Five Nights at Freddy's (video game)/Nightmare Fuel


 * To get the most obvious part out of the way, it is terrifying when a robot screams in your face. You can be flipping through the monitors casually, set it down, and *BOOM*, screaming animatronic right in front of you.
 * The part of the blood-curdling scream you hear is terrifying enough, but it gets cut off pretty quickly. If you're able to hear the scream in its entirety (Through a glitch, usually), it's obvious that it's a child screaming. When you factor in the game's backstory, that means this is either the scream of one of the children butchered by the costumed killer, or the scream made by the Bite of '87 victim if it was in fact a small child. Neither option is pleasant in the slightest.
 * Of course, the jumpscares themselves aren't too scary by themselves: it's the atmosphere that truly completes the fear factor. You're completely alone in a dimly lit pizzeria after hours that's completely silent except for the hum of what's probably the generator keeping the power running. It's dead quiet with the exception of random intervals of demented-sounding carnival music playing in the distance as well as the footsteps of the animatronics when they creep through the restaurant. Every action you take drains your already puny supply of power at a quicker pace, and when you frantically check the cameras for the animatronics, there's always the possibility that one of them slipped in to attack you, waiting to belt out that awful scream the second you lower the tablet. If anything, the jumpscares can be considered a relief from the incredibly thick tension built up over the course of a night.
 * If Bonnie or Chica are able to slip into the office while you're busy with the cameras, you can hear what sounds like them groaning in agonizing pain before you lower the monitor. That is not how a children's entertainer should sound.
 * Speaking of their jumpscares, they only attack when the monitor is lowered. If you thought you'd be smart and simply leave the monitor up until 6 AM comes? They get antsy and lower it for you after a certain amount of time passes. You may as well cover your ears if you hear their groaning, because you're doomed if the night isn't over in a couple of seconds.
 * As if looking through the grainy camera feeds to look for the animatronics wasn't nerve-wracking enough, sometimes the camera feed craps out for a few seconds, leaving the screens completely black while the animatronics shuffle off without you being able to keep tabs on them.
 * Bonnie usually tends to look pretty goofy when you're looking at him through the cameras... unless if you find him lurking backstage. In that case, he'll be mere centimeters away, staring right into the camera with his eyes completely blacked out while his jaw hangs open. Not even Freddy looks that hellish when he stares into the camera.
 * This is a case where the creator is indulging in his own personal Nightmare Fuel, creator Scott Cawthon actually had several nightmares about Bonnie when he worked on the game.
 * When you flip on the lights outside of your office, you may see Bonnie or Chica lurking just outside. It's startling, but Bonnie doesn't look too bad. Chica however is downright unsettling. Her beak is hanging wide open, and her eyes look wider than usual, almost as if she's screaming silently.
 * It's clear from the start that you really, really don't want to waste your power. And sure enough, should you act carelessly and squander all of it, you're basically screwed. The lights go off, the fan stops moving, the doors fly open if they're currently shut, and you're left sitting in the dark for a while. Freddy Fazbear suddenly appears in the right doorway, his face lit up and flickering ominously while he plays a sinister music box-rendition of Les Toreadors. After playing his song for a few seconds, the office goes pitch black as you're left waiting... watching... until Freddy pops up, screams like a banshee, and grabs you in the mother of all bear hugs.
 * What's worse is that it's actually possible to win if you're close enough to 6 AM when this happens. That makes sitting in the dark even more intense: you either survive, or Freddy mauls you, and it's very possible for him to show up faster than usual, and cut his song way too short.
 * Freddy isn't just scary when the power goes out. If anything, he's scarier when he's active while the lights are on. It's very hard to see him in the cameras for the most part, and his eyes are usually cast in shadow with a faint pinprick of light in the center. Unlike Bonnie or Chica, there's no warning to him attacking you since he doesn't hang around the doors, the best warning you get is catching him staring directly into the East hallway's camera, and at that point there's almost no time left to keep him from getting into your office. And to top it off, he laughs as he stalks the hallways. Deep, demonic laughter.
 * And his jumpscare when the lights are on is so much worse than when they're off. While Bonnie and Chica get very close when they attack, Freddy is directly in front of your face, so close that his eyes appear to be empty. Even worse, he'll attack whether you have the camera up or not, so you always run the risk of having Freddy scream in your face out of nowhere if you aren't playing carefully enough.
 * As Phone Guy explains, you do NOT want to get grabbed by these guys. Why? Well, it's because they'll stuff you into a spare Freddy suit in the back room. A spare suit full of incredibly sharp wires, crossbeams, and other metal bits. It's basically a glorified iron maiden, and to make matters worse, the game over screen shows that your teeth and eyeballs pop out from all the pressure exerted on them!
 * Speaking of Phone Guy,
 * Or so you think.
 * At random intervals, the Rules for Safety poster in the hallways can change into one of four newspaper clippings that detail the game's backstory.
 * Also in the restaurant's past,
 * It's hard to name a bigger "Oh SHIT" moment than seeing Foxy running down the hallway at a breakneck pace, his fangs snapping like crazy while you have maybe a second to shut the door in his face.
 * Watching Foxy slowly emerge from Pirate's Cove is also quite unnerving, especially when he's all the way out from behind the curtain and ready to make a break for your office.
 * As the game progresses, pulling up the cameras may trigger random hallucinations. They include Bonnie's face with his eyes blacked out, a close up on Freddy's face with bloodshot eyes, and the ever-present phrase IT'S ME, and they are terrifying.
 * The hallucinations don't end there. Sometimes, you'll see things like the "Out of Order!" sign at Pirate's Cove now reading "IT'S ME", the "Eating Time! Party Time! Fun Time!" poster being replaced by three children with tears gushing from their eyes, and a Freddy poster showing the bear ripping his face off. It's very clear that poor Mike Schmidt's mental state is quite fragile from working at this hellish place.
 * In fact, after playing the sequel, the crying children on the poster look very, very similar to
 * However, there's one hallucination that puts the others to shame:
 * When you get a game over, there's a very rare chance that you get a terrifying Bonnie screen instead. To elaborate, the screen shows Bonnie's face staring directly at you, his eyes black and empty. He just stares and stares... until tiny white pinpricks light up in the center and you're booted to the main menu. God damn.
 * When you get a game over, there's a very rare chance that you get a terrifying Bonnie screen instead. To elaborate, the screen shows Bonnie's face staring directly at you, his eyes black and empty. He just stares and stares... until tiny white pinpricks light up in the center and you're booted to the main menu. God damn.