Is Five Nights at Freddy's Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Somewhat, 4 out of 10. It's mostly loud jump scares from animatronic mascots.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
4 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
The jumps are loud, and most of the feeling is gone by the credits.
DOG
Dog: fine
none. No dog in this one.
Ruling: It is loud, and it is fine for most teenagers.
Five Nights at Freddy's runs an hour and fifty minutes. A fired mall security guard takes a night job at a once-successful pizzeria full of costumed mascots.
The premise, briefly
Mike, a security guard who has just been fired, takes a night job at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and learns that the animatronic mascots there are dangerous.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
The animatronics turn on William Afton, the killer who trapped them, after Abby draws what he did. Mike and Abby escape the collapsing building, Vanessa is stabbed and ends up in a coma, and Afton is left to his fate.
The scene you're dreading
The vandals' break-in early in the movie: a group sent to wreck the pizzeria is killed by the animatronics after Mike has gone home.
The dog
There is no dog in Five Nights at Freddy's, so none dies.
Five Nights at Freddy's is mostly jump scares and a tragic backstory about ghost children, and it's much easier to watch when you know the animatronics have a side.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A career counselor with excellent leads
In 2000, Mike Schmidt loses his job as a mall security guard after he attacks a father he thought was a kidnapper. Steve Raglan, who is his career counselor, offers him night shifts at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a pizzeria that used to do well. Mike takes it because social services are threatening to move his younger sister Abby to their estranged aunt, Jane, who wants the monthly custody payments. On his first night, Mike falls asleep and dreams about the day his younger brother Garrett was taken. In the dream he meets five children who saw it happen.
Jane hires some vandals, including Abby's babysitter Max, to trash the pizzeria so Mike gets fired and she can take Abby. Mike also meets a police officer named Vanessa Shelly, who tells him the building closed in the 1980s after a number of kids disappeared on the premises. After Mike's shift ends and he goes home, the vandals break in. This is the scene people brace for, and it happens fairly early: the animatronic mascots Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Mr. Cupcake kill every one of them. Mike is not there to see it.
Abby makes friends with the wrong crowd
On his third night, Max does not show up, so Mike brings Abby to work. The animatronics are friendly to her, and Mike learns the mascots are inhabited by the ghosts of the missing kids, who keep mentioning a yellow rabbit. Vanessa warns him to stay away from the springlock suits, whose faulty gears can impale anyone wearing them. On the fourth night, Abby is accidentally hurt while playing with the animatronics. The next day Mike lets Jane babysit and returns to Freddy's with sleeping pills, hoping to dream again and find out what became of Garrett. In that dream, the children offer to let him stay with Garrett forever if he gives them Abby. He agrees, changes his mind, and Foxy attacks him. A Freddy animatronic that had been out of use knocks Jane out and takes Abby back to the pizzeria.
Abby draws a very persuasive picture
Vanessa reveals that her father is William Afton. He is the serial killer who took and murdered Garrett and the other kids, then hid their bodies in the animatronics so he could control their spirits. Mike realizes they plan to kill Abby so she can join them, and he races to the pizzeria and stops them. Then Afton arrives wearing the yellow rabbit suit and switches the animatronics back on, announces that he is Raglan, and stabs Vanessa. Abby remembers how much the animatronics like drawings and draws what Afton did. Once the animatronics understand the truth, they turn on him and set off the springlocks in his suit, hurting him badly before he is pulled off. Mike, Abby and Vanessa run as the building falls apart.
The ending, explained
Mike and Abby get out of the collapsing pizzeria with Vanessa. Vanessa falls into a coma and goes to the hospital. Mike and Abby patch things up. Back at the pizzeria, the leader of the ghost children watches the dying Afton for a moment and leaves him there. The animatronics had turned on him after Abby drew what he did.
The post-credits ruling
Yes, there is a scene during or after the credits, so stay until the end.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: none. No dog in this one.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Five Nights at Freddy's scary?
Somewhat. Five Nights at Freddy's is a 4 out of 10 with a low dread level: loud animatronic jump scares, some injuries, and a sad story about missing children.
How does Five Nights at Freddy's end?
The animatronics turn on William Afton after Abby shows them what he did, and he is left to his fate as the pizzeria falls apart. Mike and Abby survive, and Vanessa ends up in a coma.
Does the dog die in Five Nights at Freddy's?
There is no dog in Five Nights at Freddy's, so none dies.
Is there a post-credits scene in Five Nights at Freddy's?
Yes. Five Nights at Freddy's has a scene during or after the credits, so it is worth staying to the end.
Who is the yellow rabbit in Five Nights at Freddy's?
The yellow rabbit is William Afton, the serial killer who murdered the missing children. He wears the yellow rabbit suit when he comes back to the pizzeria, and he first shows up in the movie as Mike's career counselor, Steve Raglan.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Five Nights at Freddy's is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
Five Nights at Freddy's is a night shift with a lot of loud mascots. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror like this before you see it, so you can read about the pizzeria from home.
