After years of being passed between studios like a casserole that everyone is too scared to eat but too polite to officially turn away, the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie will finally be releasing next month, and it actually looks promising. This is a momentous occasion for fans of the franchise who have been watching it grow for nine years now. When I first heard about this indie horror game in middle school I never thought it would find a mainstream audience, much less through the medium of film.

However, that means many people will need a refresher on the major plot points of “FNAF” before they go watch the movie. Maybe you’ve never heard of it and have no idea what you’re getting into. Maybe you were a fan of the first few games but haven’t kept up with the lore since then. Well fret not, I’m here to be your guide! Let’s go through a quick and simple recap of everything you’ll need to know about the story of “FNAF” before the movie releases on October 27th.

The Premise

First, let’s lay the foundation. The “Five Nights at Freddy’s” games are set in an old pizza restaurant franchise, similar to Chuck E. Cheese. You play as a night guard, watching security cameras to make sure the creepy animatronic mascots aren’t acting strangely. We soon find out these animatronics are haunted by the ghosts of dead children, and they’re hunting you down.

Great, that’s creepy enough. Kids’ laughs and screams are used pretty often in horror, and here those sounds float ominously out of hulking metal shells. But we must dig deeper. Where did these kids’ ghosts come from?

The Killer

So as you obviously guessed, a serial killer has murdered countless children inside of this series of pizza restaurants. As one does. He is at the center of “FNAF’s” story, so understanding his character and motivations will be key. You see, he kills children because… um… let me find my notes. No, okay, we actually don’t know. That’s fine. But I can still tell you more about him, because thanks to the books and graphic novels — what? Yes, it’s a video game series, but if you really want to understand the story you have to do some light reading. It’s only five series of novels and short stories, just stick with me here.

In “The Silver Eyes” the killer’s name is revealed as William Afton. At the time that book was released some fans dismissed this information as non-canon, but his name was later confirmed in the fifth game. Afton is the co-founder of the pizza franchise, and he used the mascot suits there to lure in victims for his murder sprees.

However, the suit he wore had a fatal design error, and one night it trapped him inside. No one found him for years. Except you can’t just kill off your main villain like that, so even though Afton is still stuck in that crusty old mascot suit, he’s stayed alive all these years… somehow. Honestly, it seems more like he’s undead, or even like he’s possessing his own corpse. Unclear. So he continues stalking about the restaurants smelling like feet, and you have to stop him before he can do… whatever he’s planning to do. Kill more kids but as a zombie now, I guess?

The Killer’s Children

By the way, Afton is also a father. In fact, in some (if not most) of the games it appears you’re playing as one of his sons, Michael. However, all three of Afton’s children have undergone some horrific fate, though surprisingly not because he murdered them like all the other children he comes across.

Afton’s youngest son, who we don’t have a confirmed name for, is of course the victim of the infamous “Bite of ‘87” — shoot, no, the “Bite of ‘83.” Sorry, it’s easy to get the order of all these frontal lobe incidents mixed up. Actually, some people argue this kid may not have been Afton’s son at all, but seeing as his house is built directly above one of Afton’s hidden business locations it makes perfect sense to me. Feel free to turn to your neighbor and start a debate about it!

Afton’s daughter, Elizabeth, was killed by one of Afton’s crazy murder robots he built with the express purpose of killing children. Shocker. No, seriously, he expected her to be safe and was shocked when this happened. Now she possesses the animatronic that killed her, which you can tell because its eye color changed. (Eye color is about the only way we can tell who’s who in these games.)

Afton’s eldest son, Michael, was killed by a group of animatronics who mixed together their endoskeletons so they could use Michael’s body as a meat suit disguise. It’s really gross. Except, just like his dad, Michael didn’t properly die. He managed to get the robot guts out of his corpse and kept walking down the street like nothing happened. He’s purple now.

People Can Be Robots

In the first series of books it’s revealed that the main character, who thinks she’s a human — who eats, sleeps, and grows older like everyone around her — is actually a robot who was trained on the memories of the dead child she was built to replace. It’s very “Astro Boy.”

So, since it’s been shown that many things from the books have carried into the games as well (not always directly, they’re technically different but parallel universes of course), that probably means someone in the games is also secretly a robot. No idea who though, so just keep an eye out for any oddly metallic children.

Digital Consciousness

Afton uploaded a digital scan of his consciousness into a computer. When viewing it in virtual reality the virus appears as a digital avatar that’s still in the mascot suit that nearly (or completely?) killed him, which seems cruel. But at least it’s a cleaner, newer version of the suit instead of the one that’s been rusting for decades with a living corpse inside. This digital Afton acts like a computer virus that spreads between devices, and is able to brainwash and control people through their VR headsets, including your own! With this power, Afton will take over more and more minds so he can… shoot, right, no known motivation. But he sure does look creepy wiggling his fingers at you.

Possession Can Happen Without A Ghost

Agony is not only a feeling in this world but a tangible material created from the negative emotions of someone experiencing trauma or tragedy, including death. If that Agony is isolated it can be injected into objects, which will act possessed — despite the lack of a soul. They can move and attack things just like an angry ghost, but there’s no ghost there.This all means it can be hard to tell which robots in this series are possessed by a ghost, which are just programmed to be mean/outright murderous, which are hacked by a virus, and which are filled with a person’s negative emotions from their moment of death (but no actual ghost).

Faz-Goo

Faz-Goo is not a machine, nor is it even remotely ghost-adjacent. It’s an organic substance created by Fazbear Inc. that uses your DNA and steals your organs to turn itself into a copy of you. It just looks like pink goo before it’s activated. You can’t even trust the bubblegum under your desk in this world.

This substance is important enough to appear in multiple books. I don’t know what purpose it serves in this story about ghosts and robots.

Conclusions

Okay, now you’re all caught up! Those were all the most important things you’ll need to remember before watching the movie, probably. Of course, that was far from everything the “FNAF” series has to offer. How could it be, with five incredible book series to go over, ranging from novels to short story collections and even graphic novel adaptations? There’s also the many guidebooks which add even more contradictions and confusion to the story. Oh, and the nine video games I suppose. Heck, we didn’t even mention the Emily family, who are arguably just as important as the Aftons, but I’m sure their tragic story will be covered in the sequel-prequel movie coming up next. (It has to be a sequel-prequel, or else why make a second movie at all?)

The biggest takeaways from this refresher course are that nothing is what it seems and no one dies forever. They always come back, no matter how much we wish they wouldn’t. While watching the movie, also be sure to keep your eyes peeled for any easter eggs! You’ll surely see some men in bunny suits, surprisingly non-lethal fires, and a giant shark animatronic if you’re lucky. And please tell me if they so much as hint at what Afton’s end goal is. Please. I’m desperate.