It’s a move that practically everyone saw coming, even if no one foresaw the exact timing (particularly since it landed late on a Sunday night): Five Nights at Freddy’s will arrive at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort… in some form or another.

But while the particulars of its appearance are up in the air, the rationale for its selection at the nation’s premiere Halloween event most certainly is not.

The tale of the scrappy, underdog property that became something of a dominant pop-culture force is an interesting, even if staid, one, starting as a one-man indie videogame, blossoming to print and a plethora of merchandise, and then culminating in what has already become the highest-grossing Blumhouse Productions movie to date and what will more than likely become a full cinematic trilogy (the second installment is already scheduled to land in theaters just before Christmas). On every single front – especially including Freddy’s fan demographics, which tend to skew younger on the horror spectrum – it is quite easy to see why Universal would tap the rising zeitgeist star.

The brainchild of Scott Cawthon, Five Nights (made into the almost totemic abbreviation FNAF by its adoring throngs of followers) was born from a moment of frustration: a previous, Christian-oriented game called Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. (a resource-management title that was also made single-handedly) was met with the critical observation that some of its character sprites resembled frightening animatronic figures. Cawthon decided to take the aspersion and make the full horror plunge with it, fashioning a scenario that eerily mimics the Chuck E. Cheese-fueled nightmares that plagued nearly every child in the ‘80s – the robotic mascots of an older chain of family pizzerias, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, seemingly come to life at night in order to prevent their servomotors from seizing up, roaming the hallways and rather brutally dispatching any person they happen to come across (albeit innocently, as they assume that the hapless human is merely an animatronic endoskeleton that needs to be stuffed into a mechanical suit). Players take on the role of Mike Schmidt, a newly hired security officer, who must monitor a bank of surveillance cameras, keeping an eye on the cheerful-looking monstrosities and, if necessary, barring himself in the security office – all of which consumes a limited amount of battery power, thereby making it increasingly hard to survive all five titular nights. Should he fail and fall prey to the likes of Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, the player is treated to a jump-scare – a sudden close-up of the character in question, accompanied by a loud scream – and the termination of his game.

This was the feature that easily became the most legendary in the rather simple point-and-click survival-horror game’s arsenal, and it’s part of the reason why it gained so much traction on a then-new breed of live streaming – called Let’s Play, they involve, well, an onscreen individual playing through a particular game, offering up commentary and conversation all the way through. This turned out to be a rather sublime piece of timing for both the burgeoning format and for the burgeoning franchise that was FNAF, as both helped the other catch cultural fire and roar into a five-alarm blaze (it even helped to launch the specific careers of a few now-famous streamers). Neither has since looked back.

Five Nights, in particular, has had no reason to. Almost immediately, it exploded into a full-fledged franchise: within just 11 months, four titles had come out, followed shortly thereafter by countless spinoffs (ultimately including such off-the-wall genres as RPGs, retro sidescrollers, and augmented reality) and, a little later still, ports to the main videogame consoles, thereby translating the little PC game-that-could to the larger masses. The push to print landed concurrently with all this (starting off as self-published titles on Amazon and, almost immediately afterward, a book deal with Scholastic, that powerhouse of YA releases), as did the move to film, with the movie rights being swiftly snatched up by Hollywood (and then swiftly delivered into development hell for the remainder of the decade).  

The apotheosis of Scott Cawthon revolved around something he called the Fazbear Fanverse Initiative, which he announced to much fanfare in August 2020; it was meant to embrace, reward, and, even, validate the now-thriving fan community around his behemoth of a baby, specifically throwing funding and other resources to a number of fan-created Freddy’s games, including their release on the typically-cost-prohibitive consoles. (The role that these fan games, which sparked up almost since day one, played in the growing popularity of the IP cannot be overstated, as they helped fuel the Let’s Play streams in between the [rapid] mainline Freddy’s releases.) Not even a year later, in June 2021, he abruptly pulled out of not only the new endeavor, but also out of game development altogether, after a political controversy erupted around him. Scott has, however, retained his overseer and writing duties with the franchise, both in videogame and film formats, and he has even occasionally dipped his toes back into the programming waters, developing, for instance, the free spinoff shooter Freddy in Space 3: Chica in Space to coincide with the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie release on October 27, 2023.

Today, the just-over-a-decade-old Five Nights at Freddy’s shows very little signs of slowing down. There are 11 mainline entries in the game series (now including VR releases), at least one more movie (with a third more than likely on the way), and, now, some type of experience at Halloween Horror Nights in both Orlando and Hollywood – although this last point needs a bit more time to gestate, as Universal has only promised “more details coming soon.” Could it be a full-fledged haunted house, as has been heavily rumored for the past several months? Or as some type of add-on experience, such as a photo-op or film festival, like how we’ve seen the property arrive at Universal Orlando Resort previously?

Time will only tell – and, it would seem, soon.

Halloween Horror Nights runs “earlier than ever,” as Universal has proudly proclaimed, from Friday, August 29, to Sunday, November 2, spanning 48 individual event nights (tied with last year for the biggest event yet).

For even more in-depth historical analysis like this, be sure to check out Horrors Untold, the unofficial, comprehensive guide to HHN Orlando.

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