How I think the Five Nights at Freddy's Movie Can Work

So with Scott Cawthon’s recent announcement that the Five Nights at Freddy’s film’s development is back at square one, I decided to use this opportunity that make a post on how I think an FNaF can work, I make this post because video game movies don’t have the best track record, while some are alright like: Angry Birds, the First Mortal Kombat and Assassin’s Creed, and the rest are terrible, the bad FAR outweighs the good. I really want this film to work, I want Five Nights at Freddy’s to be the first GOOD video game movie (Wreck it Ralph and Scott Pilgrim VS the World don’t count)

This post isn’t just for Scott, it’s also for Warner Bros because I’ve been hearing about all the behind the scenes issues and turmoil at Warner due to the DC Extended Universe, which has been uncovered and detailed by YouTube channel Midnight’s Edge (Great channel BTW, you should check it out).

I will not just talk about the film making side but also the business side of things like marketing and budget, I won’t go into too much detail purely because I’m not a film maker, I’m more of a game developer myself (or at least trying to become one) so I do have a little knowledge in storytelling, but people with actual film making talent and experience will make much more in-depth analyse on the film making side of things.

Finally bare this in mind, these points ONLY my opinion, this just what I think that can make the FNaF film work, everyone will have their own points and opinions so feel free to share them in the comments.

This post will also appear on Reddit.

                                                                                                                                                  

Get the budget right:

While this film will be funded (I assume) by Warner Bros, but since it’s a horror film, it doesn’t need a huge budget to make it, it needs enough to create the sets, pay the actors, locations and the animatronics themselves, as well as some CGI artists and animators. If the films budget is too high, this gives the film even more pressure to succeed and a greater risk of either under-performing or bombing, something Batman V Superman, PAN, John Carter and Pluto Nash can tell you.

However, at the same time, the film budget can’t be too low, unless you pull a Robert Rodriguez or Sausage Party and do some special and stylish with your low budget. Films like the Ratchet and Clank movie and Mortal Kombat Annihilation look so cheap (For what they tried to do) it honestly became distracting and took me out of the film (With the distracting lip-syncing in Ratchet and Clank and the GOD-AWFUL CGI in Mortal Kombat).

A stellar Marketing campaign:

Films can be either a success or a failure depending on how well it’s marketed, especially if it’s a adaptation of an unfamiliar property. Outside of YouTube and the Gaming community, how many general movie goers out there actually know about Five Nights at Freddy’s? Honestly… not many, I have members of my own family have never played or even heard of FNaF until I started doing my artwork and 3D models based on it.

So this film cannot rely on word of mouth or social media to spread awareness about the film, because this DIDN’T work for Dredd, Star Trek Beyond and Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (Three really amazing films but Dredd and Scott Pilgrim bombed and Star Trek under-performed due to the lackluster marketing campaign)

Compared to another video game movie: The Ratchet and Clank Movie, this film’s marketing was practically non-existent, there were only a few trailers, posters and that’s pretty much it, the film bombed not just because of the low review scores but also the fact people had never even heard of it until it got released.

While social media is a good start, but it cannot carry the film all the way, it’s going to need the support for WB if it wants to succeed, the FLIP SIDE is that even if there are a lot of trailers and posters, it needs to be GOOD, set a good first impression, because if the marketing is BAD, this will turn people away. The Ghostbusters reboot has quite possibility the worst marketing campaign I’ve ever seen, not only where the trailers garbage, but also the insulting comments made from the cast, the director and Sony turned a lot of people off the film, myself included, I’m sure the FNaF movie won’t go that low but it’s still something worth thinking about.

Getting the right release date:

Another important factor is obviously the release date, it’s not just a matter of what time of year but also what other films it’s going to compete against, maybe you can release the film around Halloween time? because it fits in with the horror theme. But whatever you do, do not release it so close to the release of another massive film, especially if it’s a huge established franchise.

Here in the UK, Ratchet and Clank the Movie was released the same day as Captain America Civil War on April 29th 2016. All I can say to that is “suicide”, Sony practically doomed their film the UK by doing that, going up against the biggest film franchise in the world, that’s a film death sentence right there.

One last thing about the date, while it’s generally good to take your time with making a film, you would rather have it right than rushing it to hit a certain date, that is something I can get behind. However, what worries me is the bigger picture, the film cannot be realised too late, most films based on video games tend to come well after the games popularly has faded, but with the ways things are going for now (With the merchandise, the 3-book deal, a potential console remake and possible 6th game), Scott is still keeping the FNaF franchise active to keep up its popularly and attention. Because if a franchise stays inactive for too long, the popularity for it will evaporate and they won’t turn into good box office results, examples I can think of are Ghostbusters 2016, Star Trek Beyond and PAN.

Great cooperation with the director and Warner:

      If the film wants an even better chance of succeeding, the film’s production needs to be smooth and on track, Scott Cawthon needs to get along with the film’s director Gil Kenan and the executives at Warner Bros, the same can be said the other way around, Warner needs to play ball with Scott and not interfere or micromanage the film’s production, Warner just needs to provide them with the necessary resources, provide the talent needed to make the film work and to give Scott and Gil the freedom to make the film they want.

I’ve seen what happens when executives meddle with a film’s production too much and have an awful relationship with the film makers, you end up with Fant4stic, X-Men Origins Wolverine, Amazing Spiderman 2 and Alien 3. Pretty much everyone suffers when these kinds of film are release, not just movie goers or fans, but also the film makers themselves and the executives.

Only on rear occasions, a good film comes out of a troubled production, like Star Trek Beyond and Ant Man, but I’s often BETTER if the executives don’t interfere too much with the film and let the film makers work their magic, (with a few exceptions like Batman V Superman and Ghostbusters 2016) this is the reason why Deadpool, Alien and X-Men 2 worked so well.

While it’s okay to have some guild lines and interference (This is why the MCU has worked for so many years) but for the FNaF film, I see the potential of creating a movie franchise out of FNaF and I think for this first film, it’s best to give Scott creative freedom since he is the creator of the series and knows FNaF better than anyone else.

Have a plan and stick with it:

Another thing that can turn a film into a disaster is the lack of a clear vision, the lack of vision has ruined films like Alien 3, Fant4stic and Super Mario Bros the movie, despite all the talent behind these films, they had no idea what kind of films they wanted to make, they constantly changed their plans, contently rewrote the script and made last minute re-shoots during editing.

I recommend that if you have a goal and vision for the film, STICK with it, and always have a contingency plan in place for any rewrites and re-shoots that might be necessary in future, and do not be reactionary and make last minute changers to the film, Suicide Squad suffered from this and it clearly shows in the final film.

Make a found footage film:

Since FNaF is centered around the concept of security cameras and limited visibility, a found footage film would be perfect for a FNaF film adaptation, the point of view will not only be from the security cameras but also maybe from a camcorder the protagonist is holding, to record and document his night shifts, from this perspective we can get up close to the animatronics, to see their scale and their horror.

Found footage film can also limit visibility, but in a good way; the view isn’t so limiting that you can’t see anything, but instead it only gives you just enough so you can see what’s going on but keeping the animatronics hidden to give the audience a sense of the unknown.

Found footage also means because of the limited visibility, the film has the opportunity to use more audio, FNaF has always been good when it comes to using sound not just for atmosphere but also as a gameplay mechanic. So the film can add real tension by taking advantage of surround sound, imagine hearing the animatronics in the distance, walking towards the protagonist, or hearing them breath or laugh, and with surround sound, you can give direction on where they’re coming from and how close they are.

Show don’t Tell:

FNaF’s story is interesting and effective not because of what it says, but what it doesn’t say, it’s doesn’t over explain everything to you, instead it just tells you what you need to know and all the additional story elements is displayed in the background. I’ve seem video game film adaptations that just over-explain everything, like the Assassin’s Creed film, just tones of exposition and dialogue. All FNaF the movie need to do if give us the information that is needed and all the extra story should be told in the visuals.

Including a human element to the film:

As much as I love the animatronics, they cannot carry the entire film on their own, so this is where introducing a human element is necessary, I’m sure Scott already knows this because he did do that in the Silver Eye Novel and the upcoming Twisted Ones novel.

For the protagonist, well it’s up to Scott and the studio on what they want to do, if the character is good, relatable and isn’t a walking stereotype then I think the audience should be open to any kind of character you want. It could a child, a teenager, young adult or even slightly middle aged adult, the character can be male, female, white, black, Asian, it doesn’t really matter. As long as the film doesn’t draw attention to their race/gender to make a political point, like the all-female cast in the Ghostbusters reboot. PLEASE keep identity politics and social justice out of the film, it has NO place in Five Nights at Freddy’s, I and many other people can’t stand it when identity politics is forced into a film or anything really. It’s NOT progressive, it’s just a forced gimmick, if you want a good progressive cast; look at Rey and Finn from Star Wars the Force Awakens or even Black Widow and Black Panther from the MCU.

If the protagonist is going to be a security guard working the haunted pizzeria with killer animatronics, there needs to be a reason why it is going back there each night, rather than just because they’re desperate for a pay check, they could pick almost any other non-life threatening jobs for that. Maybe the protagonist is an undercover investigator, who is investigating the disappearance of the missing children, or maybe it is a paranormal investigator who needs to be there at night to find the paranormal in action or maybe it could be a family member related to the missing children and is trying to find them.

Out of all the potentially human characters in the film, the protagonist is probably the most important one to get right, as for the side characters, again don’t make them walking stereotypes AND don’t make them droids of exposition, something Assassin’s Creed is guilty of.

One last point, I wouldn’t mind if the film was an adaptation of the Silver Eyes novel instead of the games, you already have established characters the film can draw inspiration from; like Charlie, Henry and William Afton.

The animatronics themselves:

Finally, the single most important thing to get right is the animatronics themselves, not just on the effects and design, but also which animatronics to make the film about.

The animatronics need to be practical, as much as I like CGI in films, these characters need to look as believe as possible, so Warner needs to build a fully functional moving endoskeletons, that can turn it’s head, blink, move their arms and open their mouths, similar to the T-800 skeleton in Terminator 1 and 2. As for walking, we still haven’t quite gotten there yet with fast running humanoid robots so this is where CGI will be necessary, if the robot’s legs are out if view of the cameras you can get away with the practical skeleton but for a full body view, especially if the character is running, I won’t mind CGI to enhance the animation.

What I personally don’t want the animatronics to be is a dude wearing an animal costume, because I personally can always tell when someone is wearing a robot costume or even an alien costume unless you do something creative and have effective looking costumes; like the ones in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. An example of poorly made costumes is Land of the Lost: those alien costumes in the film look so fake it’s laughable and it took me out of the film, maybe back in the 1980s you can get away with someone wearing a robot costume, like with Robocop and Star Wars but now you cannot get away this as easily today in 2017. This also means I want to see the animatronic parts working from within the suit, so no black cloth covering the elbows and knees to hide the endoskeleton, I want to see the parts functioning to make the animatronics look more believable and true to the games.

Finally, since there are so many characters within the FNaF universe, pick the ones that are necessary for the film’s story, so don’t go crazy and cram in as many characters as possible or you will end up with overcrowded messes like Mortal Kombat Annihilation or Batman V Superman. If you want include Easter eggs and nods to the other cast in the background for fans to notice that’s fine as long as you don’t draw attention it (Marvel does that extremely well all the time), however don’t include entire characters and scenes that have no purpose to the story into the film, Batman V Superman was filled with these types of scenes and characters; the desert scene and Flash portal scene are just randomly inserted into the middle of the movie and they serve absolutely no purpose in the movie except than to set-up and tease OTHER movies (Proof that Zack Snyder and DC are clueless on how to set-up a cinematic universe).

As for which characters to choose, obviously, you need to include Freddy Fazbear in some capacity, alongside Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Golden Freddy/Fredbear, with the other characters like the Puppet as an extra.

But characters like Springtrap and Circus Baby, personally I would kill to see both of them on the big screen as they are my favourite characters in FNaF, however I don’t see any place for them in this film without feeling forced and unnecessary. So I recommend is that Scott and other film makers shelve anything of Springtrap and Circus Baby for now, and instead focus on the original cast the fans are most familiar with. You don't need to rush things with Springtrap and Circus Baby, if fact they could be the ultimate villains they could tease and build-up to over several films (Similar to Thanos from the MCU), introducing either Springtrap or Circus Baby too soon has a great risk of wasting them, like DC and Zack Snyder did with Doomsday as early as Batman V Superman or shoehorning the Night Gwen Stacy died story-line in the Amazing Spiderman 2.

                                                                                                                                                  

I made this post basically because I really want this film to work, Five Nights a Freddy’s is very important to me and to a lot of other people as well, if this film fails with audiences not only will the fans (myself included) will take a hit, but also Scott Cawthon and the FNaF brand will take a massive hit, and I WILL NOT accept the defence of “This movie is made for the fans” because to me it sounds like an excuse to dodge criticism, I didn’t accept it with Suicide Squad and I’m not going accept with the FNaF film, because video game movies will NEVER get better if we just keep using that excuse.

If you guys have any other ideas to making the film work or any counter arguments to the points I’ve presented feel free to share them because I would like to hear them. Good luck to Scott Cawthon, Gil Kenan and Warner Bros, I really hope this films turns out well and clicks with both fans a movie goers alike. I also hope Midnight’s Edge potentially cover the FNaF film or any other video game movie adaptations in the future.