Murderous animatronic characters unleashed from an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese-like pizzeria will terrorize visitors during Halloween Horror Nights when the Five Nights at Freddy’s film franchise joins the lineup at this year’s after-hours haunted event.
Universal has announced Five Nights at Freddy’s as the first featured film franchise during Halloween Horror Nights 2025 at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando.
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Halloween Horror Nights 2025 will run on select nights Sept. 4 through Nov. 2 at Universal Studios Hollywood and Aug. 29 through Nov. 2 at Universal Orlando.
Universal announced on social media and the Horror Nights websites that Five Nights at Freddy’s would be “coming in a whole new way” to the Halloween events without saying if the film would be featured in a haunted house, scare zone or on the Terror Tram.
“It definitely sounds like more than a simple scare zone or a haunt,” according to Screamscape. “Given the theme involved, some kind of spooky dining event could potentially be possible, or perhaps FNAF will be used for a variety of things in each park.”
Based on a survival video game, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was released by Universal and Blumhouse and went on to become the top-grossing horror movie of 2023. A “Five Nights at Freddy’s” sequel will be released in theaters on Dec. 5, just after the 2025 Horror Nights run.
“Opportunities abound to create a haunted house from this premise,” according to Theme Park Insider. “Which is why many fans have been touting FNAF as an obvious choice for Halloween Horror Nights ever since Universal announced the film.”
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The backstory of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” follows a newly hired security guard who tries to survive the night at an abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria without being killed by homicidal animatronic characters at the theme restaurant.
The restaurant’s robotic house band of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy transform from cute and cuddly characters into murderous animatronics in the film through a combination of costumed performers and puppetry.
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The original “Five Nights at Freddy’s” film starred Josh Hutcherson (Hunger Games franchise), Matthew Lillard (Scream and Scooby Doo franchises), Elizabeth Lail (“Once Upon a Time”), Kat Conner Sterling (“The Gifted”), Piper Rubio (“Unstable”) and Mary Stuart Masterson (“Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Benny & Joon”).