Naman Shrestha
Inspired by the eponymous video game created by Scott Cawthon, ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ is a supernatural horror film that stars Josh Hutcherson in the lead role of Mike Schmidt, a newly appointed troubled security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, which was once a highly successful family entertainment center but is now an abandoned place. Right into his first night shift as a security guard at the pizza store, he finds many reasons to believe that the job won’t be a walk in the park for him. Soon, during his shift, Mike comes across four animatronic mascots at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza — Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy — who come to life at night and kill anyone who stays there after midnight.
The Emma Tammi directorial, besides Hutcherson, features a talented ensemble cast, comprising Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Matthew Lillard. The horrific tale unfolds in the fictional Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a seemingly lifeless store that comes to life when the clock strikes twelve at night. As the characters get chased around by the menacing mascots, viewers wonder where exactly ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ was filmed. If your mind has been wondering in the same direction, allow us to get rid of your curiosity!
Five Nights at Freddy’s Filming Locations
‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ was filmed in Louisiana, primarily in the New Orleans metropolitan area. Initially scheduled to begin filming in March 2021, some script issues led to its delay, and after almost two years, the production of the horror film reportedly commenced in early February 2023 under the working title ‘Bad Cupcake’ and continued through the next couple of months, before getting wrapped in early April of the same year. Moreover, the animatronic Foxy’s arm caught on fire due to an overheating servo, which almost led to a major production disaster. Now, let’s not waste any time and dive right into all the specific locations that appear in the supernatural movie!
New Orleans Metropolitan Area, Louisiana
The shooting for all the pivotal sequences of ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ took place in the New Orleans metropolitan area AKA Greater New Orleans, which is a metropolitan statistical area that encompasses eight Louisiana parishes. The city of New Orleans served as one of the primary production locations as the filming unit set up camp in different neighborhoods and streets across the city against suitable backdrops for the purpose of filming.
In order to shoot the scenes set in and around the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza shop, the cast and crew members of ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ utilized the premise of a made-up set in an empty parking lot in the census-designated place of Chalmette. In addition, they even took the production to the census-designated place of LaPlace where they set up a rainbow sheep sign in an ice cream parlor in a mall. The Oakwood Center at 197 Westbank Expy Suite 33 in the city of Gretna near Terrytown is yet another mall that served as a prominent filming site for the film.
Moreover, the production team of ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ taped several key portions in the city of Covington and the census-designated place of Metairie. The Lead Designer and Project Supervisor of the film, Robert Bennett, sat down with Bloody Disgusting in October 2023 where he talked about the team’s approach for shooting some scenes involving Foxy. He explained, “When we build them in the shop, we build them so that they can be almost deconstructed. If the shot is just a waist up, we can do just waist up.”
Bennett further added, “Or if it’s just Foxy walking, we can just have the legs walking. So as we’re designing the animatronics, we try to take into account that there will be requests on set on the day that we might have to retrofit them really quick for the shot and then put them back together for the next shot.”
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