The Trailer for Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location Is Creepy As Hell

The Five Nights At Freddy’s franchise has grown into a sort of indie game phenomenon. And I’ll admit, as scared as I have been to play it myself, watching others play and trying to follow the lore has become an all-encompassing mental gymnastic hobby. After five games (four in the main storyline, then FNAF World) all released within about 18 months, Scott Cawthon has released a trailer for the newest in the freaky, animatronic, nightmare simulator.

Little concrete info is known about FNAF: Sister Location so far, but from the trailer it appears to be more interactive than the previous games. The first three games involved staying in one specific location—a desk at three different restaurant or horror house locations—while the fourth actually gave players the chance to get up and run to either various doors or turn around to the bed. This time, from the minute-plus bit of footage available, it appears there may—may—be more movement this time around, with movement in a duct at one point and jostling around what looks like a cartoony cockpit. Maybe it’s a ride of some sort at this point? A haunted theme park? Of course, it could be the same sort of thing, it’s still all speculation at this point.

From the dancing on the stage in smoother, more plasticky detail than before, we can see four animatronics—a white-and-pink Freddy-like bear, what looks like a fully-together Mangle, a ballerina, and a jester girl at the front of the band (who looks like a cross between Harley Quinn and the girl from the Wendy’s logo). All have faces that pull themselves apart robotically, then back together again like a sci-fi horror flick. Unlike previous titles, these are all very clearly shiny and robotic, without a hint of humanity involved in them… not even the appearance of softness from fake fur. The teaser showing all of this includes a crying, almost child-like voice, repeating the sentence:

“Don’t hold it against us.”

This is special to experience, not just because one of the animatronics appears to be doing the talking, but that there’s talking at all. In earlier games the only talk came from the Phone Guy (different ones depending on the game), providing context for the environment and clues on how to survive the nights. If there’s another voice on top of that, that can lead to confusing instructions, or whispering or sharing misleading information, or even finding a way to communicate with the player more personally. There are so many ways to add to the ambiance of the environment with such a change, and with Cawthon’s ability to set a tone, I’m interested in seeing where it takes character speech here.

The trailer ends with a similarly-ominous message, one that may indicate that like the original quadrilogy, this will end with multiple titles to flesh out the storyline:

“You don’t know what we’ve been through.”

The first four titles, the main series, appears to have completed the original vision of the story Cawthon meant to tell. There are still secrets buried within the game (like the mysterious padlocked case), so Sister Location may not expand on any of those; it’s impossible to say at this point. But visually it looks completely different than the previous titles, and that’s worth looking at on its own. What is this new location? Who are these new animatronics? Are they all out to kill us (still), are we alone in the underground space, or will there finally be music that can haunt my dreams? (Hell, will it be a sort of rhythm game that angers the clown girl to murderous intent? Just think… running from FNAF’s version of Hatsune Miku!)

The note at the end says it should be released in the fall, but knowing Cawthon’s history, this could see its release pushed forward to, like, tomorrow. Are you sick of the FNAF series by now, or are you interested in where this might take or expand the lore? And more importantly, did you see something in the trailer that caught your attention?