READY FOR A RE-RUN
In 2019, Squimpus McGrimpus created the Five Nights at Freddy's VHS series, retelling the story of the first four games in the form of Analog Horror-style lost VHS tapes. Two years later, another channel known as Battington
(of Harmony & Horror fame, which itself was inspired by FNAF) began remaking the videos with a twist, announced here.
While the first video was simply a 1:1 remake of "Fazbear Entertainment Video Manual" using custom models inspired by Chuck E. Cheese's (in)famous animatronics (and a slight Jump Scare at the end), future installments went in a different, more original direction on the advice of Squimpus themselves, resulting in hefty doses of Adaptational Expansion.
In April 2022, a joke Battington made involving the creator of The Walten Files that was perceived to be in poor taste led to Squimpus McGrimpus, who at first approved of the remakes, explicitly forbidding Battington from continuing said remakes. However, Battington announced in September of the same year that the series would continue via videos with an original plot.
The playlist for the series can be found here.
Tropes found in the remake:
- Adaptation Expansion: Starting in "Bonnie_Joint_Movement_Test.mp4", the series goes into greater detail about how the animatronics work and their In-Universe personalities than Squimpus or the main series did. It also uses Found Footage elements to illustrate "normal" business operations.
- Adaptational Name Change: Spring Bonnie is known In-Universe as Bonnie Bun in this version, though he is listed as Spring Bonnie in the credits. This is likely because the suit became known as Spring Bonnie only after the infamous springlock failures.
- Adaptational Nationality:
- Downplayed, but William Afton has a more prominent British accent when he speaks in "Pirate Cove Pre-Show" than he did in Squimpus's series.
- Bonnie lacks the English accent he had in Squimpus's "Animated Cartoon" when he speaks in the remake of "Pirate Cove Pre-Show".
- Bonnie Bun/Spring Bonnie has a notable Australian accent when he speaks at the end of "Nonexistent Video", something he lacked in the original. Appropriate, though, since Springtrap's voice actor in the games, PJ Heywood, is Australian.
- Adaptational Ugliness: More "creepy" than "ugly", but all of the animatronics look more worn-down and unnerving than in Squimpus's series, which simply re-used the models from the games.
- All There in the Script: The strange, corrupted "Happy Birthday To You" cries the Fredbear endoskeleton makes and responds to in "Nonexistent Video" are revealed in the behind-the-scenes video to be a companion call between Fredbear and Bonnie Bun, possibly to find each other if the two get separated.
- Animation Bump: The series makes greater use of 3D animation for its scenes in addition to using completely original, high-quality models rather than reusing ones from the games.
- Awesome Aussie: Spring Bonnie AKA Bonnie Bun has an Australian accent In-Universe, and is shown to be friendly and jovial.
- Body Horror:
- The jumpscare at the end of "Fazbear_Entertainment_Video_Manual.mp4" shows some unnervingly realistic-looking eyes and teeth in Freddy's eye sockets and mouth respectively.
- "Nonexistent Video" details how the spring lock suits work, including what happens when they fail. Not only are we shown an adorable image of the Bonnie Bun mascot bleeding from the inside as a result of this, but we get treated to footage of an employee getting trapped and killed by the Spring Bonnie suit, something Squimpus's series omitted.
- Butt-Monkey: Bonnie is seemingly this In-Universe, as Freddy forces him to clean the stage only for him to slip and fall. Judging by Freddy's reaction, this is a frequent occurrence.
- Censor Box: In addition to the one present in the Video Manual, censor boxes are shown in the degraded footage of "Pirate Cove Pre-Show", covering up the children's bodies stuffed in the suits but still showing the blood splattered on the animatronic's limp bodies. For a split second however, it fails on Foxy, though we don't see a detailed body thankfully.
- Clingy Costume: It's explained in "Nonexistent Video" that the spring locks can activate if they're rubbed up against too much.
- Composite Character: Puppet's design borrows elements from both its original and Nightmare iterations, having the more feminine appearance and colorful makeup of the former combined with the lean build and Black Eyes of Crazy of the latter.
- Deadly Euphemism: Chica tells a little girl trying to hide from her that "It's time to go home, baby bird!", moments before killing her.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first episode, a remake of "Fazbear Entertainment Video Manual", deviates very little from the source material, with the only differences being the updated models and the Jump Scare at the end. On Squimpus's advice, future episodes would have much more Adaptation Deviation.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: "Nonexistent Video" briefly shows a still card explaining that the Fredbear animatronic had additional hydraulics installed in its jaw to facilitate moving its tooth-filled mouth properly. Even without pausing to read the card, it's still possible to make out that the accompanying picture depicts an animatronic's mouth. After the card is shown, the video switches topics from wearing the springlock suits to the Bite of '83.
- Found Footage: A new addition to the remake series, often used to show the business during "normal" operations, such as Bonnie malfunctioning during a show, Chica following a little girl into a restroom, and a Fredbear endoskeleton crawling towards the cameraman during a fire evacuation.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: This is one possible explanation for what's happening to George in "The Horror Attraction".
- Hostile Animatronics: Par for the course for a FNAF fanwork. Notably, Chica is all but stated to have murdered a child, possibly under the control of William Afton.
- Hilarious Outtakes: The behind-the-scenes for "Nonexistent Video" shows Battington making the endoskeleton and Fredbear models do silly dances while working with them.
- Jump Scare: Mostly avoids these like Squimpus's series, but still has a few:
- "Fazbear_Entertainment_Video_Manual.mp4" has a slight one at the end, fading into a shadowed, blood-splattered Freddy making a Nightmare Face at the viewer.
- The non-canon "Funtime_Showtime", created to commemorate Sister Location's 5th anniversary, has one lifted straight from the game at the end, courtesy of Funtime Foxy.
- The teaser "There Are No Strings" features Puppet jumpscaring the viewer almost identically to how she did in her home game. According to Battington, this was done simply to test her model.
- "Late One Night at Fazbears Frights" ends with Evil Bonnie Bun / Springtrap mugging whoever's holding the camera and revealing the still-bloodied remains of his face.
- "Motion Detected In Cam_4" has a distorted face, all in red, popping up with a loud grinding sound.
- Laughing Mad: Chica in the beginning footage of "Sound Response Check", right before she murders the little girl who would later possess her.
- Sensory Abuse: The scream of the girl killed by Chica in "Sound Response Check" is incredibly loud and shrill. In-Universe, the sound is so loud it damages the animatronic's audio sensors.
- Southern Belle: This iteration of Chica has the appearance and mannerisms down, as well as a very slight southern accent.
- Uncanny Valley:
- The animatronics in this series have original designs, and look more like actual creepy animatronics you'd find at a run-down Chuck E. Cheese.
- Even the behind the scenes videos aren't immune to this, as the making of video for "Nonexistent Video" features Bonnie Bun with an eerily-detailed frown on his face, combined with sickly-green human eyes.
