Five Nights at Freddy's Movie Was Inspired by a Surprising DC Movie

After years of rumors that a movie was coming based on the beloved game franchise Five Nights at Freddy's, the project is finally in the can and ready for theatrical release in October. Positioned as the perfect Halloween release -- it's out October 27th -- the movie is expected to be a big hit, and the studios involved are hoping for a franchise out of the deal. So naturally while the cast is unavailable to promote the movie, its director is out there, telling everyone will listen about the project, and its road to completion.

Among other things, Emma Tammi told Total Film that the movie's influences run a pretty crazy gamut, from Terence Malick to DC. But no, not The Suicide Squad, which might feel like the closest relative to Freddy's in DC's library. Instead, Tammi cites Todd Phillips's Joker.

"We were constantly referencing Steven Spielberg – you know, that childhood wonderment quality," she said in the latest issue of the magazine, in stores tomorrow. "Alongside kind of a darker world that felt akin to Joker."

So, yeah...Joker inspired some of the Five Nights at Freddy's movie, which...when you think about it, isn't quite as crazy it might sound. Especially since it seems Tammi was looking to other movies for mood and shots, rather than overall tone or story beats.

"Those were some of the cinematography references that Lyn Moncrief and I were pulling," Tammi added. "Also, just the haunted house element of it was such a big influence. Some of our scenes that have to do with our main character's backstory and memory were also influenced by a [Terrence] Malick-esque camera style, to give them a more dreamlike quality… those scenes that were taking place in forest campground settings. There were a lot of different types of references we were pulling to really craft something that felt unique."

The idea of a Five Nights at Freddy's movie that draws from Malick might seem a little off-kilter or even pretentious, if we weren't already in a year where a weird, meta Barbie movie with overt references to 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League had made almost $1.5 billion. These days, maybe it should be not the exception but the rule that directors taking on a big IP-driven movie should get a little weird with it.

Five Nights at Freddy's is set to release in theaters and on Peacock on October 27th. Directed by Emma Tammi, the movie stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt and Matthew Lillard (Scream) as antagonist William Afton. The movie will also star Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Kat Conner Sterling, and Mary Stuart Masterson. FNAF series creator Scott Cawthon co-wrote the screenplay for the movie, and had something resembling final cut. As such, fans of the series should expect an adaptation that's fairly faithful to the lore of the video games that inspired it.