Five Nights at Freddy’s director on staying faithful to the game

With the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie about to be unleashed on cinema screens worldwide, we’ve been talking to director Emma Tammi, who explained why she wanted her film to stay faithful to the game.

The Five Nights at Freddy’s film has spent years in development. But come the end of this month, fans of the terrifying game will finally see what Blumhouse and Universal Pictures have cooked up when the movie hits screens and launches on Peacock.

The horror flick stars Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, and Mary Stuart Masterson, with the official synopsis as follows: “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.”

The Wind helmer Emma Tammi both co-writes and directs, and we asked her why she wanted to make the movie, as well as how important it was to stay faithful to the game…

Five Nights at Freddy’s director on staying faithful to the game

“The game in and of itself is so inspiring to potentially adapt as a film,” says director Emma Tammi about the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. “Because of the incredible atmosphere. Because of the effective jump-scares. Because of the massive lore and almost endless threads of storyline that could be pulled from.

“For me, it felt like a no-brainer that this would be an incredibly rich world to adapt into a film, so I was really excited to be able to step into those shoes.”

As for staying faithful to the game – both in terms of plot and spirit – Tammi says: “It was hugely important. The fanbase has really, really, really been waiting for this movie for quite some time, so we really wanted to make sure we got it right for them.

“At the same time, we were making a movie that was still needing to stand on its own two feet. With its own story, and new characters. Even for the characters that are coming from the lore, they were in many ways being seen more than they ever had been in this film. So all that was really an exciting undertaking.”

Interview conducted by Britanni Johnson

Five Nights and Freddy’s will be in theaters and streaming on Peacock from October 27, 2023. For more on the movie, head here. While to check out the rest of our horror coverage, click here.