Undead animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy's. Photo: Patti Perret/Universal Pictures
Used by Christian games developer Scott Cawthon. create religious games. Among them was a video game version of The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan's 1678 theological opus. Another game, Desert Hope, was about, as Cawthon himself did, “a quest to save a human fetus that was intended to be a scientific specimen.” .
The game later drew criticism due to its apparent anti-abortion overtones. “The game puts a lot of value on human life, even the smallest ones, and that's causing a lot of anger in some people,” he told the Christian culture site Geeks Under Grace.
But Cawthon's Christian games, by his own admission, “were a complete failure from a financial point of view.” The failure led to a crisis of faith—fearing that God “hated” him—before Cawthon achieved mega success with an unlikely creation: Five Nights at Freddy's, a horror game franchise in which a parade of animatronic monsters are possessed by the souls of murdered children.
Five Nights at Freddy's was released in August 2014. Hollywood soon noticed her. Just eight months later, the film rights were snapped up, demonstrating how quickly the game became a cultural phenomenon. It took the better part of a decade for Five Nights at Freddy's to hit theaters. During this time, he changed studios, abandoned directors and faced numerous delays. Fans were caught up in the rumors and ridicule. The finished film, starring Josh Hutcherson and a bloodthirsty, human-sized teddy bear, is now in theaters. During this time, Five Nights at Freddy's has turned into an entire subculture: sequels, spin-offs, mountains of merchandise, memes, fan art and fan debates.
It became an online hit thanks to a combination of factors: videos of gamers actually playing it on YouTube, usually interspersed with notoriously effective jump scares; deep knowledge that is discussed, dissected and theorized on Reddit; and distribution of fan games based on the original. Not to mention the connection fans have with the man at the center of it all: creator Scott Cawthon. Although Cawthon also found himself at the center of some controversy after it was revealed that he had made political donations to various Republican candidates, including Donald Trump, which came as a blow to the game's LGBT fans.
The original Five Nights at Freddy's, affectionately known as “FNaF” by fans, was largely a reaction to Cawthon's previous work. He spoke seriously about the crisis of faith caused by the failure of his religious games. “I came to the conclusion that I could not have failed so ignominiously if God himself had not held me back,” he said. “Either God didn’t exist, or God hated me. I didn’t know which was worse.”
In 2013, Cawthon created Chipper & Sons Lumber Co is a family game where players control a beaver chopping wood. Gamers noted the beaver's design, comparing it to a scary animatronic. “I fell into a pretty deep depression and was ready to quit making games,” Cawthon said. “Then something inside me snapped and I thought I bet I could do something much worse!”
Five Nights at Freddy's was released independently on August 8, 2014 to initial moderate success and generally positive reviews. Players take on the role of a security guard who must survive his night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza – from midnight to 6 a.m. – for five nights in a row. The game takes place entirely in the security office, which the player must protect from animated animatronics – Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the rabbit, Chica the chicken and Foxy the pirate fox.
It's a monstrous re-imagining of a peculiarly American phenomenon: family-themed restaurants, most famously Chuck E. Cheese and ShowBiz Pizza Place, made popular by groups of animatronic animals that entertained/traumatized children while they ate. ShowBiz Pizza had “Rock-afire Explosion,” a six-piece band with a bear playing a guitar and a gorilla tinkling a keyboard. Playing mechanical instruments and dead-eyed cheers are downright creepy – the kind of thing that sneaks into children's nightmares.
Josh Hutcherson and Piper Rubio in the film “Five Nights at Freddy's” Photo: Patti Perret
“I went to Chuck E. Cheese. I saw “Blast on Fire,” says PJ Gallagher, a YouTuber known as cweemyboy. Gallagher is currently producing a documentary about Five Nights at Freddy's, which will be released on YouTube later this year. “I think it was a big event that amazed people. Chuck E. Cheese itself was very creepy. Someone I interviewed for the documentary said there's something about seeing a place you went to as a child turn into horror.”
Five Nights at Freddy's quickly became an online sensation. It was picked up by famous YouTubers like Markiplier, PewDiePie and Jacksepticeye, who recorded themselves playing the game and reacting to the jump scares. Markiplier, a gamer with 35 million YouTube subscribers, posted a video of himself playing Five Nights at Freddy's just days after its release (“Warning: Scariest game in years”). The video has since received 113 million views. It was a successful online circle: YouTubers made the game popular, and the game in turn gave them a boost, increasing their audience.
“The viral factor is definitely one of the reasons for its success,” YouTube gamer DJ Steph. “You had big YouTubers who picked it up – some of them weren't really as big as they are now. FNaF added fuel to the fire in terms of their acceleration.”
DJ Sterf makes FNAF video guides and helps test FNAF games. “There are people who could look at my guide five years ago and now say, 'Thank you so much for your guide!' You were such an influence in my childhood!” – he says, laughing. “I was like, 'Really?' FINE! I hope I made a positive impact.”
DJ Sturf also credits Cawthon's story for its popularity. “He had a crisis of faith,” says DJ Sterf. “All of a sudden he gives him one last chance and it's a home run.”What's interesting is that YouTubers, like other popular voices in the FNaF community, are not just fans, they are an integral part of the entire phenomenon and add new layers to the game. Among them is a YouTuber named Doko – real name Lewis Dawkins, a funny and likeable Brit who DJ Sterf considers “the face of the franchise.” YouTubers played such an important role in FNaF that Cawthon invited some of them to make cameo appearances in the film. In the background of the trailer you can see Dauko and other employees of the month at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
Back in 2014, even Cawthon seemed overwhelmed by the game's success. At the time, he was still working as a cashier at a Dollar General store — “I had three bosses, all still in high school,” he wrote — and bagging frozen goods at Target.
FNAF earned the Guinness Book of World Records for most sequels in a year, with a whopping four in eleven months. More sequels and spin-offs followed. New games expanded the gameplay, added new animatronics, and built a story around the concept that still continues today. And the impact was felt beyond FNaF.
“FNAF completely changed the indie horror scene,” says PJ Gallagher. “It completely changed the formula. People started trying to make FNAF type games. In my opinion, it's become something new.”
Gallagher says a new trend in indie horror games is the “cute gone killer” – things like toys that come to life, clearly inspired by the author of FNaF.
Screenshot from the game
Much of the series' appeal is the plethora of mini-games, hidden Easter eggs and puzzles to solve – clues to the backstory, known in gaming terms as “backstory”. The piecing together of clues and puzzles has become an integral part of a passionate fan base.
“Fans took to different threads and then Reddit and said, 'I found this secret, we need to figure it out.' together,” says DJ Sterf. “There were a lot of secrets, but the community always came together to find the end result.”
In an interview with Doko in 2018, Cawthon admitted that he didn't have a plan for the story from the beginning. “But I definitely knew that the story I was telling in the first game was a small piece of a larger story,” he said. “Even if I haven't figured out all the details of the story yet.” He retroactively created knowledge. Cawthon initially said that he tried to keep FNaF “relatively pure, without blood and guts,” but the story seems to be getting more disturbing.
It was later revealed that the owner of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was a serial killer a killer who killed five children, and now their souls are possessed by terrifying animatronics. And there are still mysteries. “There are a lot of possibilities of where this could go,” says DJ Sterf. “It will be interesting to see how much is revealed in the film – and how it stays true to the games and books.”
YouTubers like MatPat are making videos dedicated to the game's history, while literally countless threads and communities on Reddit are dedicated to picking apart and theorizing what it all means in forensic (not to mention obsessive) detail. PJ Gallagher points out one FNaF 4 mystery that still remains unanswered: the box that appeared at the end of the game. “We never managed to open that box,” he says. “People still lose their minds to this day about what was in that box.”
Betsy Bray, a professor of game studies at the University of Waterloo, discussed this phenomenon in an essay entitled “Five Nights at Fan Games.” “The story is difficult to understand, vague and contradictory,” Bray wrote of her story. “Curated, imagined, and collected by fans on wikis and fan games, rather than purely created within the series and its spin-offs.”
Bray compares this to the fan-perpetuated folklore of Slenderman—an online urban myth. which is generated by creepypasta horror stories.
A fan dressed as a character from Five Nights at Freddy's. Credit: Charles Sykes
Issues of fan discourse – terminology and memes – were picked up by Cawthon and found their way into official games. The mysterious Golden Freddy, a yellow, ghost-like animatronic, was originally called Yellow Bear, but was renamed after fans started calling him “Golden Freddy” online.
The question is, will Five Nights at Freddy's Story ever come to a logical and satisfying conclusion? “This is one of my curiosities,” says DJ Sterf. “I want to see how it ends and what grows from it, I expect it to end at some point. Perhaps they will continue to make them. How many Friday the 13th are there? The games will continue: the 10th game in the main series, Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2, is expected later this year.
Cawthon stays in touch with fans through Reddit (among other platforms), a hotspot for all things FNaF. “There's fan art, memes, theories, everything,” Gallagher says. “Everything related to the game is displayed there. This is a place where truly talented people can show off their stuff. Even if you're not very famous, you can post fan art you create because you love FNAF, and it will find a group of people.”
As an indie developer, Cawthon's relationship with fans is unusually close. Indeed, talk to some FNaF players and it's clear that they feel a personal connection. Interestingly, he's also elusive – hard to track.
“He didn't post very often, but whenever he did, it got a lot of attention,” says DJ Sterf. “When he posts, it's like The Beatles.”
Cawthon has posted updates, teasers, and even “troll games” – little diversions in which his games, once released, turn out to be something else entirely (a bit like FNaF's version of “rickrolling”). . Just last week, Cawthon posted a link to a game on Reddit that he claimed was a game based on the new movie. When players downloaded the game, it turned out to be a wacky cartoon space game featuring Fazbear's animatronics fighting Cawthon himself. “The most troll game of trolls,” says DJ Sterf. After defeating Cawthon, the game [spoilers ahead] leads to a nine-minute YouTube video featuring scenes and teasers from the film.
“He did so much for the community and created so many great games,” he says. Gallagher. “I don't see many developers who care as much as Scott.”
Happy Halloween… 😉 pic.twitter.com/RyUP4oJ0S4
— Scott Scawthon (@Real_Scawthon__) October 24, 2015Indeed, when Cawthon released the first spin-off game, FNaF World, in 2016, it was unpopular. Cawthon himself was unhappy with the game, so he disabled it, offered everyone a refund, and re-downloaded the updated version for free.
Fans create their own FNaF games too. DJ Sterf estimates there are probably tens of thousands. Cawthon not only played fan-made games based on his own series, but also launched what he called the Fazbear Fanverse Initiative, a collaboration with the creators of some of the world's most popular fan games (including Five Nights at Candy's and POPGOES). Cawthon contributed his own money to the initiative. “This is a project that aims to invest in these franchises, give back to the developers, and hopefully add new entries to these franchises,” Cawthon wrote on Reddit.
However, in June 2021, fans were shocked by reports that Cawthon, who is worth an estimated $60 million, had donated approximately $42,000 to Republican committees and candidates, including Donald Trump. LGBTQ fans were especially hurt by these revelations. “There was a definite schism, and it still exists,” says DJ Sterf.
Cawthon responded to the outrage on Reddit. “Those who took the time to look saw that the candidates I supported included men, women, whites, blacks, Republicans and Democrats.” He added that his pregnant wife was horrified by the threats on social media. “I'm a Republican. I'm a Christian. I'm pro-life. I believe in God,” Cawthon wrote. “I also believe in equality, in science and in common sense. Despite what some may say, all of these things can go together. This is not an apology or a promise to change, it's always been that way… If I get cancelled, I get cancelled.” However, PJ Gallagher believes the community has “really bounced back.” >Cawthon stepped away from game development (the games are now developed by Steel Wool Studios) while he focused on the long-awaited and much-delayed film version. Cawthon co-wrote and produced the film for Blumhouse Productions.
The game is richly detailed Credit: Patti Perret/Universal Pictures
Cawthon and fans united when the trailer leaked online earlier this year film. Cawthon thanked the fans who refused to watch it.
“Someone was doing an online survey and all of a sudden the trailer came up,” Gallagher says. “They recorded it on their phone. It went everywhere. Apparently there were some bad guys watching it, but the community came together and said, “No, we're not watching this!” We've waited nine years! We won't look at any phone recordings of terrible quality! trilogy. Blumhouse likes to do the same with its more established franchises—see the Halloween and The Exorcist reboots. This is a testament to the cultural influence of FNaF.
Indeed, from the ashes of Cawthon's crisis of faith to its deep, labyrinthine subculture, the phenomenon of Five Nights at Freddy is proof that sometimes concepts just come together—a unique formula that is thrilling (and in this case, terrifying). ) public. Even Cawthon said that FNaF is simply a case of the right game at the right time. “It was just a good combination of ingredients. It was kind of lightning in a bottle.”
Five Nights at Freddy's is now in theaters
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