Fans of creepy animatronic music performers, your time is nearly at hand! The Five Nights at Freddy’s film is just around the corner. The film’s director, Emma Tammi, took to Reddit for an AMA with fans, sharing a bit of insight about the film ahead of its release, describing her close encounter with Freddy and the actual scale of some of the film’s puppets.

Between heaping praise on Matthew Lillard and the rest of the cast, Tammi answered questions about the practical effects that created the murderous puppets in the film. the Jim Henson Creature Shop had a bit of fun with the director the first time they introduced her to the star of the film. “The first time Freddy walked towards me [in] Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, he got a little tooooo close!” she described when asked if there was a moment during filming that truly scared her. “Lost my breath for a moment, but in the best sense.”

Despite quite literally taking the director’s breath away, Freddy wasn’t the most challenging animatronic to work with during the filming of Five Nights at Freddy’s. That honor belongs to Foxy, the pirate fox puppet who towered over the rest of the crew. In addition to reportedly catching fire due to a servo overheating, Tammi told fans that “Foxy was the most challenging to get up on his feet. At full capacity, it took six puppeteers to operate.”

Before closing down the AMA, Tammi described working with the animatronics as a “real learning experience” as well as a highlight of her time behind the camera of Five Nights at Freddy’s. The use of these practical effects to bring the singing, dancing, and killing puppets to life, rather than using CGI, has been the thing we’re most excited about with the film, especially with the legendary Jim Henson Creature Shop working their magic on them. Hopefully, the final product lives up to the hype.

The Five Nights at Freddy's phenomenon is lasting longer than five nights. Get up to speed, with how to stream the movie, details on the characters and lore, getting to know the FNAF animatronics, how it fits in the canon of the games, talks of sequels, how Chuck E. Cheese is responding, and even a guide to how to play all the FNAF games.

Can't get enough? We have have recommendations for five movies to watch after Five Nights at Freddy's.