Now that the long-awaited Five Nights at Freddy’s movie is here, the general consensus is that the PG-13 film isn’t scary. But before you blame that on the filmmakers not giving in to fan requests to make an R-rated cut, we believe a classic horror hit of the past is proof you don’t need excessive blood, gore, nudity, or swearing to make a scary movie.
FNaF focuses on Josh Hucherson’s Mike Schmidt, a young man motivated by keeping his sister in his custody bringing him to accept a job as a security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, a rundown Showbiz Pizza-style food chain that features animatronic mascots. However, all isn’t what it seems at the establishment as the robots come to life during the night and seek to murder whoever dwells in the defunct restaurant.
That all sounds like a great setup for a horror, and indeed the video game on which it’s based has a reputation for being incredibly scary. But in execution, the filmmakers failed to cause even one chill to run down this viewer’s spine for the entire duration, as I explained in my negative review of the movie. Could a PG-13 rating simply be too kid-friendly to truly bring on the terror?
Following on the heels of rumors of an R-rated cut of FNaF, director Emma Tammi acknowledged to Forbes that some of the fan base would certainly desire this. However, she said no such version exists and stood by it.
Taking a look at the horror genre’s past, 2002’s The Ring is a standout example of a PG-13 movie that brought the scares within the limitation of still being acceptable for teens to watch. The result is the inverse opposite of the FNaF movie: An all-time horror classic that I would argue is one of the scariest movies ever made. The film that centers on a mysterious cursed videotape that kills those who view it one week later is proof you can craft a scary movie even if it’s not strictly for adults.
The horror hit that garnered almost a quarter of a billion dollars at the worldwide box office isn’t the only reason to believe that scares can come from non-adult-only content. You see, even the original Five Nights at Freddy’s game from 2014 was given a “age 12+” rating on Common Sense Media. As the “Violence & Scariness” summary explains, “No real violence shown, though some is implied in audio tracks and depictions of bad things that can happen. Still, you’ll feel scared and have a sense of dread and tension. Much too intense for younger players.”
The fact that the original FNaF game was able to pull off thrills, as famously featured in YouTube reaction videos like CoryXKenshin, and yet did not resort to R-rated level content, is just another example of how the movie adaptation has dropped the ball in that department since it is notoriously not scary.
However, it’s entirely possible the scares were turned down for the movie to cast a wider net with audiences skewing younger. With the movie having a reputation of not being scary, that could be a contributing factor to parents with children under 13 letting their kids see the movie anyway. The FNaF cultural phenomenon extends far beyond just the games, and has become iconic to many children through medium like comic books and YouTube. Indeed, you’d be hard-pressed not to find hoards of children who are FNaF fans 12 and younger at the theater, as many reviewers have pointed out.
If you’re halfway curious about the movie, which I will admit does have some highlights such as the impressively realized animatronics, Five Nights at Freddy’s is playing at a theater near you and on Peacock via a paid subscription.
