How Audio Enhances the Horror of Five Nights At Freddy's

a fair warning the following video regards a horror game and it will feature some jump scare sounds and overall creepiness i'm scruffy and today we'll be talking about five nights at freddy's an indie horror game that has shaken up the genre and become a worldwide phenomenon starting from a single developer with a small budget and in light of that developer scott cawthon supporting developers of five nights at freddy's fan games and also because halloween is coming up soon i'd like to take an analytical look at the ways sound has made this game so compelling and spooky i'll only be touching on the first game for now and i won't be addressing the lore of the game much since there are still so many mysteries about it now it's been plenty established that five nights at freddy's is or was frightening if you haven't played it before and small wonder it capitalizes on a broad discomfort with animatronics robots that fall right in the uncanny valley to humanoid to be a cartoon but moving too mechanically to pass for something living but even more than that you are trapped in a single spot the security office of a pizzeria while these animatronics not only move where they aren't supposed to while you aren't looking but are coming for you specifically it is a nightmare scenario built off of two pillars the absence of information which prevents planning and the absence of action the inability to fight or flee now if this were actually a nightmare those two would perpetuate until we wake up in a cold sweat but since this is a game and there is a win condition some of these pillars have to be sacrificed to allow the player a chance to think under pressure and win over their stress and this is where developers like scott turn to visual signals and audio clues to dole out some control i say clues because while a map of the pizzeria and camera feeds of the animatronics are clearly helpful visuals it's more complicated when it comes to audio some audio works to your advantage giving you information and some audio works against you muddying information creating unknowns and even contributing to the absence of action feeling let's break down each of these starting with the advantageous audio that is any audio that helps you form a plan and figure out how to survive in a scenario with absence of action you are desperate for information like this although at first nothing you hear seems advantageous it all starts out unknown which is yet more stressful it's only after you spend some time in this environment and listen for patterns that you start to pick up where advantages lie and the sound files of fnaf confirm this line of thinking for instance there are four different sounds for pots pans and oven doors clanging about must be important especially when you can hear these sounds even without using the camera system initially this sound is a stressor but eventually you can pick up that the sound is louder when you look at the kitchen camera which only has an audio feed and then you pick up that chica the chicken animatronic is nowhere else to be found so all along this sound was actually trying to help you understand that chica is currently in the kitchen and going forward you can determine that without using the camera saving you some power not every advantage in the game has an audio clue but the ones that do are well designed another one you'll hear is freddy's voice whenever he moves into a new room there are three versions of this sound [Music] again this can be heard on camera or off so initially it sounds like some otherworldly threat is just laughing at you but eventually with enough camera usage you can tie freddy's movements to his laughter in fact freddy's difficult to see on camera and you've got to conserve power anyway so for some players it could be easier to count the times freddy laughs to indicate how close he is to the office the audio may be unnerving but since it forms a pattern in an otherwise unpredictable environment it's advantageous now there's other audio that forms patterns but doesn't give you an advantage these are just good old sound effects scored directly to what happens on screen there are the sounds of the camera feed failing when an animatronic you're watching suddenly moves there's the sound of foxy running down the hall to indicate you have a very limited window of time to save yourself and the sound of him banging on the door these sounds are consistent with their actions but the player never really picks up help from them they're mainly to immerse you more in the environment and you'll notice most of them are diegetic that is most of them are sounds that the in-game world would be making there is one sound that doesn't seem diegetic however and that's an audio stinger when chica or bonnie appear right in your doorway [Music] that sound is not manufactured by a camera or machinery and i don't think it's meant to come from bonnie or chica it's more of a classic horror music cue that makes you jump a little more at something sudden a stinger in fact i think it's extended technique on a string instrument slowed down 100 here it is sped up i'm not sure about that the little sounds at the very end remind me of handling a violin but suffice it to say it is non-diegetic music rather than an in-game sound these sounds don't help or harm you they just make the world more real direct and intense and now we get to audio that's special for a horror game audio that's actively trying to scare you or even working against the information and actions you have let's unpack the different ways audio can deter you from beating this nightmare first we have what i'm calling muddied information audio that isn't clear or that blocks other audio signals for instance the cameras make haphazard static noises when they experience interference or when you can hear one panning back and forth the little bit of audio coming from camera feed is also garbled you know it's put through a couple of audio filters to simulate a poor transmission of sound energy so all in all you hear very little straight from the source plus there are other sounds getting in the way the loudest distraction by design is the fan in your office this remains on for the entire night buzzing incessantly and here let me clarify something i mentioned in a previous video about animal crossing new horizons that having some non-zero sound ambiance actually makes an environment calmer than one with total silence however if that ambience is loud enough that it's harder to pick up audio patterns that matter more it can become stressful all over again the fan does quiet down when you're focusing on the camera but that's using up power so there's definitely an exchange of sacrifices between you and the game here the more information you are allowed the more power you use up and the more you conserve your power the more information is obfuscated behind filters distance and noise and then here is the truly devious part hidden beneath the noise of that blaring desk fan are not only the sounds that impart information but other sounds that don't and are either meant to confuse you or just scare you more sounds like this strange swirling noise [Music] doesn't really signify anything other than a creepy atmosphere that can't be identified same with these even subtler noises [Music] they're just barely audible under the fan but this sound in particular is resonant enough that you can discern it your ear just can't make out any details and thus it's another potential stressor this time though you don't pick up any pattern or advantage from it it's just sometimes there conveying some vaguely metallic sound far in the distance other red herrings fit a bit more specifically in the location of a children's pizzeria sometimes you'll hear this room recording of a pipe organ internally called [Music] circus [Music] a festive little jingle like this feels right at home in a kid's pizzeria or an arcade although it's juxtaposed with the nightmarish scenario and once again it's not giving you any real information it's just getting you that much more stressed same with the song foxy will occasionally sing internally called pirate song too you can hear both that and circus anywhere in the game and this one specifically can be traced to foxy's stage but it doesn't signal anything about foxy's erratic behavior it's misleading clues mixed in with the legitimate ones one more misleading clue interestingly begins as a legitimate one at the start of each night you receive a previously recorded phone call from another employee who has been dubbed phone guy his call on the first night sets the scene tells you how you're in danger and what actions you have to keep animatronics at bay he keeps things vague partly because he doesn't know all there is to know about animatronics and partly because he's skating around the suggestion of mortal peril to try and keep you from quitting but as the nights progress you realize that the animatronics will start moving even while this call goes on and the call itself gives you less and less advantageous information after night one instead phone guy sometimes opts to deepen the lore of the game and sometimes gives you suggestions that aren't actually helpful for example during night 3 he advises the player to sit still and try and play dead once freddie is outside the office yet doing so actually has no effect these phone calls become serious red herrings they directly speak distracting information to you and the sound of the phone call interrupts other important sounds like freddy laughing what initially seems like your only lifeline in this scenario has become yet another problem now the last category of detrimental audio isn't necessarily messing with your ability to parse other sounds these are sound effects that make you feel like you're dealing with a supernatural threat i gave the following sound effects a special category because they're a lesson in themselves for crafting horror game sounds the slightest hint of language in an otherwise corrupted garbled sound it's like there's information or threats hidden in a message to you but not only is the message not in any discernible language but it also doesn't sound like the messenger is human at all scott gives the animatronics in all his games humanoid sound effects mainly because they've been possessed but also so that the animatronics can appear to attempt communicating with you and it just comes off as alarming supernatural wrath here's a sound you'll hear when bonnie or chica are right at the corner of your office staring side long at you from the camera while their heads twitch [Music] this only happens after night three when you've been with them for a while so it seems to convey the animatronics aggression ramping up but why are they making a sound so reminiscent of backwards human speech is there a message encoded in there why does it sound so off if we players had the time to answer these questions we ask we'd figure out that it is a recording of a person reading an excerpt from autobiography of a yogi by paramansa yogananda tuned down similar to animatronics going in the visual uncanny valley sounds like these go in an audio uncanny valley where they're definitely closer to language than any other sound in this library but they're too distorted for you to recognize who made the words or what they mean these vaguely vocal sounds are littered throughout fnf1 from quick flickering hallucinations to night 5's phone call which is another garbled lowered passage from autobiography of yogi talking about how marvelous mechanisms will make lives easier in future generations freddie's laughs also count as vaguely vocal sounds they are slowed down versions of a child laughing and if bonnie or chica are already in your office but you have the camera up to avoid them they'll make their presence known with these labored breathing noises there are four of these sounds and unlike most of the sounds in the game these are dry and remarkably close mic sounds since doom is right in front of you at that point and on that note let's talk about more end game sounds beginning with losing the game by letting animatronics get into your office before you hear any right in front of you you might first test the light button and find it no longer works ordinarily the light gives out a harsh electric hum when you turn it on and it flickers the sound is not consistent when you first test this light the sound and flickering combined immediately demonstrate absence of action they make you think this shoddy little light bulb is my last line of defense of course as it is one of the few actions you can perform you immediately miss it and tension spikes up when you suddenly hear this short curt sound instead presuming you can't hide in the cameras long enough you're about to get the infamous five nights at freddy's jump scare the sound for which i'll be playing in three two one [Applause] yeah it's pretty well known at this point that this is a cut off overdriven sound of a child yelling which fits the lore behind the game and again is just vocal enough if you're unlucky enough to encounter golden freddy this sound is slowed down 100 no natural comforting sounds to be found here but it is a big sudden release of tension the difference between that and winning the game is that in winning the game you get laudatory sounds of chimes and children cheering which are finally close and resonant sounds free of heavy distortion and garbling and then in a twistedly comedic fashion those celebratory sounds get truncated by silence as the next night begins the final end game condition is using up all your power which shuts everything off with this long descending drone i'd say there is cold comfort here it's a release of tension from checking cameras and shutting doors constantly like there's less information to worry about not having but there's also total absence of action all you can do is wait for whichever comes first freddy's blood curdling scream or the jubilant chimes of 6 am after this first stage of just you and the drone we get the second stage where freddy shows up at the door and plays his tune the refrain of an arya commonly called the toryador march from the opera carmen by georges bizet and played on a music box once again juxtaposing the sound of childish play and lullaby with impending supernatural death the refrain itself is fitting it describes the toriyador the bullfighter who dreams both of the bulls eyes watching them and the love that awaits them if they succeed good metaphor for this moment only to be cut off again by the final stage total silence total darkness no more information no more action no more it's stressful right i'm not going to play a jump scare here i'm just showing how a little silence goes a long way all of these sounds go a long way they perform functions beyond just a scary atmosphere they deal in the information and agency with which the player controls the game if naff1 doesn't solely rely on sounds to create its atmosphere or to play with the player the sounds are rather a supplement to everything else the animatronics don't make any noise on camera and they still prove scary enough just to look at especially when they stare right back at you but then the sounds as they approach the office enhance the experience supporting the frightening visuals with unsettling and unnatural voices and noise it's not the only way to craft a horror game soundtrack but it's a token of playing to audio's strengths and that is how five nights at freddy's turns a nightmare into a game i'd like to thank my friend wolfgang for helping me put together this script and i'd like to thank my supporters on patreon if you'd like to vote on what music i arrange get behind the scenes looks at my productions and join my discord server you can become a patron using the link in the description i would very much appreciate it and with that it's me scruffy and thank you very much for watching

Channel: Scruffy

Views: 1,151,241

Rating: 4.9768982 out of 5

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Id: 1yTIhtfgDwY

Length: 18min 12sec (1092 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2020