Since its explosive debut in 2014, Five Nights at Freddy’s swiftly captured everyone’s attention, birthing a franchise that spawned multiple sequels, spinoffs, anthologies, and even a trilogy of novels. Now, after years of development, the chilling franchise is set to expand its horizons with an eagerly awaited movie adaptation.
However, for fans anticipating a spine-chilling R-rated experience akin to the game series, there’s a twist: the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s movie will bear a PG-13 rating. Emma Tammi, the film’s director, explained that the decision to dial down the gore was made to broaden the film’s appeal to a younger audience.
Film ratings help parents determine whether a movie is suitable for their children or not. In the United States, the MPA determines film ratings and considers different elements when making its decisions, including the level of violence, sexual content, and language. Ratings range from GA – General Audience, denoting that a movie is suitable for all age groups, to NC-17, indicating movies unsuitable for anyone under the age of 17.
Five Nights at Freddy’s PG-13 rating means it might contain content unsuitable for children under the age of 13, and parents should exercise caution. However, given its premise, the film would have done better with an R rating, as that would have allowed for more expression. It would have also allowed the movie to maintain the essence of the games.
Speaking to Inverse magazine, Tammi explained, “We were trying to push Five Nights at Freddy’s as far as we could while still retaining that PG-13 rating. That meant the kills needed to be executed in a certain way. While it is fun in many slasher films to see all the guts and gore, it is also really enjoyable to figure out creative ways to show these moments without revealing all the details.”
In their quest to make a scary film with little gore, Tammi said they “leaned into shadows, silhouettes, and sound design to really capture the moment in an impactful way.” The filmmaker admitted she appreciated the challenge involved in creating a gore-less experience, especially “because there’s such a younger audience for FNAF, and we didn’t want to exclude them.”
Just like in the games, the live-action adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s will feature a certain Mike Schmidt, whose life is falling apart. Out of a job and desperate, Schmidt accepts a night guard position at the abandoned family restaurant Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza where he finds out that things aren’t as they seem. On his very first night, the themed restaurant’s animatronic inhabitants come to life and wreak havoc on humans, including murder.
While fans might be disappointed by Five Nights at Freddy’s limitations, it still sounds like it will be an interesting watch if the director’s enthusiasm is anything to go by. Given the film’s rumored 3-hour runtime, we hope it delivers on Tammi’s promise for the sake of fans. If it doesn’t, it will have succeeded in alienating fans from the games and the new, younger generation it is hoping to attract.
Five Nights at Freddy’s will debut in theaters on October 27. It will also make its streaming debut on the same day via Peacock.
