Directed by Emma Tammi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback from a story by Cawthon, Chris Lee Hill, and Tyler MacIntyre, the film stars Josh Hutcherson as a troubled security guard who starts a job at an abandoned pizzeria where he discovers its animatronic mascots are possessed by the souls of murdered children.

Roy Lee, Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg were set to produce it, with Gil Kenan announced as director and co-writer.

Chris Columbus was hired to direct and co-write the film in February 2018, ultimately leaving the project and being replaced by Tammi in October 2022.

[6][7][8] At Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a once-successful abandoned pizzeria, a terrified night security guard attempts to flee from the building but is captured and strapped to a torture device, which kills him.

At Mike's shift that night, he meets police officer Vanessa Shelly, who explains that the building closed during the 1980s after five children went missing there.

Once Mike's shift ends and he leaves, the vandals break in, but the pizzeria's animatronic mascots — Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Mr. Cupcake — kill the entire group.

Meanwhile, a damaged yellow Freddy animatronic,[a] possessed by the leader of the children, kills Jane and takes Abby back to the pizzeria.

Vanessa treats Mike's injuries and reveals that she is the daughter of William Afton, the serial killer who kidnapped and murdered Garrett and the other children.

[10] In April 2015, Warner Bros. Pictures announced it had acquired the film rights to the Five Nights at Freddy's video game franchise with Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith set to produce the adaptation.

In February 2018, Chris Columbus was announced as Kenan's replacement as director and writer, besides producing the film alongside Blum and Cawthon.

[17] In August 2018, Cawthon revealed that the first draft of the film's script, which he wrote with co-author of the Five Nights at Freddy's novel trilogy, Kira Breed-Wrisley, was completed, and it would involve the events of the series' first game.

[23] In October, Emma Tammi was announced as Columbus' replacement as director, in addition to co-writing the screenplay alongside Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback.

[22] Filming began in New Orleans on February 1, 2023, under the working title Bad Cupcake, with an estimated production budget of $25 million before tax incentives.

[36] The Newton Brothers composed the film's score,[37] while the fan-made song "Five Nights at Freddy's" by the Living Tombstone was featured in the end credits.

[48] In the United States and Canada, Five Nights at Freddy's was released alongside Freelance and After Death, and was initially projected to gross around $50 million from 3,550 theaters in its opening weekend.

The website's consensus reads: "Loaded with Easter eggs, Five Nights at Freddy's may be fun to watch for fans of the game, but most viewers of any other persuasion will find this adaptation muddled and decidedly unscary.

[49] Murtada Elfadl of Variety felt the animatronic characters were underutilized, with the film instead focusing on "a baffling plot and backstory for their protagonist".

He also criticized a perceived lack of effective jump scares and concluded, "In trying to adapt the game for the screen, they forgot what makes the original special, wringing unintentional laughter from its bizarre story instead of entertaining audiences".

[60] The Guardian's Benjamin Lee gave a two out of five rating, arguing "The low-stakes, late-night thrill we expect from the material never arrives, held back by a mixture of indecisive restraint and misplaced self-importance.

[61] The New York Times's Natalia Winkelmann expressed similar criticisms: "...[Although] Five Nights at Freddy's, based on a popular video game franchise, reaches for horror-comedy flair, this dreary, mild adaptation never achieves the hybrid pleasures of a movie like M3GAN.

"[64] Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting gave a score of three out of five and wrote, "It's the type of handsomely made, charming creature feature that'll play well at slumber parties or rowdy theaters full of obsessed fans, which is precisely its target audience.

[42] Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press stated: "Caught between PG and R, as well as lost at the crossroads of inadvertent comedy and horror, the PG-13 Five Nights at Freddy's has to go down as one of the poorest films in any genre this year".

[66] Similarly, the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips condemned "the film's attempt to be a cuddly version of Saw, with faces getting sliced open by a robo-critter's whirring saw blades", going on to say "To keep the PG-13 rating intact, the camera and editor cut away just before the splurch, nearly every time...

[74] In April 2024, Blumhouse officially confirmed the sequel,[75] and that Jim Henson's Creature Shop would return to design animatronics for the film.