Earlier this week, a nine-second clip of a fight among movie-goers at an early showing of Five Nights at Freddy’s went viral. It was something of a perfect storm of hit-making: a newsy hook in the highly anticipated film adaptation of a beloved video game, and the sheer absurdity of just what was unfolding in the brief video.
There’s just one catch: that fight might actually be fake, despite making the rounds across the internet. And even that is a little unclear, since the video apparently clarifying the whole situation has been taken down. But let’s follow this weird viral mystery step-by-step and unravel how it caught fire across the internet.
A Timeline of Virality
It all started on Oct. 25, when a user on X/Twitter named @jojoincel posted a video of the apparent fight, showing around six or seven people in a scuffle as screams and laughter go on in the background. You can see the credits of FNAF roll in the background.
there was a fight at the fnaf movie #FNAF pic.twitter.com/AYrdWQvZKi
— mikey ? (@jojoincel) October 25, 2023
Elaborating further, @jojoincel said this took place at a showing around Acton, London. When asked what started the altercation, she said she didn’t know: “everyone in the audience was just complaining and they started fighting at the end of the movie honestly i have no idea what happened."
Several popular X/Twitter accounts quickly ripped the video themselves, and it got covered at outlets like Fox News, Dexerto, Yahoo, and more.
A fight has broken out at an early screening of the ‘FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDYS’ movie.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 25, 2023
(Source: @jojoincel) pic.twitter.com/MjkAVzFxfj
Fight breaks out at screening of ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s.’ pic.twitter.com/ISvckUuxij
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 25, 2023
I even started looking into myself, reaching out to @jojoincel as well as the Met Police (yes, really), and have not heard back.
The Plot Thickens
Someone else on social media, however, going by sleepzyy1x on TikTok, claimed that it was all a joke. While his video was removed, we believe we found a credible re-upload here.
“I'm here to tell you that nothing actually happened,” says the man, with his face blurred. “It's all jokes, we're all guys. No one got hurt, no took it seriously. It's all jokes, yeah? So now it's going around as a scrap or something, that never happened."
Helping his case, he also shared his POV of the incident, which looks pretty similar. You can indeed see some of the teenagers smiling and laughing as they jump over and shove each other.
The original poster commented on the response as well, clarifying that she “thought it was real due to the commotion in the cinema at the time.”
So, while it mostly seems to be fake… who knows. While you can hear laughter in the original video, there are also moments where it seems fairly intense, so we’re left with something of an internet mystery. Or maybe just a publicity stunt. Or maybe it really was all just a goof. We may never know.
If nothing else, it’s a healthy reminder to take viral stories with a grain of salt. And hey, you probably don’t have to worry about fisticuffs if you opt to go to the theaters for Five Nights at Freddy’s this weekend (although it’s also on Peacock if you’re still worried).
For more on Five Nights at Freddy’s, check out our spoiler-free review. And let us know if the comments if you think the fight was real or fake, because honestly, I’m still not sure.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
