FNAF VHS Tapes
The lore goes deeper outside the games …
By Priya Pai
CONTENT WARNING: These videos contain content and themes related with gore, death, child murder and spoilers.
None of these videos are monetized and this series is currently free to watch on YouTube.
Five Nights at Freddy’s, aka FNAF is 2014 horror game series.
The premise is that you’re a night security guard at a Chuck E. Cheese rip-off called Fazbear’s Pizza, known for it’s … creepy animatronics.
The twist is that the animatronics are haunted and come to life at night with intentions to kill the night guard … that’s you. Your job is simple — try not to get murdered by the robots as you keep watch for seven nights (despite the name) at Fazbear’s Pizza.
Some background
Analog horror is a genre that first appeared in 2015 on YouTube when the channel LOCAL58TV uploaded the first episode of their series Local 58. Analog horror has been on the rise recently with many new channels being created and producing videos for this genre. This trend is really taking over the Internet and has a lot of potential to be the next big thing! In July of 2019, the YouTuber Squimpus McGrimpus uploaded their first video, titled Fazbear Entertainment Video Manual, to their FNAF VHS TAPES playlist. The series started gaining traction a couple years later when it was discovered and different audios from it started trending on TikTok.
The FNAF VHS TAPES series is about the story behind the Five Nights at Freddy’s games. The characters are unclear at first since many of the videos are either employee training guides, the Fazbear cartoons, or just footage of people testing the animatronics.
But towards the end of season one, it’s revealed that the main character is a man named Michael. He’s the faceless player character from the game franchise.
The guy behind the franchise is William Afton, aka Springtrap who murdered a bunch of children and stuffed their bodies into the Fazbear robots. The spirits of those kids now haunt the robots which is why they constantly move on their own. So why do they always try to kill Michael? He’s not the one who killed the kids and put them in the robot suits, right? Well here’s the kicker …
Michael is William’s son … One of them at least (he has two). Because of this, and possibly some physical resemblance to William, the Fazbear animatronics see him as a threat that they must exterminate. Don’t worry, Michael isn’t very fond of his old man due to his daddy issues so he’s not too phased by the fact that others also hate Springtrap.
So…. should you watch the FNAF VHS Tapes?
I think so, if you’re a fan of the franchise who’s in search of some really good horror genre lore. I’m surprised at how Squimpus McGrimpus was able to put this entire series together on a very low budget and, presumably, with little to no help from others.
I’ve noticed that many of the comments on these videos are by FNAF fans saying how they wish the game series was just as scary as this non canonical series.
The bottom line is that these videos are very well-made .. and extremely terrifying, adding an extraordinary amount of relevant lore to the game franchise. I give this series 4.6 stars out of 5.
Rubric
Animation: 10/10
Character design: 10/10
Voice acting: 9/10
Sound design: 7/10
Story structure: 10/10
Priya Pai is currently enrolled at TCNJ as a senior in design and creative technology. They have a minor in marketing and they are going to graduate in May 2022.
