Research - Five Nights at Freddy's, Analysis of Film Opening 3 (#13)

     Today, I analyzed the movie opening from Five Nights at Freddy's. I've analyzed the camera shots/angles, lighting, mise en scene, editing, and the meaning behind repetitive items that pop up.

Five Nights at Freddy's Opening Credits

Background of Movie

    The Five Nights at Freddy movie was made in 2023, rated PG-13. The movie is about 1 hour and 49 minutes. The genres of the movie are horror, thriller, and whodunnit. Whodunnit is a subgenre of detective fiction where the central focus is a crime, typically a murder and a mystery about who committed it. The stars of this movie are Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, and Elizabeth Lail. This movie has 24 nominations but no wins, yet. This movie is based on the game, Five Nights at Freddy's, which was made by Scott Cawthon, who is also a writer for this movie. The movie was directed by Emma Tammi, with the writers, (other than Scott) Seth Cuddeback, and Emma Tammi. (IMDb, 2023)

Opening Scene

    This opening is about 2 minutes long. The opening shows the pizzeria where most of the movie takes place, and a drawing of a yellow bunny on the walls. The pizzeria is abandoned after an accident happened. The night guard, Michael, is trapped inside, relying on limited resources and surveillance. This is based on the FNAF game, where you play as a night guard in an office with the same requirements. In the opening scene, there are a lot of flickering lights which add a sense of false safety in the office. The animatronics are designed for childlike innocence that are now corrupted and lethal. This is to make the viewer feel unsettlingly about how the animatronics and interact in the movie. The opening scene starts off with a cut-off of a scream from the previous night guard, signifying that a person has died. The opening credits are red, yellow, blue and purple, which resemble the four main animatronics in the first movie.

    Cinematography and Editing

    There are many scenes of shaky POV shots of terrified guards, moving through air ducts to escape/hide. This creates a sense of anxiety and claustrophobia, emphasizes the sense of panic and feeling trapped for the audience. The opening scene is filled with low-key lighting, the only lights being arcade games and stage lights. This adds to the fear of the dark. The shadows everywhere can function as hiding places, suggesting that the animatronics can hide anywhere, which makes the situation more nerve-racking. The film uses sharp and abrupt cuts during the confrontation to build tension before a shocking impact. The sequence builds anticipation using slow tracking shots and POV shots to build a greater jump scare moment for the viewers.

Low-key lighting in the arcane

    The sounds that are mainly used are diegetic sounds like the whirring of the fan, static and buzz of monitors, and the clanging of air ducts, and panicked breathing of the guard. The use of up-beat but intense music creates a sense of unease because the audience doesn't know whether to jam with the music or be scared. The sounds of the animatronics off-screen cause the constant fear of the audience. This mirrors the games, which use sound cues for the player. Throughout the movie, the sound of the killing is very vulgar in a sense. The sounds are crunching metals, tearing, and the whir of suit compressing, which is the main killing strategy of the games and movies. The director's technique of using gory sounds, instead of visuals, still adds to the gruesome scene while continuing with the PG-13. This leaves the visuals to the audience's imagination.

Repetition of things in the opening

    In the opening, it shows a wall of children drawing a yellow bunny, which is an old animatronic from the games which continues to show in the movie. Bunnies normally symbolize innocence and vulnerability, which the villain uses to kill children. The children that have been killed are five kids, which pop up many times in the movie and opening scene. The kids are connected with the animatronics as spirits (Lotodots, 2023). At the end of the movie, there is an alarm clock that shows 6:00am, which in the games resembles the end of the shift, and in the movie resembles the end. (FoundFlix, 2023)

Scene Analysis

Two Scenes from the Movie Opening

Reflection

    The opening of the Five Nights at Freddy movie really works because of how it shows the viewers how dangerous and scary the job is by using the sound of a previously killed security guard in the beginning. The way the scene uses the tight, dark air vents and shaky camera movement, makes us feel trapped and panicked like we are in the guards' shoes. The sound design is key as the grinding of metals and loud thuds of the animatronics in the shadows makes us aware to listen for danger, even if the animatronics look inviting and fun. The survival horror genre is set up perfectly and sets up the atmosphere for the rest of the movie. Researching this movie is a full circle for me, personally, because I have played the many games that this franchise has and loved that they made it into a movie that captures the games. I grew up playing these games and the movie was a cherry on top of the ice-cream cone. Researching this movie was really fun to see the attention to detail that the director and writers added to the movie. There's a second movie coming on December 5th, and I'm excited. I might analyze that movie next! :)

My handwritten notes of the opening scene

References

FoundFlix. (2023, November 16). FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S (2023) Ending Explained. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM8JiJhGvJI

IMDb. (2023). Five Nights at Freddy’s. IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4589218/

lotodots. (2023, November 5). Every CHARACTER in the FNAF Movie: EXPLAINED. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDCGbRNOhb0

Wikipedia Contributors. (2023, October 30). Five Nights at Freddy’s (film). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Nights_at_Freddy%27s_(film)