Blumhouse is Having Difficulties Writing a 'Five Night's at Freddy's' Movie: Here's Why

If you are anything like me, then you probably spend a lot of time on Youtube. Everyone has their own preferences on channels and types of content; for me, it’s gaming channels. I’m not a big gamer, so watching someone else play them is entertaining for me so that I get the story told to me without having to pay for the game or spend time playing it. Lazy I know, but it’s my own preference.

One of these games that took the Youtube world by storm in 2014 was Five Night’s at Freddy’s. Spawning a thousand videos and what seems like an endless amount of sequels and books. Creator Scott Cawthon started this full universe of animatronics and a convoluted storyline that while entertaining was extremely hard to follow and took an entire community to piece together a rough outline of the lore.

So, when Blumhouse announced they were partnering with Cawthon to make a film based on the games, it seemed like we might actually get a laid out storyline to follow. But of course, not even the filmmakers know how to piece together the entire story to capture the lore of the games while also putting together a complete movie. That’s concerning especially when you’re getting direct feedback from the man who made the story.

There is such a negative stigma for film adaptations of video games, and Blumhouse has a great track record in the horror genre, so we know they are going to do everything they can to make this movie successful. This is clearly not just a cash grab for them.

So, how do we make this film successful?

I think the best route to take is to just follow the basic storyline that we know of. Serial killer murders children and their spirits possess the animatronics of Freddy’s Fazbear’s Pizzeria. It a really macabre tale, but there is so much more to it. We have a bunch of brothers and sisters of victims and children of killers. Business partners children and then their brothers and sisters. To be honest, it’s not even clear who the story’s main protagonist is supposed to be.

I’m sure they also plan on making sequels, which only makes this process harder. Planning out an entire franchise has to be incredibly difficult because this story could easily go off the rails and be impossible to follow, and that could turn viewers off. So, the key is trimming all the unnecessary lore.

This is going to be a small lore dive for anyone whose not familiar with the series: but they need to decide whether they want Michael (the killer’s son), Henry ( the killers business partner), or a random security guard to be the main protagonist. Take that and wrap the bare minimum story around that character.

Personally, I like the idea of this random security guard that just finds himself in the worst possible situation. In a crappy pizza job making minimum wage, and being terrified by these animatronics. Each day of the five-day workweek he discovers another clue to the murders and possessions that went on at the shop.

It captures the simplicity of the first game but leaves so much room for lore dumping and building a story around a character that we can all relate to. If sequels do get made, keep the storyline contained and don’t get into all the sister location stuff.

Just follow a security guard who gets a job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and begins to realize the place is haunted. He then spends his workweek uncovering the horrors or these murders and who started them.

Lay the groundwork for the overall story and fill the movie with great jump scares. Make a solid first film and worry about a sequel after. There is just too much to cram into one film. Make the best first movie you can following the story as we know it. Then make the sequel off of that momentum and let the story happen organically.

For certain franchises, this approach can be dangerous (cough, cough Star Wars), but for FNAF I think it’s the best way to approach a property like this.