Horror Game's Fictional Pizzeria Wreaks Havoc For Real-Life Freddie's

Long Branch, NJ -- It's a fictitious place in an online video game: Freddy's Fazbear Pizza.

It's the setting for Five Nights at Freddy's, a horror video game, a popular genre where kids play as characters who have to accomplish different tasks before their character is killed or tortured.

But as the popularity of the horror game has grown, so has the urban legend that the game based on a real place, according to a report on app.com.

The result has wreaked havoc for a real-life Freddie's: Freddie's Restaurant and Pizzeria in Long Branch, where the phone doesn't stop ringing all evening long as kids from across the country call up with one question: Is Freddie's the basis for Freddy's?

In Five Days at Freddy's, animatronic characters (think the giant characters at Chuck E. Cheese or the bears of the Country Bear Jamboree at Disney World) go berserk at night.

In the game, the night watch security guard at the restaurant must survive his 8-hour shift with the animatronic animal characters used at the restaurant, Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, which according to the plot of the game have become murderous after a group of children were killed at the restaurant, o roam freely around the restaurant at night because if they were left off for too long their motors would lock up, according reviews of the game on IndieMagazine.com, PCGamer.com and USGamer.net.

There are three sequels to the original game, created by Scott Cawthen, as well as a Wiki devoted to the game. A movie reportedly is in the works as well.

The game was the top-selling game in August 2014 on Desura and in July 2015 it was installed to iPhones nearly 4,700 times per day, according to a Yahoo.com report.

A YouTube channel called "Let's Play" has videos that gamers have posted, narrating their experience as they play the game. Those videos are nearly as popular as the various horror games themselves, which include titles such as "Slenderman" and "Outlast."

The Asbury Park Press report says the calls are incessant; they've had to add extra phone lines and staff just to deal with the calls. Some kids call repeatedly, as many as 20 or 30 times a night, Oscar Hernandez, manager of Freddie's, told the Press.

It's as many as 200 calls a night, restaurant employees said.

Cawthen, who used the game's popularity to raise more than $250,000 for St. Jude's Children's Hospital, according to Gamenesia.com, has posted information telling game fans that all locations are fictional, but that has not deterred the calls, Freddie's employees told the Press.

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Photo credits: Screenshot of Five Nights at Freddy's game via YouTube post