Is Five Nights At Freddy's Already Plagued By The Resident Evil Fandom Curse?
In 2022, Netflix released a live-action series based on the "Resident Evil" video games, just a few months removed from the "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" anime series for the streamer. Not to mention, Johannes Roberts' cinematic reboot, "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City." That film came just four years after the end of Paul W.S. Anderson's mega-blockbuster film series starring Milla Jovovich, which ran concurrently with a series of unrelated animated films and many installments of the video game. This is all to say that "Resident Evil," as a property, has grown beyond just the games, and that the fandom has splintered off into a variety of directions and mediums. Trying to appease the whole of the "Resident Evil" community with an adaptation is at this point, impossible. Too many people want too many different things, and those differences are often in direct opposition to one another.
Which brings me to the upcoming film adaptation of "Five Nights at Freddy's."
I'm fully aware that to those not "in the know," it seems like "Five Nights at Freddy's" is some niche video game that kids like. However, that could not be further from the truth. A lot of people don't realize that an entertainment monoculture no longer exists and that there are massive, passionate fandoms out there that rival Marvel Comics and "Star Wars" that aren't catered to by the status quo. There's the ARMY of K-pop stans for BTS, the Swifties who broke the AMC app, or the fact the most followed person on TikTok is Khaby Lame, who, despite having nearly 162 million followers is probably unrecognizable to anyone off the app.
There's a reason "Five Nights at Freddy's" has expanded to 13 games and over 30 graphic novels — and it's the same reason why the film might already be plagued by the same fandom curse as "Resident Evil."
Accessibility is a necessity
We're currently in an IP-obsessed era of entertainment, where it seems like in order to get a new project greenlit, it needs to be based on existing material or an easily recognizable brand. This means, of course, there are going to be some people who know a hell of a lot more about a story than the general public at large. I say this as someone who wrote nearly 10,000 words about the lore of Barbie, providing information about the doll's history that the vast majority of people who bought tickets to Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" didn't know ahead of time.
However, just as it would have been foolish of me to expect that "Barbie" address the totality of the doll's 60-year legacy, it is foolish for "Five Nights at Freddy's" fans to expect the film to cater to the die-hard fandom and only the die-hard fandom. In order for a film to be successful, it needs to be accessible beyond the confines of the people most passionate about the subject, and it also needs to thrive in a new medium.
Adaptations of popular works often omit major moments or make big changes to the story/pacing/characters, because it's better for the medium of film. These changes aren't always a good thing (I'll never forgive changing the ending of "My Sister's Keeper"), but making these changes isn't inherently a sign of "not caring about the source material." In the case of "Five Nights at Freddy's," game creator Scott Cawthon made the film's writers completely start over with a new script at one point, so whatever ends up on screen has the creator's seal of approval. The "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie has to appeal to the general public in addition to the most dedicated fans. That's a hell of a tightrope to walk.
Timing is everything
There were rumors that "Five Nights at Freddy's" was going to boast a three-hour runtime, somewhat justified by a temporary listing on Rotten Tomatoes (that has since been deleted) and claims on Reddit that came from someone "who has a friend who worked on the film and saw the full edit." Ignoring the obvious "my uncle works at Nintendo" levels of suspension of disbelief required to take a claim like that seriously, the real shock was seeing how many fans were genuinely disappointed to learn the film was actually going to be an hour and 50 minutes. I mean this with all the love in my heart as a fan of the franchise ... y'all, can we please be for real?
There was no way in animatronic pizza party hell that the first "FNaF" movie was going to be longer than two hours. With the exception of more arthouse-inspired horror films, this is a genre that thrives on brevity. Part of why so many popular horror films wind up as franchises is because the storyline is spread across multiple installments. The lore of "FNaF" is sprawling and massive, and frontloading a film with three hours worth of lore or extended scenes of Josh Hutcherson's Mike Schmidt just sitting in front of security cameras would be an absolute slog to sit through as an audience member. Part of why the first "FNaF" game was so effective was because of the intimate connection between the player and what was shown on screen. That cannot be replicated with film and requires a more narrative approach to the material.
And yet, there are already some fans planning #ReleaseTheCawthonCut campaigns over the rumored 3-hour run time. (Please look up the definition of "assembly cut.")
Head canons are a curse
Make no mistake, I understand why tensions and expectations are high, as the film adaptation of "Five Nights at Freddy's" has been in the works for over eight years. Warner Bros. first announced they had acquired the rights to the game in 2015, but now the film is coming out through Universal and Blumhouse. Needless to say, a lot of things regarding the film have changed over the course of nearly a decade. This has, unfortunately, meant that the fandom has had a very long time to fancast, theorize, and headcanon their own fantasies of what the film will contain and look like. This means that there are a lot of people out there who have built up expectations in their minds that no film will ever be able to meet.
Headcanoning can be one of the most fun aspects of fan culture, but it can also be a detriment. How can a film compete with the endless imagination of a diehard fan? We talk a lot about the "video game curse" when it comes to film adaptations of beloved gaming properties, but I'm starting to wonder if the real video game curse was fan expectations all along. Tempering expectations will only benefit us all, and hopefully allow the space for future sequels to expand the lore without having to cram it all into a single film.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" arrives in theaters and on Peacock on October 27, 2023.