Last year, the pop culture phenomenon “Five Nights At Freddy’s” (FNAF for short) finally received a feature film of the same name. It took a long time: The film is said to have been in the planning stages for over eight years. The project moved from Warner Bros. Entertainment to Jason Blum and underwent a number of directorial recasts along the way. Ultimately, Emma Tammi directed the work and video game series creator Scott Cawthon worked on the script. It has been clear since 2015 that a FNAF film adaptation is coming – just a year after the first FNAF part was released as a video game. At first glance, the indie game seems like a simple jump scare, but it managed to surprise fans with its complicated, disturbing and enigmatic lore.
There was a mystery running through each of the games: what about the animatronics? Who is this ominous Purple Guy? And what dark story lies behind Fazbear Entertainment? The FNAF movie, released this year, was clearly aimed at fans of the video game series: it played with the lore, added a lot of little things and changed some aspects significantly – which caused even more fan anxiety than already was the case. Storyline of the games already done!
It is therefore not surprising that there are many Easter eggs hidden in the FNAF film. We introduce you to five of the coolest that will be as interesting to those familiar with the lore as they are to newcomers. The following does apply: Warning, spoiler alert!
1. 8-bit mini-games in the end credits
The “FNAF” movie uses a lot of foreshadowing and gives us early hints as to what will happen over the course of the movie. In fact: very early! The opening titles are in an 8-bit pixel style, which is also used in the minigames in the “FNAF” video game series. The mini-games in the game function as short cutscenes that tell us a bit of the backstory. Here the allusion provides successful foreshadowing: we already get a hint about the villain of the series and what’s inside the animatronics.
The Purple Guy is considered a villain in the FNAF games. He’s also the villain in the movie, although he’s obviously not a purple 8-bit guy here. Fans of the games are told in the opening who the Purple Guy could be later in the film: the actor’s name is shown in purple in the credits!
2. 6:00 am
The games are about surviving five nights as a security guard. The nights last from midnight to 6am. Once you reach this time, you have survived a night and level up. Even though the premise of the film is set up differently, the structure is based on the five nights and the time rules of the games are also respected. So by looking at his alarm clock, we discover Mike Schmidt’s wake-up time: 6am!
3. Ghost face
Matthew Lillard can once again show his bad side in “Five Nights At Freddy’s”: he plays the antagonist in the film. We know Lillard from his appearance in ‘Scooby-Doo’ and in ‘Scream’, where he plays one of the original Ghostface killers. ‘FNAF’ fits well in his filmography, as the work has a childish touch and, apart from the typical Blumhouse dream sequences, some films from the turn of the century. What Lillard’s achievements stand for “FNAF“ with the out “Scream“ connects? It’s simple: he uses the signature Ghostface move, where the slasher icon wipes the blood from his blade.
4. The 1983 bite
When the Animatronics perform on stage, they sing a great song, “Talking in Your Sleep” by The Romantics. This not only fits the setting perfectly in terms of atmosphere, but also has an interesting year of release: 1983. Anyone familiar with the lore of FNAF will sit up and notice this: In 1983, a terrible incident occurs in which a prank is played on a child that ends in death. A boy is placed in the mouth of an animatronic, which bites and crushes the boy’s head. The nightmares the child has during his coma are discussed in the fourth part of the video game series.
‘Crying Child’ – as the child is called in the lore – dies as a result of the incident and is an early indication of the mischief the animatronics will wreak in the decades to come. The injury is inflicted by Fredbear, a prototype of the Freddy we meet in the film. This one also has a kill that is very reminiscent of the bite from 1983. In one scene we see Freddy biting a burglar in the head.
5. “Come Find Me”
There are two Easter eggs in the credits that reference the animatronic character Puppet. Puppet has an important function in the game: the figure ensures that the souls of the child corpses that Afton hides in the animatronics take possession of them. This important character does not play a central role in the film, but there are some allusions to him. Two of them can be found in the credits. The melody of a music box sounds there. This is the tune of the music box that players must wind over and over again in the second game in the series to avoid being killed by Puppet.
More interesting: At the end of the credits, an electronic-sounding voice spells out ‘Come Find me’. We hear the same voice in a mini-game within the FNAF series with Puppet. The mini-game describes “Save Them” – a reference to the souls of deceased children. “Come Find Me” has really fueled fan theories about a possible sequel and makes more than curious what role Puppet will play in future film projects.