This Halloween, the animatronic denizens of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza are heading to the big screen in Five Nights at Freddy’s, with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop responsible for bringing them to life through animatronics and puppetry.
Universal Pictures will release Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s in theaters and on Peacock beginning Friday, October 27, 2023. Five Nights at Freddy’s is directed by Emma Tammi (The Wind, Blood Moon) and written by Scott Cawthon, Emma Tammi, and Seth Cuddeback.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with Five Nights at Freddy’s Project Supervisor and Lead Designer, Robert Bennett (“The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” Come Play), ahead of the film’s release about bringing the iconic characters to life.
Speaking with Bennett made one thing clear: starting with the game’s creator, Scott Cawthon, every element of this film was made with the intent to remain true to the games. Because Jim Henson’s Creature Shop worked so closely with Cawthon on the creatures, the design process was streamlined.
Bennett explains, “We actually got the files from the game directly from Scott Cawthon, and then we worked closely with Emma and Scott to develop different colors and textures to bring them into the real world. He was there from the very beginning until the very end. He was on set with us, and who better knows the FNaF universe than him? He was the one that we all went to to make sure that we were staying true to his vision.”
(from left) Bonnie, Freddy Fazbear and Chica in Five Nights at Freddy’s, directed by Emma Tammi.
Most of Freddy Fazbear’s characters are brought to life via animatronic suits worn by creature performers. Donning the animatronic suits are Kevin Foster (Ford vs. Ferrari, Iron Man) as Freddy, Jess Weis (“Mayfair Witches“) as Chica, and Jade Kindar-Martin (“Interview With the Vampire,” The Walk) assumes the role of Bonnie. However, Foxy proved to be a much more elaborate character to pull off for the Creature Shop.
“Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy are suits that a stunt performer would be inside, and then the head would be performed by a puppeteer off-stage,” Bennett tells us. “But Foxy was a full animatronic, and when Foxy was completely up and going, it took six puppeteers. There’d be one on each leg, one on the arms, one on the torso, the head, and then there was a big arm that moved him up and down and could roll him down the hallway.
“The issue with Foxy, with his design, is he has holes all over his body, and it’s just cheaper to have the thing there than to have someone in a green suit, then you have to replace it. And just for the performers to have that on set and have this full animatronic that they could light from any angle, I think it helped the feel of the movie.”
While the expansive lore from both the games and Cawthon meant a faithful depiction on screen, Bennett teased that audiences can expect to see a new design in the mix.
He tells Bloody Disgusting, “There’s so much lore and the world, once again, it’s so rich that we really were able to pull from his library, and we made sure that anything that we were looking at was something that was sent from him that was an official license by him. But in the trailer, there’s the mask with all the saws and everything, and that’s a new design, and it was fun just to go in there and figure out where they’re going to be and what’s going to look the most menacing.”
Josh Hutcherson as Mike in Five Nights at Freddy’s, directed by Emma Tammi.
Movement is just as important as design here, and Bennett breaks down the creature team’s approach for principal photography.
“When we build them in the shop, we build them so that they can be almost deconstructed. If the shot is just a waist up, we can do just waist up,” Bennett states. “Or if it’s just Foxy walking, we can just have the legs walking. So as we’re designing the animatronics, we try to take into account that there will be requests on set on the day that we might have to retrofit them really quick for the shot and then put them back together for the next shot.”
More than just production demands, Bennett and crew had to ensure the animatronics moved authentically to the game and the characters’ originating period.
He explains, “It’s these animatronics that were made years ago, and now you’re a little bit in the future, and how do they age? How do you make that believable where it instantly looks like this really dingy animatronic that’s been sitting in a room? That’s what we spent a lot of time figuring out, where the textures and the shapes and the colors and how things would read with light.”
(from left) Freddy Fazbear and director Emma Tammi on the set of Five Nights at Freddy’s
But does making a movie about animatronics that spring to life at night and torment the security guard create any eerie scenarios on set?
Bennett recalls, “I know that there were several times where there would be a signal between one of the remote controls and a servo would glitch, and Emma would be like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so amazing. Can we do that again?’ Well, we’ll try. But they were built so well that we could make them look like they were glitching if they needed to, or we could make them look pristine if they needed to, but it was very fulfilling to be on set 10 o’clock at night in a hallway with this crazy animatronic hanging over you.”
When asked if fans might be surprised by any new details or lore in this film, Bennett reaffirmed just how committed the cast and crew were to remaining as faithful to the game as possible.
“I know that everyone in the production tried to stay as true to the game as they possibly could in every facet, from the sets to costumes to everything. I can’t really say anything without giving anything away, but everyone had the fans in mind while we were doing this project, so I think they’re going to love it.“
See Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy unleashed in Five Nights at Freddy’s on Friday, October 27.
The post ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ – Jim Henson Creature Shop’s Robert Bennett on Designing the Film’s Animatronics [Interview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.