice being distorted and in a sharp contrast to the other animatronics. It's also punctuated when he wipes his own clean knife, taking pride in his next kill.
    "Wake up, children! I have something for you to play with! This is gonna be so much fun! Little ones tell me you have a sister. She will love it here! You, however, are finished! Farewell, Michael Schmidt!"
  • His demise is no slouch, either. When the animatronics activate the springlocks, we get to see each spring activating and digging in. The last time we see him, he's twitching and groaning in agony as he's left to die in one of the back rooms. William Afton is gone. Say hello to Springtrap.
  • Unlike the game, Afton does not meet his fate terrified and pleading for mercy... instead, he is Defiant to the End, hurling insults at the children and re-donning his mask as the springlocks crush his body, but not before shouting his literally immortal words in a tone of pure rage:
    "I ALWAYS COME BACK."
  • The final scene of Afton, still alive — and suffering — in the Springlock suit. From the way he's slumped there twitching, it's clear he's in just as much pain as he was in the game.
• While Afton was never a good father in the games, he is certainly a terrible father to his daughter Vanessa. He had been killing kids for an unspecified amount of time; there's at least one instance where he gave her items that belonged to his victims. It's unclear when she found out about her father's crimes, but he had been keeping her under his thumb and had her cleaning up after him, possibly under threat of physical harm or death. Then, when she finally stands up to him, he chokes her and stabs her in the stomach. While spirits possessing animatronics in real life is unlikely, Afton's controlling and abusive behavior with Vanessa is certainly a realistic horror.
• After The Living Tombstone song during the credits, we then hear a chilling rendition of the iconic music box jingle from the second game, possibly hinting at the appearance of a certain figure in the second movie.
  • And at the very end of the credits, a low-pitched robotic voice can be heard spelling out a message, letter by letter: C. O. M. E. F. I. N. D. M. E.

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We're going to have so much fun together.