The upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s movie won't be getting an R-rated cut after all. During an interview with Forbes, director Emma Tammi confirmed there likely won’t be a grislier cut of the horror adaptation.
“I would say not to expect an R-rated version on this one,” she said. “We're really happy with how the PG-13 tone landed; it felt like the right fit for this particular film. We're sticking by it.”
Five Nights at Freddy’s is based on the hit video game which pits the player against a horde of nightmarish animatronic characters after they take a new job covering the night shift at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
Obviously, it has a lot of horror fans, but while some are rather keen to see a more violent cut, it looks as though that won’t be an option.
“We knew that some of the fan base would want an R-rated version of this film,” said Tammi. “On the one level, we wanted to be inclusive of the younger audiences and knew we were going to hit the PG-13 rating, but for the audience that also wanted that level of violence, if you will, or at least insinuation of violence, we really wanted to still include elements that felt dark.”
In fact, it looks as though they may not have even filmed much darker, more violent footage. So, sorry Five Nights at Freddy’s fans — a darker director’s cut may not even be possible.
“Going into production we knew that we wanted to really stick [to] a PG-13 rating for this movie,” Tammi told GamesRadar+. “It felt like it was important and really exciting to be able to include a younger audience to come see this movie. But we also, of course, wanted to deliver on the scares and at least the implied violence of a kill, even if you don't see everything.”
Want to read more about Five Nights at Freddy’s? Check out a behind-the-scenes look at Five Nights at Freddy’s and find out why YouTuber Markiplier had to turn down a role in the movie.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
