When it came to making the stars of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza come to life, Blumhouse and Universal brought out the big puppeteering guns from the Jim Henson Company.
Five Nights at Freddy’s director Emma Tammi recently at down with io9 to discuss bringing the highly anticipated video game adaptation to life on the big screen. With quite the fervent FNAF fanbase, the filmmaker knew they had to get the iconic characters right—and who else to do them justice than the Jim Henson creature shop?
“Working with Jim Henson’s company to make them come to life was absolutely incredible and they ensured that there was a uniqueness and soulful quality to them,” Tammi told io9. We’ve seen these animatronics in person and they’re eerie creepy and cute—just how you’d imagine them. Tammi continued, “Each of the characters have such personality and of course they do in the game, too. But bringing them to life in a three dimensional way was always going to be a little different. So it was the perfect match to to collaborate with them on on the characters.”
In the real life, the movie’s puppets are currently on display for the public to see at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood. Freddy and company are very tall, fuzzy and look so mechanical—almost like they could jump to life if possessed by the spirits of children. But don’t worry, they’re a lot to handle and to actually make come to life. Tammi elaborated on how there were multiple puppets on hand for the shoot. “We had several different versions of them based on what action needed to happen for whichever scene we were in the middle of. But you know, they were fully animatronic and that required a handful of puppeteers off-screen with remote controls operating their eyebrows, their arms, their necks. So it was it was a big team effort to get them up and running.”
She continued describing the unique qualities of the each of the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza stage show crew (think that late 80’s to early 90’s Chuck E. Cheese band, but cursed), “For the scares, Foxy is just so inherently sharp. A lot of what I love about the animatronics is also now linked to like the sound design that we’ve we’ve added and post as well, which is so great and brings them to life in a whole other way.” Tammi proudly shared more about her on-screen creations that she can’t wait for FNAF fans to see, “Chica’s Little Feathers, which also move are definitely my favorite part about her and Cupcake is an all time favorite as well. Freddy is just like the boss ringleader—the heart and soul of the whole gang. So, I mean, he’s classic and funny and just makes me smile, always makes me laugh, [and] is totally terrifying at times, big and clunky in the scariest of ways and the goofiest of ways. I love all these characters a lot.”
What’s not to love except the predisposition to unalive threats that enter their pizza palace domain if they fall asleep?
Five Nights at Freddy’s opens Friday October 27 and streams on Peacock same day.
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