Why Five Nights At Freddy's requires multiple viewings according to director

Starring:
Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Kat Conner Sterling, Matthew Lillard

Directed by:
Emma Tammi

Release date:
October 27, 2023

Five Nights At Freddy's director Emma Tammi teases that the movie requires multiple viewings in order to find a number of both noticeable and thoroughly hidden nods and details. The upcoming Blumhouse produced adaptation brings Scott Cawthon's hit horror game franchise to the big screen, with The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson and Scream's Matthew Lillard taking on key roles. In Five Nights at Freddy's, a newly hired night guardsman at a run-down family restaurant is haunted by possessed animatronics brought to life from the dark horrors of the establishment's past.

When speaking to SFX Magazine (Via GamesRadar+), Tammi teased that fans can expect to find plenty of secrets amongst Five Nights at Freddy's expansive set that could warrant seeing the movie multiple times on the big screen. While the director was coy abut revealing too many details to the magazine, she stated that it will feature upfront, noticeable nods to the wider lore of the franchise, as well as others that will only be noticeable on multiple rewatches. Check out Tammi's full explanation below:
 

Well, I can’t give any of those away. I’ll say this: I think some will be immediately obvious. Then I think others will be found on a second or third watch. We’ve got some things that are buried in there a little bit more that you might not notice on the first watch.

 

Five Nights at Freddy's Will Both Reward And Surprise Existing Fans

For fans of Five Nights at Freddy's, it is already clear that while the movie will follow the basic premise of the first game, Tammi and the crew have also brought in elements from later games and the wider lore. The most noticeable element is the presence of Springtrap, the decrepit and terrifying animatronic that didn't make its debut until the third game, where he stalked the player character at the Fazbear Fright location. While the movie has compiled elements from multiple games, Springtrap's presence will allow it to explain the darker origin behind the franchise to audience, as the animatronic's blood-stained history is tied heavily to the other animatronics' origins.

Related: Five Nights At Freddy’s Already Fixed The Game’s Lead Character Problem

However, there are some notable deviations from Five Nights at Freddy's wider lore in the movie that allows it to stand out from its source material, with the majority of these changes being tied to Mike Schmidt (Hutcherson), the main character who was the player character in the original game. In the game's continuity, Mike is the security guard who overlooks the restaurant on the night shift, though further installments in the franchise reveal he has his own secrets. In the movie's continuity, Mike is still a night guard with a shady past, but is also taking care of his younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), adding a stronger emotional thread to the story.

Fans of the games have already been amazed by Five Nights at Freddy's trailers, as such the promise of deep-cut Easter eggs is sure to leave fans more eager to watch the movie multiple times. With the early games originally having a simple surface-level story, further installments saw players theorizing just how the horrors of Fazbear's Pizzeria came to be through background details and hidden features. As such, it is clear the movie adaptation will appeal to eagle-eyed, inquisitive fans as well as newcomers visiting the restaurant for the first time.

Source: SFX Magazine (Via GamesRadar+)