Mascots have been a staple of the horror genre for generations. Great horror has great antagonists, often a recognizable character to draw in and entertain audiences. When most of the main cast is destined to die, it’s important to have the villain as a primary point of consistency. Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers are all household names, famous for the terror they strike in the hearts of moviegoers. When you get your own mask at Spirit Halloween, you know you’ve made it as a horror villain.
Of course, mascot horror isn’t limited to film; it has also made its way into video gaming. And with the release of the game Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic and the inclusion of animatronic Springtrap in the Dead By Daylight villains roster, it’s clear that the mascot horror subgenre is alive and well. But what truly is mascot horror, and what has the subgenre done for the world of horror games?
In 2014, indie game developer Scott Cawthon redefined the subgenre with his internationally successful horror game, Five Nights at Freddy’s. The game follows a fairly straightforward narrative and doesn’t give much guidance beyond its premise: You play a security guard at a pizzeria who must survive the work week while the restaurant’s animatronic characters try to kill you. There is no escape, no exploration or way to fight back; you must sit in place for the entirety of your shift, with the security cameras and office doors as your only defense. The nights get harder as you progress through the week, culminating in a laughably poor paycheck and a notice of termination for the player.
At first glance, the game’s mechanics seem tedious, but this repetition is exactly what made it so popular. Each night lasts about six minutes, and the mechanics (checking the cameras, closing the doors) are easy to grasp. With the use of random number generators, no one night is ever the same. This makes the game accessible and maximizes replayability, which is perfect for online content. YouTube Let’s Players creators like Markiplier saw massive viewership on their videos playing through FNAF, and as demand for content increased, so did supply. Between the many playthroughs and theory videos popping up across the internet, FNAF took the online gaming community by storm. People were drawn to the mysteries of the pizzeria and attempts to unravel the lore brought the fandom closer together.
But the core of the game’s success lies in its ability to prey on players’ nostalgia, which it does through its iconic mascots. The original four animatronics are Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy, with a strange apparition named Golden Freddy as an unofficial fifth. Reminiscent of Chuck E. Cheese or Disneyland costume characters, the animatronics could be dropped into any theme park without issue. Posters and drawings strewn across the pizzeria show their friendly faces entertaining the children, playing songs on stage or serving cake for kids’ birthday parties.
The horror begins when these characters become corrupted. They leave their places on stage and roam closer to your office, motionless aside from the occasional twitch or jerk. Their eyes appear empty besides two white pinpricks for pupils. The laughter and music meant to bring joy suddenly take on a much more sinister tone. It builds the player’s anxiety by sticking them in a place meant to be safe and comforting, then turning those same elements against them. What should spark fond memories of parties and pizza instead infuses this nostalgia with terror.
Despite its status as a horror game, FNAF drew in fans of all ages. Most horror media is geared toward older players, incorporating cruelty and elements not suitable for children. Mascot horror, however, avoids this audience primarily due to its marketability. While FNAF is a horror game, the mascots in their uncorrupted forms are still family-friendly. Plushies and figures of the characters are plastered all over Amazon, and Target offers a variety of FNAF children’s shirts. Kids aren’t the only customers for these items, but the use of mascots expands the target audience for them massively.
It didn’t take long for other game studios to try their hand at replicating FNAF’s success. Many, many games have tried, but few have accomplished such a feat. The first original game to come close was Bendy and the Ink Machine. Released in 2018, the game follows a former employee of the animation company Joey Drew Studios, who returns to the old studio to find that a strange machine has taken over and brought its characters to life.
Bendy and the Ink Machine may be conceptually similar to FNAF (a children’s entertainment business with a dark past and murderous characters), but its mechanics are wildly different. Bendy provides the player greater exploration, guiding them through the abandoned workshop to solve puzzles and mysteries along the way. As the player is chased by demonic ink creatures through the workshop, they can find old tapes and audio logs that offer glimpses into what really brought down Joey Drew Studios. While the narrative style may not offer the same level of replayability that FNAF has, the added relics generate more content for fans and theorists to analyze. And as always, the rubber hose animation style of the characters evoke fond memories of Steamboat Willie and other old cartoons, making them similarly marketable to kids.
While Bendy isn’t quite as popular as Freddy, the game’s success proved that mascot horror could sustain an audience. Having a wider audience age range provides many benefits for the fandoms, especially when it comes to keeping the mascots in the public eye. Children are engaging with these characters in various ways, by playing the games, buying merchandise and making memes. In recent years, mascot horror has only grown more dominant in the horror gaming sphere. The closest rival to FNAF has been Poppy Playtime, which released its fourth chapter this past January. Poppy Playtime, similar to Bendy and the Ink Machine, follows a former employee of a children’s entertainment company returning years after its fall into ruin. But instead of animatronics or ink demons, the antagonists are fully biological, massive monsters that look like the company’s toys come to life.
Poppy Playtime’s main contribution to mascot horror was popularizing the mascot horror chase sequence. In its first chapter, players are chased through the factory ventilation system by Huggy Wuggy, the monstrous form of a cuddly stuffed toy. While Bendy and the Ink Machine features chase sequences, Poppy Playtime made them a core part of its gameplay. Every chapter has some kind of chase, starring a different character each time. Even FNAF itself has fallen into the chase sequence trap. In Secret of the Mimic, the latest installment in the franchise, the Mimic engages in various chase sequences with the player, sending them scurrying through the facility with a murderous robot on their tail.
Still, nothing can quite recapture the terror of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s. Chase sequences are terrifying in their own right, but what’s scarier than being chased? Not having the chance to run. Because chase sequences are coded the same each time, they become predictable and tedious after multiple attempts. Players can get frustrated with the repetitive nature of the chase sequences. While having to replay a night in the original Five Nights at Freddy’s games is similarly frustrating, this frustration is mediated by how random the nights are; you never get the same thing twice.
FNAF was the original curator of the mascot horror subgenre, but since then, games have more closely followed the structure of Poppy Playtime. Currently, mascot horror in gaming is defined by three major elements: memory, mystery and marketing.
The mascots featured in these games remind players of some of their fondest memories, visiting theme parks or watching their favorite cartoons. They recall the characters that shaped their childhoods, and now get to see them on screen in a much darker form. Mascot horror games also provide lore to unpack outside of their gameplay. The stories are packed with hints and easter eggs to help players uncover a larger mystery surrounding the companies they follow. Theory videos on Freddy and Poppy are still surfacing across the internet, racking up views from curious fans who want to decipher the lore of their favorite franchises.
Finally, the family-friendly characters (before they become bloodthirsty) do make great additions to a child’s toy collection. I’ve seen plenty of stuffed Huggy Wuggies sold by vendors at my local mall, and I know several elementary school students with Freddy Fazbear backpacks. While the marketability of these games is a byproduct of their stories, it’s easy to fall into cash-grab territory and become reluctant to be too scary. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach failed to properly walk this line. The design of the Glamrock animatronics is reminiscent of the fun, colorful aesthetics of 1980s musicians. While fans bought into the mascot element of Security Breach, it was criticized for lacking in the horror element.
Going forward, mascot horror games should be careful when leaning into the marketability of their mascots. After all, they are first and foremost a horror game. While there is the opportunity to prey upon players’ nostalgia, mascot horror games run the risk of watering down their antagonists so much that they cease to be frightening. Mascot horror is meant to strike a balance between nostalgia and fear; leaning too hard into the marketability of the mascots risks the fear factor of the game. We must remember that mascot horror is horror — too much “mascot” cannot sustain itself in the horror gaming community.
As all trends do, mascot horror will eventually fade, but its impact will last well into the future of gaming. Even if the chase sequences lose their terror, the trend of hiding lore within the game will keep players coming back. Theorizing has become deeply ingrained in fandom interactions. These repeated interactions not only keep players coming back for more, but also help build community within the fandom, as people work to put the pieces together.
Hopefully, the future of mascot horror is a bright one. I look forward to playing the next Five Nights at Freddy’s or Poppy Playtime, and I can’t wait to see what kind of fan base this game builds.
Summer Senior Arts Editor Morgan Sieradski can be reached at kmsier@umich.edu.
