Five Nights at Freddy’s is one of those cult video games that became famous overnight thanks to streaming platforms like YouTube or Twitch. Since the release of the first game, the franchise has continuously expanded its terrifying universe with new titles. Now, it reaches the peak of its popularity with the upcoming movie premiere on October 27th in the United States.
The film will be starring Josh Hutcherson, the actor from The Hunger Games who has continued to grow in his Hollywood career. However, there was something that didn’t sit well with fans when they found out: the film will not have an R rating (for adults 18 and older). This means it won’t be as terrifying as the actual video game, but there’s a reason for that.
A movie tailored for its audience
The co-writer and director of the film, Emma Tammi, has explained in Inverse why Five Nights at Freddy’s will be a PG-13 rated movie. She also emphasized that she co-wrote the script with the original game creator, Scott Cawthon:
“We tried to push the movie as far as we could while still maintaining that PG-13 rating. That meant deaths had to be executed in a certain way. And while in a lot of horror movies, it’s really fun to see all the guts and blood, it’s also really fun to figure out creative ways to show these moments without showing all the details. In some cases, we relied on shadows, silhouettes, and sound design to really feel the moment in a striking way without showing blood. So that’s something I had a lot of fun doing and really appreciated that we were taking this PG-13 approach because there’s a very young audience for FNAF, and we didn’t want to exclude them.”
