Five Nights At Freddy’s Delivers The Killer Twist Another Horror Franchise Rejected

Warning: Major spoilers for Five Night at Freddy’s ending below!

Five Nights at Freddy’s ending delivers on a big twist another major horror franchise has strangely rejected. The adaption of the hit video game saga about murderous animatronics spent many years in development hell, but in terms of box office numbers alone, Blumhouse is probably glad they gave the project extra time in the oven. The movie didn’t do much to please critics, but followers of the games loved its faithfulness to the source and the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie’s many easter eggs.

Alongside The Purge or Insidious, it will almost certainly become a new Blumhouse horror franchise too. While he doesn’t get much screentime, the adaptation also gave Matthew Lillard a fun role as Fazbear Entertainment founder William Afton, one of the game’s major antagonists. Five Nights at Freddy’s ending allows Lillard to go full ham while wearing a giant animatronic costume, which is a role few actors could pull off with the right balance of menace and humor.

Five Nights At Freddy’s Makes Use Of A Matthew Lillard Scream Fan Theory

In truth, the reveal of Lillard as the chief villain isn’t that huge a surprise, since there’s a general lack of suspects. That said, his reveal in the finale calls to mind the ending of Wes Craven’s Scream, where Lillard’s Stu is unmasked as one of the movie’s two Ghostface killers. Five Nights at Freddy’s explains that Lillard’s serial killer Afton had murdered a group of children and hid their bodies inside the animatronic creatures at his Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant.

Strangely, Lillard’s Five Nights at Freddy’s role recalls plans for his character Stu in the Scream franchise. Before the sequel was completely rewritten, Scream 3 would have revealed Stu had survived the first movie and was controlling a cult of killers from behind bars. When the franchise was revived with 2022’s Scream, there were many fan theories that this scrapped concept would be reused, with Stu being revealed as the mastermind behind the new Ghostface killings.

Of course, neither Scream 2022 nor Scream VI picked up on this notion, and Lillards Stu has yet to return to the series. In making Lillard the leader of a group of killers – even animatronic ones – Five Nights at Freddy’s might be as close as Scream fans will get to see their Stu theories paying off on the big screen. That’s unless Scream 7 finally makes good on this idea, which is looking increasingly doubtful.

Five Nights At Freddy’s Scream Easter Egg Explained

Further cementing the links between his Five Night at Freddy’s and Scream characters is a key moment from the former’s ending. Before Afton unmasks himself, he taunts protagonist Mike (Josh Hutcherson) that he’ll be hunting down his little sister next. During this, he pulls out a knife and uses his other hand to wipe the blade clean.

In the Scream series, this is Ghostface’s signature move, where the killer wipes the blood off their knife before chasing another victim; seasoned horror fans might have picked up on this little detail before Lillard’s killer is unmasked. Five Nights at Freddy’s PG-13 rating prevents the ending from getting too gory though, unlike the typical Scream finale.

Matthew Lillard’s Five Nights At Freddy’s Future Explained

Just like Afton’s famous line from the Five Night at Freddy’s game is “I always come back!“, it’s inevitable Lillard will return for a sequel. In early 2023, the actor revealed to the WeeklyMTG podcast that he had signed a three-picture deal, suggesting Lillard’s Afton will play a larger role in the Five Nights at Freddy’s sequels. In the movie’s finale, Afton’s animatronic creations turn on him, with the spring locks inside his costume activating and impaling him. The final scene reveals Afton is still trapped in the costume inside the restaurant, with his creations keeping him prisoner.

Time will tell if a potential sequel features the same human protagonists, but Lillard’s Springtrap will no doubt loom large. There’s plenty of history involving Afton’s deeds that the original movie didn’t have time to cover, and the restaurant is unlikely to be left abandoned forever. After many years away from the genre, Five Nights at Freddy’s is also giving Lillard the horror comeback he deserves. His role shouldn’t rule out any return appearances in the Scream franchise, however, since Stu’s final fate is one element that is still a little ambiguous.