PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I’m excited for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (written by Scott Cawthon and directed by Emma Tammi) not because I’m a fan of the books or games or the fandom in general, but because it reunites Matthew Lillard with his Scream costar, Skeet Ulrich (read our interview with him HERE), and who doesn’t love a Lillard/Ulrich reunion? I know I do. I also enjoyed the first film as I don’t discriminate against PG13 horror films because horror is horror and what better way to open up the genre to the younger generation than to keep it mild? I wasn’t able to screen the highly anticipated sequel prior to this interview but based on our chat I’m sure I’m going to enjoy it.
Set one year after the supernatural events of the first film, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds the survivors struggling to move on. In their small town, the story of Freddy’s has already warped into a campfire tale, inspiring the first-ever “Fazfest” – a kitschy local celebration that proves some legends should stay buried. Mike and Vanessa have done everything to protect Abby from the truth about her animatronic friends, but when she sneaks out to find them, her decision reignites horrors that were never meant to be unearthed
To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with star Matthew about crafting the boogeyman, his spirits company, horror movies, and more!
**This interview contains spoilers for the first film**
PopHorror: Thank you so much for your time today! Five Nights at Freddy’s is coming back. It’s a fan favorite and people are super excited for the second one. Your character of William Afton is almost mythic in the games. How do you humanize someone who is essentially a modern-day boogeyman?
Matthew Lillard: That’s a good question. The first thing you do is you don’t make him into a villain. I think you have to look at every character like they have their motivations, and their motivations are just as legit. The single greatest horror in the history of man, Genghis Khan or Hitler, they’re doing it for their reasons, and they believe in those reasons. William Afton is doing horrible things by stuffing dead children into animatronics, and listen, there’s a reason for that that totally makes sense! You say boogeyman, I say look at the advancements we have in science. Look, I love playing bad guys because A, those are the roles I get, but B, you can just eat. You can just get after them and have a blast playing them and throw energy into it. I just think they’re intrinsically more fun to play. There’s something way more interesting about twirling the mustache and playing diabolical. I don’t know. That’s just the way I approach it.
PopHorror: I think if I were to be in a movie, I would be a villain.
Matthew Lillard: Well, then you’d be the person I like to watch!
PopHorror: What do you think makes Five Nights at Freddy’s horror style different from traditional slashers and supernatural films that you’ve worked on?
Matthew Lillard: Well, Scott. Scott has a very protective nature in terms of the fanbase and what he likes as a person and his belief system, I think. This is my impression. Scott is not a fan of cursing or murder. There’s no gore anywhere. That’s just not how he rolls. To me, it’s Scott’s approach to this fanbase. Yes, what William Afton does is horrific but he doesn’t lean into that as much as he leans into the suspense, into the jump scares, into these moments of horror that aren’t necessarily about slashing someone’s throat or something. This is again my assumption, I don’t know if it’s true, but the games are built for young players. It’s built for everyone but it allows young players to either play the game themselves and/or watch people that are playing. It is the tension of stopping the inevitable that makes the game so electric. And trying to survive. It’s a really great combination but the tone of it, the vibe of it, it all disseminates from Scott himself.
PopHorror: You could say it’s a great gateway horror for younger fans, for the younger generation, because it’s what, PG13? The animatronics, it’s based on books and games and things that the younger crowd really enjoy.
Matthew Lillard: Of course.
PopHorror: Why not start with a movie that’s based on what they love and introduce them to the horror genre? And like you said, no gore, no language.
Matthew Lillard: Yeah, for sure. And I think that the great thing about part two… The first movie, it was simple. The end sequence, yes, I stabbed my daughter. That is not good. It’s not great father behavior, but there is an entryway into that last sequence that doesn’t feel that horrific, outside of killing my daughter. But the second movie I think allows for the audience space to grow older, so they do start to push the buttons on jump scares. I also think that Scott and Emma did a great job of listening and responding to what the fans were looking for and I think they heard the fact that it was missing that jump scare element. It was sort of missing the big set pieces and I’m happy to report that I think the second movie delivers on that in spades. I think it’s going to be really, really exciting to sit in that audience opening weekend and feel the difference in the film’s temperature. I think it’s going to be awesome.
PopHorror: That’s so exciting! And you recently cofounded Find Familiar Spirits, which according to your website is, “Dedicated to providing fandoms with high-end curated potables.” I love that there’s a horror line.
Matthew Lillard: I’m sitting at my desk right now and I literally have this, Macabre Spirits. It’s based on a story written by Mike Flanagan. Sorry, you asked a question but I had the bottle, so I had to show it.
PopHorror: Totally fine! Can you tell us a little bit about your new company?
Matthew Lillard: Yeah! Happy to, in fact. Find Familiar Sprits we build these spirit experiences around fandoms instead of making another brown liquid that’s competing with all of the other brown whiskeys or bourbons out there. They all sort of have the same story. It’s like a crow on a fence or like a horse in a field and it’s like competing for a customer, so they’re all sort of telling the same story. Our whole thing is well, that’s not what excites us. We’re not out there trying to build a whiskey to be the number one whiskey in the world, we’re trying to build the number one whiskey that’s for fans. I’m a huge fan of Dungeons & Dragons and that’s where we started. We started with something called Quest’s End. Each bottle is another chapter in an ongoing saga. Each bottle represents a different character class, like we started with Paladin, then we went to Rogue Warlock, so you’re telling the story, and each bottle has a different liquid profile that represents that story or highlights that character class. It’s been great. The reality is that I’m a cofounder, co-CEO of the company when I’m not acting and I’ve been acting a lot lately, which has been great. I have a hub in which we’re trying to build this industry and it’s using a different side of my brain. It’s leading people and it’s trying to find fans of the things that we’re building. But a north star is always the fans. How do we build something for communities and how do we see what people love and honor what they love by building something for them?
PopHorror: I love that so much! I have just one last question for you.
Matthew Lillard: Sure!
PopHorror: Don’t laugh at me because I know you probably get this all the time, but I ask everyone this.
Matthew Lillard: Aquarius. I’m an Aquarius.
PopHorror: What is your favorite scary movie?
Matthew Lillard: My favorite scary movie is the same answer every time and it’s Scream because it changed my life.
Thank you so much to Matthew for taking the time to chat with us today. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is in theaters today!
