Five Nights at Freddy's (film)

Five Nights at Freddy's is a 2023 American supernatural horror film based on the video game series created by Scott Cawthon. It was directed by Emma Tammi, and written by Cawthon, Tammi and Seth Cuddeback. The film stars Josh Hutcherson as a troubled security guard who starts a job at an abandoned pizzeria where he discovers its animatronic mascots are possessed by the souls of murdered children who were abducted by a serial killer decades before. The film also stars Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Matthew Lillard, who are featured in supporting roles.

Development of a Five Nights at Freddy's film adaptation began in April 2015 under Warner Bros. Pictures. Roy Lee, Seth Grahame-Smith, and David Katzenberg were set to produce it, with Gil Kenan announced as director and co-writer. After multiple production delays, Kenan resigned from the project and further development on the film was transferred from Warner Bros. to Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions in March 2017. Chris Columbus was hired to direct and write the film in February 2018, ultimately leaving the project and being replaced by Tammi in October 2022. Principal photography occurred from February to April 2023 in New Orleans and surrounding communities.

Five Nights at Freddy's was simultaneously released for streaming on Peacock and theatrically in the United States on October 27, 2023, by Universal Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing $297 million on a budget of $20 million, becoming Blumhouse's highest-grossing film. A sequel, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, was released in 2025.

Plot

In 2000, mall security guard Mike Schmidt was fired for assaulting a father whom he had mistaken for a kidnapper. Mike's career counselor, Steve Raglan, offers him a job as a night guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a once-successful abandoned pizzeria. Mike accepts after social services threaten to take custody of his younger sister, Abby, and pass her to their estranged aunt, Jane, who desires the monthly custody payments.

During his first night, Mike falls asleep and has a nightmare about the kidnapping of his younger brother, Garrett. Within the nightmare, he meets five children who also witnessed the crime. The next day, Jane hires a gang of vandals, including Abby's babysitter, Max, to vandalize the pizzeria and get Mike fired, hastening her custody of Abby. Mike meets police officer Vanessa Shelly, who explains that the building closed during the 1980s after five children went missing there. Once Mike's shift ends and he leaves, the vandals break in, but the pizzeria's animatronic mascots—Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Mr. Cupcake—kill the entire group.

On his third night, Mike brings Abby to work when Max fails to show. The animatronics befriend her, and Mike discovers that they are possessed by the ghosts of the missing children, who consistently mention a "yellow rabbit". Vanessa warns Mike not to touch the 'springlock' suits, which contain internal gears with a faulty design that can impale the wearer. On the fourth night, Abby is accidentally injured while bonding with the animatronics. The next day, Mike reluctantly allows Jane to babysit Abby while he goes back to Freddy’s with sleeping pills, hoping to induce more dreams to learn what happened to Garrett. In the dream, the children offer for Mike to stay with Garrett forever in exchange for Abby. Mike initially accepts, but when he changes his mind, he is attacked and injured by Foxy. A damaged golden Freddy animatronic incapacitates Jane and brings Abby back to the pizzeria.

Vanessa reveals that she is the daughter of William Afton, the serial killer who kidnapped and murdered Garrett and the other children. He hid their bodies in the animatronics, and now their souls are under his control. Realizing the animatronics plan to kill Abby and have her join them in the afterlife, Mike rushes to the pizzeria and disables the animatronics, but Afton arrives in the yellow rabbit suit and reactivates them. He unmasks, reveals himself to be Steve, and stabs Vanessa. Mike reminds Abby that the animatronics like drawings and tells her to show them what really happened. Abby draws a picture of Afton murdering the children to free them from his influence and make them realize the truth. The animatronics attack Afton, activating his suit's springlock mechanisms and crushing him before dragging him away.

Mike, Abby, and Vanessa flee as the building collapses. Vanessa falls into a coma and is hospitalized, while Mike and Abby reconcile. At the pizzeria, the leader of the children watches Afton dying in the suit before leaving him to his fate.

Cast

• Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, a struggling young man who takes a job as the night guard of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza
  • Wyatt Parker as young Mike Schmidt
• Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa Shelly, a local police officer
• Piper Rubio as Abby Schmidt, Mike's younger sister
• Matthew Lillard as William Afton, Mike's career counselor and serial child murderer, who initially goes by the alias Steve Raglan
• Mary Stuart Masterson as Aunt Jane, Mike and Abby's aunt
• Kat Conner Sterling as Max, Abby's babysitter
• David Lind as Jeff, the leader of a juvenile gang and Max's brother
• Christian Stokes as Hank, a member of Jeff's gang
• Joseph Poliquin as Carl, a member of Jeff's gang
• Grant Feely as the murdered child whose soul is possessing Golden Freddy
• Asher Colton Spence as the murdered child whose soul is possessing Foxy
• David Huston Doty as the murdered child whose soul is possessing Bonnie
• Liam Hendrix as the murdered child whose soul is possessing Freddy Fazbear
• Jophielle Love as the murdered child whose soul is possessing Chica
• Tadasay Young as Doctor Lillian, Abby's therapist
• Michael P. Sullivan as Doug, Jane's lawyer
• Lucas Grant as Garrett Schmidt, Mike & Abby's brother who was abducted as a child
• Theodus Crane as Jeremiah, Mike's previous co-worker
• Matthew Patrick as a waiter at a local diner
• Cory Williams as a cab driver

The suit performers include Kevin Foster as Freddy Fazbear, the pizzeria's namesake and bear-based animatronic; Jade Kindar-Martin as Bonnie, a rabbit-based animatronic; and Jess Weiss as Chica, a chicken-based animatronic. The scatted pirate song that Foxy, a fox-based animatronic, sings throughout the film is performed by Kellen Goff, known for his voice roles in the source material.

Production

Development

In April 2015, Warner Bros. Pictures announced it had acquired the film rights to the Five Nights at Freddy's video game franchise with Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith set to produce the adaptation. Grahame-Smith stated that they would collaborate with franchise creator Scott Cawthon, who co-wrote the books in collaboration with ghostwriting firm Kevin Anderson and Associates, "to make an insane, terrifying and weirdly adorable movie". In July 2015, Gil Kenan signed to direct the film from a screenplay co-written with Tyler Burton Smith.

In March 2017, Cawthon announced Blumhouse Productions as the film's new production company after Warner Bros. Pictures put the project in turnaround. In May 2017, producer Jason Blum said he was excited and working closely with Cawthon on the film. In June 2017, Kenan said he was no longer directing the film.

In February 2018, Chris Columbus was announced as Kenan's replacement as director and writer, besides producing the film alongside Blum and Cawthon. In August 2018, Cawthon revealed that the first draft of the film's script, which he wrote with co-author of the Five Nights at Freddy's novel trilogy, Kira Breed-Wrisley, was completed, and it would involve the events of the series' first game. That same month, Blum wrote on Twitter that the film was aiming for a 2020 release. In November, Cawthon announced that he scrapped the script, despite being liked by Columbus and Blum, as he "had a different idea for [the story], one that I liked better". It contributed to a further delay to the film, for which Cawthon took full responsibility. In June 2020, during an interview with Fandom, Blum, when asked about the progress of the film, stated:

"It's super active, so I really feel like we have a very good shot at seeing a Five Nights at Freddy's movie...I feel like it's really moving forward; it's not stalled or anything else. It's moving forward rapidly. I don't want to put a timeline on it, but soon we'll get a movie. I feel really confident about that."

In September 2021, Blum revealed that Columbus was no longer involved with the project, which was still in active development. In August 2022, Blum announced that Jim Henson's Creature Shop would be working on the animatronic characters for the film. In October, Emma Tammi was announced as Columbus' replacement as director, in addition to co-writing the screenplay alongside Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback.