The Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie: Scarily Inaccurate to the Franchise

Five Nights at Freddy’s is a franchise with one of the most expansive stories in the video game sphere. The original game was released in 2014 and has since expanded into a franchise with multiple games, books, and now movies. There are 11 main series games (with numerous spin-offs and fan games), over 20 books, and one released movie, with another in the works. With so much content, the franchise has intense lore to unpack.

But even though the inevitable film adaptation would go on to break records, fans (me included) were still disappointed with the film's execution. The film's lore was undoubtedly fans' biggest point of contention with the movie. Common criticism was that the film was a mish-mash of iconic FNAF imagery, rather than trying to align with the lore of the games and novels, and I have to agree.

For the most part, the fundamental background of the movie and games align: five children are killed by Purple Guy, aka William Afton, and stuffed into animatronic suits. The movie makes no mention of the names of the children, who are just referred to as “ghost children” in the credits of the film. For example, Foxy’s spirit is referred to as “Ghost Kid (With Hook).”

William Afton lured each child to the back of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, which is the location of the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 game. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place is where the FNAF Movie also takes place, where Mike works as a security guard.

Mike Schmidt, who is the nightguard in FNAF 1, is also the main character in the Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie. In the games, Mike Schmidt is the son of Willaim Afton, who goes under an alias. This is where the main differences between the games and the movie start. In the movie, Mike is not the son of Afton. Mike’s two younger siblings, Garrett and Abby, also have no familial relation to Afton. Instead, Afton’s only child that’s mentioned thus far is Vannessa. This is one of the most confusing parts of the movie’s lore: Vannessa’s character is first shown in Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach, who works as the night guard in the PizzaPlex. In the movie,  Vannessa is Afton’s accomplice, there to kill Mike if he gets in the way. Her appearance in the first movie felt like she was just there for recognizability for the franchise, just so the filmmakers had another human from the games to stick in the movie.

In the games, Afton has three children: Micheal Afton, aka Mike Schmidt, Elizabeth Afton, and the Crying Child (who is only referred to as such in the games). Abby, Mike’s younger sister who is targeted by the animatronics in the film, perhaps may be an alternate version of Elizabeth. Garrett may be a parallel to Crying Child, but there’s a popular theory that he may be the movie’s version of Charlotte Emily. Instead of being connected by a familial tree, Mike and Afton in the movie are instead connected by Garett’s kidnapping. Afton kidnaps Garrett when Mike and his family are camping in Nebraska when Mike is distracted by a thrown frisbee. Mike dreams about Garrett’s kidnapping every night, trying to find answers about who took him.

In the games, Charlotte Emily is the daughter of Afton’s business partner, Henry Emily, who built the original animatronics of the FNAF franchise. Henry Emily possesses the Puppet animatronic, who guides the souls of the five murdered children into the animatronic suits, allowing them to possess the suits. Puppet’s first appearance is in the FNAF 2 game, where players have to keep a music box winded to keep Puppet subdued. In the movie, we don’t know the exact identities of Mike’s parents. His dad may be Henry and Afton specifically targeted his family and Garrett. It’s revealed in the movie that the characters live in Minnesota, but Garett is kidnapped in Nebraska, so why else would Afton drive to Nebraska just to kidnap a specific kid?

Another hint in the film that lends itself to this theory is the end credits: a low, creepy voice smells out “C-O-M-E F-I-N-D M-E.” This is the same voice that speaks during the “Give Gifts, Give Life,” minigame in FNAF 2. In the minigame, the top of the screen flashes the instructions “Give Gifts,” and then the puppet walks to each dead child in a room, and gives them each a gift. Then the screen flashes “Give Life,” and the puppet walks to each child again, animatronic masks appearing on each child as it does so, each mask resembling one of the original FNAF animatronics. Throughout the sequence, the voice spells out “H-E-L-P-T-H-E-M,” which suggests the theory that Garett might be the puppet in the sequel to the Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie.

Based on the differences and similarities between the games and the movie, the sequel will undoubtedly show the direction the films are taking, and whether or not they’ll try to start sticking to the lore of the games and novels or keep going a different route. I think of it as separate from the world that the games and books have created, just because of these differences. Rather than stick to the original lore, the first has parallels with specific bits and pieces from the games. The movie was created for recognizability, trying to attract both fans and new audience members to watch the film. But one thing is for sure: the lore is mangled from the original games.

Writer: Addison Delgado

Artist: Brooke Barnes