Can you survive five nights?
The terrifying horror game phenomenon becomes a blood-chilling cinematic event, as Blumhouse, the producer of M3GAN, The Black Phone and The Invisible Man, brings Five Nights at Freddy’s to the big screen.
The film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through alive.
Responsible for bringing the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza crew to horrifying life is Robert Bennett, the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop creative serving as Five Nights at Freddy’s lead designer.
Ahead of the film’s release this week, Peter Gray spoke with Bennett about navigating both the horror and gaming communities when taking the project on, which character design proved the most challenging, and which film specifically sparked his love for animatronic effects.
I probably missed the boat on the Five Nights at Freddy video game craze. Was it one that you were aware of prior to taking this film on?
I had heard of the franchise, but I’d never played the game. I’m not a huge gamer. But when we got the project, I played the first game, and then I watched a bunch of YouTube personalities that play the online games. I read the lore, and there’s so much lore to it, and you can really go in and (get) deep with it.
There’s a lot of chatter regarding the design of certain characters. I know there’s the whole thing surrounding the red eyes. Obviously the horror community is so often quite vocal, but then you’ve got the gaming community too. When these designs are coming up, how do you find that balance between fan service but then doing what feels right for the character and the movie?
Basically, from the very beginning, all the way through, even on filming, we worked directly with Scott Cawthon (Five Nights at Freddy’s creator). He was the one that steered the designs. We would show him a design, (he’d) either say “Yes”, or “Maybe change this,” (and) because he knows the lore and the fan base so well, I think going in blindly we probably would have missed a lot of the minute details that he was able to guide us (through).
It must feel nice to work with Scott and know that it’s putting ease on the situation…
I mean, it’s nice to be able to send the designs directly to him. It’s his baby.
Was there one character, or even a particular movement, that you found the most difficult to manoeuvre?
Foxy was the most difficult, because he is a full animatronic. So when he’s fully up and running, it takes six puppeteers. There’s someone controlling the head, the arms, the torso, (there’s a) puppeteer on each leg, and then there’s a big arm that kind of helps move him. Plus you have the lighting team. So it’s all that, plus when you have other characters all on stage or something. It can be a lot to wrangle.
You hear stories of films involving puppets or animatronics where the creations go off by themselves, or strange things happen around them. Was there any phantom activity taking place on set?
No, but I will say walking around the set late at night can be very creepy. Especially when you forget that you set an animatronic up and you turn around and it’s right there. That always kept you on your toes.
And I believe this is all practical? No CGI?
I’m sure there will be CG. I haven’t seen the final cut of the film. I’ve only seen the trailers, and from what I can tell from the trailers it’s our costumes, but there will be touch ups I’m sure. But I haven’t seen it so…
But I’m bias, you know. I think (practical) just allows the actors to react to (something). And it helps every department. The lighting department, the sound department…it’s just having something on set. It’s beneficial to everyone.
Was there a film or something you specifically saw or read that made you want to get into this line of work?
I love telling this story. When I was a little kid, Jurassic Park just came out, and I wasn’t supposed to see it, but I was at my aunt and uncle’s house and they rented it. I was supposed to be in bed, but I snuck out, and I remember when the guy got bit by the T-Rex. I was like, “I don’t know what that is, but I want to do that for a living.” (Laughs). I knew it was fake, but I went home and started making a velociraptor head on cardboard and hot glue. I just remember visually, whatever it was, was cool.
And like Jurassic Park, Five Nights at Freddy’s leans into the horror side of things in a genre that benefits from practical effects. Do you find that that’s the best place to work? On characters that are potentially unhinged…
As someone who does this specifically for a living, I like when it’s world building. Like, Dark Crystal, it’s dark but there’s world building. There’s more to it than just being one note. And Five Nights at Freddy’s is the same way. It’s world building, it’s horror, its dark, but it also has heart to it.
Well, I’m quite excited to walk into Five Nights at Freddy’s away from any video game expectation and just enjoy the film on its own accord. And now knowing Foxy is the most technically difficult, I’ll keep a specific eye out…
Oh, absolutely. He’s very impressive on camera.
Five Nights at Freddy’s is screening in Australian theatres from October 26th, 2023. It will be released in the United States simultaneously in theatres and on Peacock on October 27th.
