Some PNW students are counting down the days to the premier of “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” in December.
The movie is a sequel to a 2023 film based on a video game of the same name, which focused on a security guard who starts a job at an abandoned pizzeria where he discovers its animatronic mascots are possessed by the souls of murdered children.
That first film was life changing for Izah Garcia, a freshman Kinesiology major who looks forward to the sequal.
“It’s…probably what really got me into horror games when it first came out,” Garcia said. “That’s when I was introduced to YouTubers like Markiplier, and stuff like that.”
He(?) said the movie also got him hooked on the video game, which revolves around players defending themselves against four haunted animatronic mascots. The game shocked children and adults when it was release in 2014.. Since then the film and game have spawned countless spinoffs, including books and a second video game that features 10 haunted animatronic characters..
Garcia said expanding storyline boosts the attraction.
“The lore, and people trying to crack it,” Garcia said when asked about why the series has such an engaged fanbase. “MatPat was originally the one that started cracking on the lore and he gave ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ such a big following with that.”
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was the first game to leave implications of a twisted tale involving murder, ghostly possession and familial bonds that kept theorizing content creators and their fans sat for more.
Dustin Franco, a sophomore and English Literature major also planning to see the film, feels as if fan perception of the titular Freddy Fazbear and his animatronic band warranted its appeal alongside its darker story.
“It had all the horror elements, sure, but it had all of these characters,” Franco said. “ They don’t have personality – they’re animatronics – but they’re designed as if they do…and people were able to latch onto that.”
Engaging mysteries and captivating antagonists aside, Garcia notes that,“ the thrillingness and anticipation,” of horror brings her in and keeps her enraptured in the story’s events. Across from this perspective, Franco enjoys horror for its soothing impact on his anxiety and positive effect on his sociability.
“I think that I like them [horror medias] because I’ve spent a lot of my life with a lot of anxiety,” Franco said. “When I have these medias where I can be scared for a second but I know it’s not real, I think it…helps me process that.”
Franco was introduced to the series in late 2021 through youtubers who played a later entry, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach. Upon widening his horizons within this series’ fanbase, albeit later than day one fans, he found peers he could converse with on their shared interest in this game.
“It took me so long to get into the fandom that when I was finally there I was like: oh, this is what all the hype is about,” Franco said. “I think it’s allowed me to connect with a lot of different people because it is a…popular media.”
