Five Nights at Freddy's Director Explains Why the Movie Went for a PG-13 Rating

Emma Tammi says the FNAF movie is PG-13 to not exclude some game fans.

By Marc Deschamps

When Five Nights at Freddy's releases later this week, the movie will be rated PG-13. In a recent interview with Inverse, director Emma Tammi talked about the film's rating, and the reason there was a desire to keep the film accessible. Tammi noted that the Five Nights at Freddy's video games have always attracted younger fans, and there was a desire to keep the movie accessible to them as well. As a result, the director tried to find creative ways to feature kills that worked within the rating, without sacrificing the scare factor. 

"We were trying to push it as far as we could while still retaining that PG-13 rating. That meant the kills needed to be executed in a certain way. And while it is so fun in many slasher films to see all the guts and the gore, it is also really fun to figure out creative ways to show these moments without showing all the details. In some cases, we leaned into shadows and silhouettes and sound design to really feel the moment in an impactful way without showing any gore," Tammi told Inverse. "So that is something that I had a lot of fun doing, and actually really appreciated that we were taking the PG-13 approach for this because there's such a younger audience for FNAF, and we didn't want to exclude them."

It's worth noting that the Five Nights at Freddy's video games were never rated "M" for Mature; entries in the series have always gotten "T for Teen" ratings from the ESRB. As such, it makes sense that Blumhouse and Tammi wouldn't want to exclude a big portion of the audience. 

The Rise of PG-13 Horror

While there used to be a stigma that surrounded PG-13 horror films, that has drastically changed in recent years. Movies like A Quiet Place, M3GAN, and Insidious: The Red Door have proven that an R-rating is not needed to deliver a terrifying experience. Making these movies PG-13 has helped the horror genre grow in recent years, giving studios the opportunity to attract a much wider range of viewers than before. It remains to be seen whether Five Nights at Freddy's will be able to deliver an experience on par with the best PG-13 horror films, but there's certainly a lot of anticipation surrounding the movie. 

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Five Nights at Freddy's Release Date

Five Nights at Freddy's will arrive in theaters and on Peacock on October 27th. The movie could end up being the biggest horror film of the Halloween season, though it's hard to say how many people will elect to see it in theaters versus streaming. Regardless, things are looking good for Blumhouse, as the movie has already made its budget back! 

Are you disappointed that Five Nights at Freddy's is rated PG-13? Have you been looking forward to the movie? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

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