The Theory of Dreadbear | FNAF VR DLC (Spoilers)

Contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Tis the season to theorize.

Too early for a cringey Christmas joke?

Over Halloween Scott Cawthon, creator of the Five Nights at Freddy’s games, decided to further torment the horror game community by releasing a DLC for the Help Wanted VR game called “The Curse of Dreadbear.” *Video gameplay of the DLC can be found on the GTLive YouTube channel.*

The DLC starts out by saying how it is just a fun add-on and has no hidden intent. Yeah, sure. Pfft, right.

The main screen for the DLC looks like a Halloween themed rural festival: barn, corn maze, lots of pumpkins. You then spot that this festival takes place in 1983, the year of the bite (or was it ’87–frankly the lore of FNAF is murky at best and downright confusing other times). Later on, the host of the video, MatPat, points out that the house on the hill is similar to the one in FNAF 4. If I remember correctly, and I think MatPat even mentions, FNAF 4 also has connections to the bite of ’83.

Eventually, the player gets to a mini-game where they have to find keys in a maze in order to unlock the cellar. Once the cellar opens, you are taken to a cellar version of the prize room. The prize room is an area where you can collect your prize for winning each mini-game. The cellar prize room is, well, creepy…ax, spooky candles, and all.

This time instead of some candy or a stuffed animal, you win a creepy bunny mask similar to good ol’ Springtrap. Springtrap is the suit series villain and child murderer William Afton wears. In the VR game it is hinted that Gltichtrap is based on Springtrap and contains a fragment of Afton. The spooks continue when you wear the mask and hold the Glitchtrap plushie while at the Help Wanted main room (not the DLC area).

While others talk about the theory that the player is possessed by Glitchtrap or discuss how Gltichtrap is corrupting the minds of all the players in order to raise a cult (which you can find via a video by SuperHorrorBro), I’m going to be talking about the DLC title. Though I totally hope the FNAF movie features this idea of a Glitchtrap cult; it’d be so creepy to see a whole bunch of people surrounding the hero while wearing that mask. *Shivers*

I found it interesting that the DLC mentions a curse. A curse seems like typical Halloween fun, just like the DLC, but a curse can be passed down. The game has been hinting that Afton, via Glitchtrap, is passing down his murderous ways to a new generation of killers. Also, the DLC places you in 1983, the time of the bite. The bite is what set off everything in the series. Sure, Afton was murdering kids before this but it was after the bite that he started looking into the soul juice that makes the animatronics move on their own. The bite also causes the closure of at least one Freddy’s restaurant. Afton begins experimenting with the soul remnants and the spooky stuff begins. The curse is born.

Also, when does a curse usually activate? When someone goes messing around with forbidden items, such as collecting glitch tapes in the main FNAF game. The curse of Afton is passed on to the player when they gather all the tapes.

I also find the names of the new characters to be interesting. For example, Glitchtrap. It seems like a nice mash-up of Springtrap and “glitch.” That is what it is in the game: a glitch of Springtrap. But, it is also a glitch that traps you. Once you get all the tapes, you are trapped in the game. You become a trapped follower of Glitchtrap.

So, I wondered about Dreadbear. Dread is a great fear of something or a feeling of anxiety to something. It was a Freddy animatronic that did the ’83 bite and started the curse. Freddy is the “leader.” He is something to dread. But, I also started thinking about the bullies who tossed the kid to Freddy in the first place. How would you feel if you were a young kid and the person you picked on was killed because of something you did? Possibly haunted by the event? You’d be full of dread. Maybe there’ll be a game similar to FNAF 4 where it is one of the bullies facing their guilt in the form of Dreadbear.

Finally, I find the use of masks throughout the Halloween game interesting. There is also a mention of a mask in the main game. Masks are symbolic of hiding your true self. The Glitchtrap corrupted wear masks. On the outside, they look human but inside they are murderers. They might not be wearing actual masks, but the spirit/remnant is wearing the person like a mask. Also in one of the tapes, it is hinted that Jeremy sliced off his face and it looked like a mask. I wonder if Jeremy tried to cut off his face in an attempt to rid himself of the Glitchtrap corruption; he wanted to “remove the mask.” Lastly, the bullies wore masks. All the mask references in the DLC could further point towards one (or more) of the bullies coming across Dreadbear in a later game.

Do you have any Five Nights at Freddy’s theories? Let me know in the comments below.

Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading.
