How it all comes back to Five Nights at Freddy's.
During my horror movie binge I've noticed a lot of things that remind me of Five Nights at Freddy's. This page is dedicated to talking about those similarities. It doesn't matter if those similarities are intentional or not, this is just for fun! I will add to occasionally as I remember my thoughts or gain new ones.
Some of this is going to delve into my personal interpretations of the Five Nights at Freddy's lore, so beware!
The Shining presents the concept of the "shine" which is a broad term for different supernatural abilities and happenings. The hotel in The Shining has its own shine as well as several characters. The shine can cause people to see events of the past and future, often gruesome events. This is similar to the concepts of "agony" and "remnant" in the Five Nights at Freddy's universe, where horrific events and extreme emotions can infuse nearby things with energy. This causes those things to appear haunted, and can give a person memories or emotions from the person whose agony/remnant they encounter.
Both of these franchises have a major antagonist named Freddy. That is extremely surface level, but I will add that in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Freddy Krueger eats a pizza topped with the souls of teenagers. I thought that was funny.
Freddy Krueger is obviously analogous to William Afton, the man behind just about every death in the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise. Krueger is a dream demon/undead serial killer. He was killed in a fire after he was exonerated for his crimes against children. After his death, he enters into the dreams of his new victims and kills them. Afton is also an undead serial killer, was found innocent by the law in life, and died in a fire. Well, his second death was to fire. Both Krueger and Afton use children's souls as a source of energy. Krueger himself is powered by souls and Afton uses souls to experiment with to find a way to become immortal.
This one is diving deep into interpretation, and definitely a stretch. The original Friday the 13th is about a mother, Mrs. Voorhees, who lost her son due to the negligence of his camp counselers at Camp Crystal Lake. Mrs. Voorhees goes on to commit two different massacres at the camp years apart. The subsequent films are about the son, Jason Voorhees, who becomes vengeful after witnessing his mother being killed by the only survivior of her attack. A common interpreation of Five Nights at Freddy's is that Afton only started killing after the death of his younger son, which was caused by his older son's negligence. I'm also of the belief that his younger son is a character referred to as "the one you should not have killed" or "the vengeful spirit." Now I don't think this son is hung up on his father's death, because I think he is (mistakenly) vengeful to him, like Jason is vengeful to just about everyone. I also find it noteworthy that a representation of the vengeful spirit can drown themself in a lake in the middle of a forest, which is what happened to Jason Voorhees.
This one is intentional and most obvious with the animatronic Dreadbear, a Frankenstein version of the Freddy animatronic. I believe Afton's younger son is a Frankenstein of his own. Due to his death that was caused by a Freddy animatronic, he is heavily associated with the character, specifically the "Golden" variant. While he is dying after his injury, he is told he will be "put back together." And well, Frankenstein is an undead creature made from many people "put back together" into one. A reoccuring motif in Five Nights at Freddy's is the idea of five things becoming one. As time goes on, I believe more and more that the younger son's soul or memories are scattered, and need to be brought back together for him to be able to move on. Perhaps these pieces of himself are in other people.
