Five Nights at Freddy's" is the brainchild of video game developer Scott Cawthon, who broke into the gaming world making Christian-focused video games like "Pilgrim's Progress" and "The Desolate Hope," the latter of which is essentially anti-abortion propaganda hidden within a video game. In 2013, he put out a family-friendly game called "Chipper & Sons Lumber Co.," which was lambasted by critics, with a few noting that the characters looked like terrifying animatronic creatures you'd see in a place like Chuck E. Cheese or ShowBiz Pizza Place. The negative reviews had a massive impact on Cawthon, but the comments inspired him to pivot toward the horror game sphere, creating "Five Nights at Freddy's."

Understanding the man behind the game is important because Cawthon seems to be at the center of some of the delays for the film adaptation. When Blumhouse announced that veteran director Chris Columbus had left the project in 2021, it was indicated that Cawthon had the final say on the script, and according to Jason Blum, "It's taken longer than I hoped to get the right story."

Cawthon retired from professional game development in 2021, but not before his history of donations was made public, revealing that he made significant financial donations to conservative political candidates, including the disgraced, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump, who was recently found liable for sexual abuse. Before his retirement, Cawthon expanded the "Five Nights at Freddy's" universe to 13 games (including one in space) and 32 books/graphic novels. As of publication, Cawthon is still determining a successor to helm the continuation of the franchise.

Considering "Five Nights at Freddy's" has hundreds of hours of lore at this point, it may seem overwhelming to try and make sense of what this story is all about. The game started out with humble beginnings, where players were cast as the night watch security guard for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, only to discover that the animatronics come to life at night, and kill whoever they find. It's almost too perfect in its simplicity, but Scott Cawthon has expanded the story in some pretty wild and gruesome directions.

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was once a thriving utopia for family fun but is now a run-down, derelict shadow of its former glory due to a string of tragedies connected to the pizzeria. Fazbear Entertainment was co-founded by a man named William Afton, who is also behind the company Afton Robotics. He's also a serial killer. It was rumored that Afton used the kid-friendly allure of Freddy Fazbear to kidnap and murder five children, shoving their corpses into the animatronic mascots of the pizzeria: Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy.

"Five Nights at Freddy's 3" introduced Fazbear's Fright, a horror attraction built to capitalize on the real-life horrors and urban legends that surround the famed chain of pizzerias, while "Five Nights at Freddy's 4" is a prequel game that chronicles the "Bite of '83" tragedy, one of the many horrific "accidents" related to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The story focuses on a little boy with a massive fear of animatronics who was forced to attend a birthday party at the pizzeria, where his older brother tried to scare him by putting his head in the FredBear's mouth. Tragically, the terrified tears of the little boy caused a short in the animatronic, triggering the mouth to snap close and kill the child.

This game is dark, and it only gets weirder as the franchise goes on.