Craving an R-rated Five Nights at Freddy's Cut? Bury All Hopes

Summary:

• Five Nights at Freddy's movie adaptation has largely received positive feedback from fans and become Peacock 's most streamed event
• However, many people lament the movie's PG-13 rating, arguing that the lore sets the stage for more violence and gore
• Still, the director said they'll "stick to" PG-13, and won't even release an R-rated cut

Five Nights at Freddy's has been a cultural phenomenon long before it hit the screens, mainly thanks to how deeply in love YouTube was with the original video game. FNAF has become a horror darling for letsplays, and quickly assembled a complex lore thanks to theories and analysis by the fandom.

The aforementioned fandom was pretty much devastated to learn that the movie adaptation won't exactly be as gory and violent they'd expect after years of playing the game (which can go very dark very fast sometimes).

Instead, the Peacock movie decided to stick with PG-13, and one of the biggest complaints about the film so far is the lack of killer animatronic action in the project that is pretty much dedicated to killer animatronics.

Is There Violence in Five Nights at Freddy's Movie?

The FNAF movie is not exactly a fairytale with ponies and rainbows: the animatronics do, in fact, go on a killing spree, but it can seem way too tame for OG fans of the game who are used to basically any kind of jumpscares.

There is a couple of them in Five Nights at Freddy's; but fans believe that the movie could have gone way further with the gore. This is why many people still hope that the movie has been edited before hitting Peacock and big screen in order to be more appropriate for younger audiences. There's a theory that an R-rated cut of the movie exists and might hit screens soon.

Just how plausible it is? Well, not really...

FNAF Director Explains Movie's PG-13 Rating

According to director Emma Tammi, the PG-13 rating is just right for Five Nights at Freddy's — not just because of the desire to appeal to more people (including children), but also because of the tone of the story.

"Of course, there are a lot of dark elements to see in the lore, but in terms of some of the kills and everything, it was just all execution dependent,” Tammi told Variety. “I would say not to expect an R-rated version on this one. We’re really happy with how the PG-13 tone landed; it felt like the right fit for this particular film. We’re sticking by it."

Looks like we shouldn't be expecting any additional R-rated FNAF content any time soon; at least according to Tammi. The director believes the movie nailed the compromise between being relatively family-friendly and satisfying the demands of the fandom.

In fact, Tammi believes that PG-13 can surprisingly make the movie even more terrifying than graphic violence.

"I personally find it sometimes more fun and creative to figure out the way to show the thing without explicitly showing the thing or without graphically showing the thing,” she explained to Total Film. “It lets your mind go to even darker places sometimes than when you show all the gore in the guts. So, I was really excited about that rating, to be honest.”

Still, if the rumors are true that the FNAF creators are reworking the sequel's script based on the feedback for the first movie, then they definitely should amp up the amount of violence — even if it's not too graphic.

There has been no official announcements of a sequel being in the works, however.

Sources: Variety, Total Film