Five Nights At Freddy Is Campy Horror For Kids And That's A Good Thing
This article contains spoilers for "Five Nights at Freddy's."
There's an endless debate between film fans on what it is exactly that makes a film "camp." For some, it's a shorthand to mean "so bad, it's good," while others (like myself) view it as a sacred form of presentation. Camp films are often exaggerated to the point of absurdity, tiptoeing the line of the uncanny, and with a sense of humor that is either unintentionally brilliant or delivered with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Of my 15 favorite movies of all time, more than half of the titles could be argued as camp classics. While there are plenty of universally understood camp films, the intentional lack of a formal metric means that a film's camp status will change from viewer to viewer, determined by vibes and a "you know it when you see it" attitude.
My first camp film was Tim Burton's oft-maligned alien comedy, "Mars Attacks!" Jack Nicholson plays multiple roles, CGI extra-terrestrials explode at the sound of Slim Whitman, Sarah Jessica Parker is turned into a chihuahua with a human head, Tom Jones cameos as himself, and Martin Short gets his finger bitten off by a sexy alien with hair as tall as he is. Critics hated it, but real ones know the truth. Even Jenna Ortega has named the film as one of her all-time favorites and correctly believes the film deserves more love. "Mars Attacks!" was my gateway to the world of camp cinema, because while certainly weird, the PG-13 rating meant no one looked at my parents sideways if I rented it from the video store.
Blumhouse and Universal's live-action adaptation of "Five Nights at Freddy's" will rightfully be called "gateway horror," but it also deserves praise for joining films like "The Witches," "Addams Family Values," the "Spy Kids" franchise, and "Xanadu" as an introduction to camp cinema for young audiences.
Five Nights at Freddy's has always been camp
Camp cinema is also, by and large, hugely popular with queer people. To be queer is to inherently be camp because it's a statement against behaving in a way that appeals to the status quo or expected social norms. There is a strong queer (and ally) presence in the "Five Nights at Freddy's" fandom, so much so that game creator Scott Cawthon rightfully caught a lot of heat when it was uncovered the devout Christian had been donating his "FNaF" wealth to homophobic politicians, leading to his retirement. So why do so many queer people gravitate toward "Five Nights at Freddy's?" Well, because it's camp as hell.
Even the premise alone of animatronics coming to life and killing people is camp, evoking a similar horror-tinged energy in a film like "Death to Smoochy." The juxtaposition of taking a family-friendly concept on the surface and twisting it into something else entirely is a camp approach to horror, and that's at the heart of "FNaF." In looking at the franchise as a whole, so many of the characters are camp. The exaggerated femininity of Circus Baby looks like a pint-sized drag queen, the Glamrock line of animatronics are flamboyant as can be, and the Puppet? Well, that Pierrot-lookin' weirdo might as well be a yassified Slenderman.
With this campy baseline at the heart of the story, it's the film adaptation of "Five Nights at Freddy's" being inherently camp is unavoidable. Fortunately, director Emma Tammi and the rest of the creative team wisely chose to lean into the camp of it all, and the movie is better for it — even if it will be lost on the general viewing public.
Building forts and killin' kids
"Five Nights at Freddy's" is a film that features killer animatronics powered by the souls and corpses of murdered children ... that also build play-forts with a small girl. It's a film where Josh Hutcherson beats the brakes off of a random man in a fountain in the mall in front of the man's young child, and asks us not to find it darkly funny. An animatronic Cupcake flies off a plate and makes a chew toy out of the head of a teenage vandal, and a statue of the Balloon Boy pops up to deliver a jump scare for no apparent reason, just to pay homage to the games. Matthew Lillard is the big bad villain, bringing an energy that marries Stu Macher in "Scream" with Shaggy Rogers in "Scooby-Doo," concocting a perfect camp performance. Mary Stuart Masterson's Aunt Jane evokes a '90s take on a Grand Dame Guignol performance, and Elizabeth Lail's performance as Vanessa often borders on melodrama.
Part of the allure of a camp classic is that it's a film that succeeded in spite of critical misunderstanding, poor box office performance, or confusion from regular-degular audience members. It's hard to remember that "Heathers" was originally a box office flop met with mixed reviews, as it's now rightfully accepted as one of the best teen films ever made, and has since been adapted as a TV show and popular musical. When it comes to "Five Nights at Freddy's," those who get it will get it, and those who don't, won't. And this won't be anything new to "FNaF" fans, who have been treated like the embarrassing, cringe cousin of the horror video game fandom for nearly a decade, and yet, "Five Nights at Freddy's" has thrived regardless.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" is now playing in theaters and available to stream on Peacock.