How You Can Visit The Five Nights At Freddy's Animatronics In Real Life
Emma Tammi's "Five Nights at Freddy's," an adaptation of the popular video game series that began in 2014, has already raked in a great deal of box office lucre, making over $132 million on a modest $20 million budget in its first weekend of release. This, despite also being released on Peacock on the same day. It seems that the game's reputation preceded it, and the film was attended by many, many "Freddy's" fans eager to see the wicked animatronic Freddy Fazzbear commit acts of violence.
The film follows a beleaguered night watchman (Josh Hutcherson) who is hired to guard a kid's pizza palace, abandoned since the 1980s. There is still electricity in the building, however, and the animatronic band still operates ... and walks around the restaurant of their own volition. It will later be revealed that the animatronics are involved in a strange, dark conspiracy involving missing children, decades-old kidnapping cold cases, and the night watchman's recurring nightmares. The real stars of the movie, of course, are Freddy the bear, Chica the chick, Bonnie the rabbit, Foxy the fox, and Mr. Cupcake the cupcake.
In the film, the animatronics were realized using actors in elaborate suits. Kevin Foster played Freddy, the record-breaking tightrope walker, Jade Kindar-Martin played Bonnie, and Jessica Weiss played Chica.
Naturally, when production wrapped on "Five Nights at Freddy's," the suits and animatronics had to be preserved, and fans of both the games and of the film can see them in person. Visitors to Universal Studios Hollywood can pay admission to the park's famed Halloween Horror Nights event and see the suits on display. This was confirmed by Tammi herself during a recent Reddit AMA.
Halloween Horror Nights
Halloween Horror Nights, of course, only continues through October 31 annually, but the park often keeps movie props and other paraphernalia on display throughout its campus. One can see costumes from "The Mummy," Hammond's walking stick from "Jurassic Park," and numerous other hats, books, and rubber dinosaur heads used in the many "Jurassic" sequels. There's also a lot of "Shrek" concept art, a car used in "Inglourious Basterds," and no small amount of knickknacks from the "Back to the Future" movies.
These are in addition to the park's celebrated studio backlot tour, which drives guests on a tram past the Hilly Valley courtyard from "Back to the Future," and Wisteria Lane from "Desperate Housewives" (actually called Colonial Street, featuring a series of fake houses used in many, many film and TV productions). One can also drive past the house and Bates Motel built for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," cars used in "Fast and Furious," and the still-functioning Red Sea set used for "The Ten Commandments." The tram tour also features live productions and some pre-recorded show elements. And this is only a small portion of what Universal Studios has in their collection.
Joining their ranks are Freddy Fazbear and his retinue. One will have to visit the park and ask around to find where they might be on display, but know that the suits are safe and can be visited by children from all over the world. There is, of course, a certain dark poetry to Freddy Fazbear, a murderous children's entertainer, being displayed in a park that regularly features actors in Minion suits, already evoking terror in young children. Some of the mascots, it seems, are safe. Others might kill you. I suppose one will just have to roll the dice to find out which is which.