'The Walten Files' Creator Martin Walls Talks About The Viral Series, Animatronic Horror And The Most Emotional Scene He Ever Animated

n April 2020, Chilean animator Martin Walls posted the first episode of his ambitious Five Nights At Freddy's inspired horror series The Walten Files. Boasting an eerie found-footage VHS style, a unique animation style and creepy characters, the series has gained a huge fanbase with its deep storytelling that goes far beyond the typical trappings of the animatronic horror genre. We spoke with Walls about his history as an animator and creating The Walten Files.

Q: Hi Martin, it's good to talk to you. Can you introduce yourself and tell us what is The Walten files?

A: I'm Martin Walls. I'm a Chilean animator. I've been working on The Walten Files, which is a horror web series, for over a year now. It is clearly inspired by the game Five Nights at Freddy's and other animal horror series such as Local58 and Petscop, that play into the theme of '80s VHS tapes.

Q: The Walten Files began as a game called Bon's Burgers, correct?

A: I started working on [Bon's Burgers] in 2017 and it went through a rocky development cycle for a while. I worked on it for around two years then I realized it wasn't gonna work out so I just canceled it. Some months later, I tweaked the idea and made it into The Walten Files. This game was gonna be a FNAF fan game like many others. I had the ideas for the characters and the events that happen in The Walten Files when I was working on that game.

Q: Why did you cancel the game?

A: It was mainly because I lost interest in programming halfway through. I was gonna program the game and release it in 2019, but then got much more interested in video-related stuff; video editing, writing, filmmaking, and I realized, well, programming just wasn't my cup of tea so I moved on to video stuff and then I realized I could repurpose the story of the game to make it work for a video series.

Q: How long did the first episode take to produce and what was that process like?

A: The first episode took around a month or two. I had a pretty clear idea of what I was gonna do. It took about one or two weeks to get the artwork done for that episode. All the artwork editing, sound design were done by me. I remember there was this instance on this one video where we had a bunch of different artists participate, but it was a one-time thing really.

Q: When did you first get into animating?

A:I think I got into art when I was a little kid. I remember I drew Thomas the Tank Engine mostly, and then I slowly got into animating because I thought it was such an interesting thing to do, the whole moving pictures. But I wasn't very good at it at first, I'm still learning a lot but I'm pretty proud of what I've done so far. I remember that when I was at school I would do a bunch of different animated projects, but nothing as big as The Walten Files.

Q: The Walten Files is very cryptic in its storytelling methods. Do you have a full story plotted out for the series from beginning to end, or is it something you develop and figure out with everyone else?

A:I remember I wanted The Walten Files to work in a way that if you finish the final video in the series, you can look back at the first one and go, "Okay, yeah, this makes sense." I really don't like writing stories as they go because then you have these little inconsistencies that make the narrative feel not quite right. So I wrote it down since day one.

Q: Fans have a lot of their own theories on how the plot's going to go; do any of these theories ever get close to the truth?

A:. I like a lot of the theories about the series because they don't hold back. I can't mention which ones have been correct because I haven't finished showing the story, but some get really creative. Some are really interesting too and some are kinda too convoluted to work. I remember s seeing a lot of theories about one of the characters being some sort of evil scientist. I and my friends always laugh at it because it is so, so funny.

Q: Fans have started to meme the series quite a bit. Are there any Walten Files memes you're a fan of?

A:The I Want Waffle Fries one. I think that was really funny. The thing that really sells it is that it's done by the actual voice actor, Kyle DeNigris, he's a really talented voice actor. I think that one's pretty funny.

Q: What separates The Walten Files from other animatronic horror series' and games like Five Nights at Freddy's?

A: Back in 2020, there was this whole FNAF VHS trend, I think it's still going on, but it was this whole deal about making FNAF VHS videos. And I remember watching the very first ones that came up with Squimpus McGrimpus. And I remember saying, I think this could work for The Walten Files. So, I remember when I first voiced it, people liked it a lot, they thought it was very unique, but they also thought it was just another VHS, where it's just like any other. And I think that by the third episode people realized that this was much more about the story rather than just FNAF in a VHS style, more than anything.

I think the main thing that separates it is the emphasis on the story. I think when you have your FNAF style, medium, you follow the main story of the games. You have the FNAF characters, Freddy, Bonnie, but when it comes to The Walten Files, it's like a twisted version of that. It's like the story turned upside down because you have different characters and different events that go down, but there's a level of similarity that doesn't make it completely different from FNAF.

Q: Why do you think it is that people love the animatronic horror genre so much?

A:I think it's a really interesting concept because you can do so much with it. I think that kind of genre, when FNAF was first released, I only saw that it originate because a lot of people grew up with Chuck E. Cheese and ShowBiz Pizza. People will always joke about how uncanny the animatronics looked. And I think when FNAF released that concept kinda blew up and inspired a lot of fan content, and it led, a few years later, to the VHS genre.

Q: You recently released a Walten Files album. What can you tell us about that?

A: Our composer, Sweet Tuesday or Coker Easler, this guy has been composing music for The Walten Files for over a year now, and I remember they approached me saying, "I wanna make this album for The Walten Files," and I said, "Go for it." And they returned to me with this 20-something minute audio of just a bunch of songs and song covers, and I was like, "I really like this," so we released it. Then a few months later, he came to me and said, "I wanna make a second version," so he gave the audio to me and we decided to spice things up a bit and we added a few secrets here and there, a few secret links, secret clues to the story to make it even cooler.

Q: Would you ever like to expand on The Walten Files with games or other projects?

A:I think The Walten Files is good as it is, as this simple web series, this one-time thing. Don't get me wrong, I love working on The Walten Files, but I like to see it as this one thing, one series. I never thought about the idea of movies or anything bigger than this creepy web series, because I think that's what sells the charm of the series, the fact that it's made to be a web series, a simple YouTube series with animations and stuff.

Q: A big part of the series' blow up was it spreading around TikTok as "the scary video," where people almost challenged themselves to watch it. What do you think of your series being dubbed "the scary video?"

A: While I like that the series got a lot of attention because of that and I really appreciate it, I really do, I think when people made videos around the series saying, "Okay, I watched this scary thing," I think they kinda have it much more as a challenge instead of watching just for fun. Do you know when you have a friend and they're like, "I bet you can't see this thing without flipping out?" I don't want that to be the legacy of The Walten Files. I don't want people to go, "Yeah, I bet you'll be scared about this," because I don't like that kind of expectation. I like the idea that this is a series you can watch when you're bored more than anything instead of purposely looking to get scared because that's not the approach I'm going for. I like telling the story much more than scaring people. I've always considered the scary part to be the cherry on top.

Q: Now that the series is multiple episodes in, how has the production process changed?

A: Originally the episodes took around one or two months to finish. But I remember that halfway through working on the third entry, I realized I didn't like it. I wasn't satisfied with how the episode turned out. Not because I thought it was bad, I thought it was because I felt I could show so much more. I think one of the main flaws with these VHS videos is that they lack a lot of visual emphasis to them. I think most videos you see maybe aside from Petscop are still images and text and just very lacking in visuals. So from the third episode onwards, I realized I wanted to make the most of it visually. I added a bunch of animations and different art styles to spice it up, so episode three actually took nine months to make.

The main reason I realized I wanted it to be better was that at Christmas my computer harddrive erased all its information. I felt really bad at the beginning, but I kinda like that that happened, because it led me to realize I could just do so much better for the episode. So I recreated the episode from scratch and released it a few months later. And I think my estimate is that episodes now take around four to nine months to make because it's just really hard to get the visuals right and sound design and all that stuff. Mostly it's because you got to figure out what you want to do with it, you don't want it to feel like it's all over the place. The idea is to make it feel consistent, so I always have a bunch of different drafts as to what I want to do with the episodes.

Q: Who's your favorite character you've designed?

A:My favorite design would be the main animatronic, Bon. I imagine him to be a better-executed version of Springtrap from FNAF. We have this kind of murderous rabbit and the irony is that instead of being some creepy slasher guy, it's a rabbit mascot. So I like this in-between creepy and easy design, but also goofy design with the long face and the lazy eyes. I really like that design, especially on the hands, the metal hands that appear like claws.

Q: A lot of viewers find one of the creepiest characters to be Showbear. What can you tell us about the character Showbear?

A: I didn't create that character. A friend of mine called Thundering Static created the character. When I was working on the game, I told him he could have a cameo of Showbear in the game. So that happened, and then we canceled the game. I remember when I was working on the third episode I thought, "Hey, why don't we re-incorporate this character into the series?" So we made a re-design. I wanted to redesign him a little to make him feel much more fitting to the art style and tone of the series, and I really like how the design turned out.

That character was pretty much just a one-time thing for the series. I remember talking with my friend Static, and we think he should go. Since it's his own character, I don't want people to think I created him or people to think all the credit goes to me. So, now he's gonna take the character and add it to his different projects.

Q: What do you think of all the cosplay The Walten Files has inspired?

A:I've seen a lot of it, mostly around the human characters. I like them a lot actually. I've seen mostly about Jack, Rosemary and Felix, the human characters. It's really crazy to see those designs come to life through cosplay. I think it's really creative and some people really put a lot of work into it. It makes me really happy.

Q: What do you think of people who thirst over Felix?

A:That's an interesting thing. Because I like when people like the character as a character. People get interested in this very pathetic kinda guy that is very unstable and stuff. But I don't really like it when people get attached to it on a much more … You get what I mean? It's like they completely ignore the fact this is supposed to be some alcoholic 40-year-old and instead treat him as some kind of like soft, shy character when he's kinda the entire opposite. He's like this really uncontrollable, pathetic guy. I think the main thing about Felix is that he lacks a lot of self-awareness as to what he does.

Q: Has The Walten Files opened up any doors for you career wise?

A:Oh yeah, definitely, I've seen a lot of opportunities that I could never imagine. I can't mention most of them right now, but there are definitely a lot of things that I never imagined happening thanks to The Walten Files. Because I gotta say, when I first worked on it, I thought it was gonna be just another project I had going on, just an adaptation of my game. The way it blew up, it really surprised me. It did open a ton of doors for me as a whole.

Q: How long do you plan on keeping The Walten Files going?

A: I'm planning for The Walten Files to have a total of two seasons with six episodes each. I think around July I finished writing the finale, the main draft for the finale of the series, and I think it's gonna be really good.

Q: Anything you can tease from the upcoming episodes?

A:: I can't say anything specific obviously, but I gotta say, we're only at the beginning of the series. There's so much stuff yet to unpack and so many twists and unexpected stuff that I think people will really like as a whole. I'm just super excited for people to see it. I think the final four episodes of the series as a whole will really blow people out of the water. I think they're my favorite episodes I've written for the series.

Q: What do your friends and family think of the success of the series?

A: [My friends and I] always like talking about the progress of the story. My friends have actually helped me out a lot with the series. I have them as test viewers. Whenever I finish an episode, I'll hand it to them and say, "What do you think?" And they'll give me their thoughts on it and everything. When it comes to close friends, we usually joke about the series a lot, because it is so crazy that this thing blew up the way it did.

When it comes to family, I think they like that the series blew up, but I don't think they quite understand. You know how people can go, "Ah, but they're creepy and everything," and that's what they always say to make fun of me. My parents, especially when I talk to them, every now and then I mention how the series is going and they s, "ay, "Don't you wanna do something more heartfelt, more heartwarming in the future?" and I go "Oh yeah, yeah, I wanna do some of this first." It's really funny.

Q: Do you have any plans for projects after The Walten Files?

A:I think once I'm done with the series, I'm gonna move on to my studies and if a really good idea pops up, I'll do it. I wanna focus more on comedy-style things because that's always been a side passion to me. The main genre that I'm passionate about is horror, obviously, because I just grew up with horror stuff, horror movies and everything. My parents had a bunch of different horror VHS movies. But I also would love to work on cartoons more than anything, or even comedy stuff, because I think there is so much that could be done with that.

Q: What's been your favorite part of The Walten Files' blowup?

A: It's gotta be the fan art. I think the noblest thing about the fan base is that they're really creative when it comes to fan art. Whenever I go to Twitter it just cheers me up to see so many creative takes on the characters. People sometimes change the designs to their liking, and while some creators don't like that, I actually really like when people take something that I created and add their own touch to it. I really like that.

Q: What did you think of Willy's Wonderland?

A: I actually like it a lot. People usually criticize it because it doesn't take itself seriously, but I think that's the main thing that makes me like it a lot. Because I'm gonna be totally honest, I don't think a concept like FNAF works for a movie. So the fact that this movie doesn't try to make it something creepy when instead it's these constant cheesy jokes, I really like that because it has this level of self-awareness. Nicolas Cage is very known for his very loud and emotional performances, so the fact that they hired him to literally not say anything throughout the entire movie, I think that's the funniest part of the film.

Q: What's your favorite scene you've created for The Walten Files?

A: So far my favorite scene I've shown, my all-time favourite scene of The Walten Files has to be the last 20 minutes of Bunnyfarm, the final episode. I'm talking from Sha's scene to the scene with Showbear and the kids in the car crash. Because I remember when I first had the idea of the episode I was struggling a lot on how to show something so impactful and make it feel impactful in a series where there are a bunch of kinda, I don't wanna say cartooney, but unrealistic deaths. How do you make something like a car crash feel impactful on the same level as the other creepy stuff going on?

So I struggled to find a way to show it a lot. Then one day I was just like, "Okay, this works," so I just wrote it down, and I remember I liked the fact that that final scene is much slower and quieter because it's focusing on telling you the story that's slowly unraveling. Even though I had a blast editing the scene, I remember the one scene with the car crash, it actually was very hard to edit because of the fact that Roob, which is Molly Walten's voice actor, I remember she sent me the lines and…

In this scene you have the two kids speaking and it just came to me the fact that they're kids, they're little children, and their lives are about to get taken away. It did make me sad editing that because it just felt very real at the moment. Unlike other things in the series, when they're like, an animatronic killing an adult character, this is something that has happened multiple times in real life. The car crashes due to drunk driving. So the realism of the one scene, it really hurt me, but I am super proud of how it turned out for that very reason.

Q: Do you ever worry about the length of production time for the series being too long between episodes?

A: I'm really passionate about this series and I just gotta say that it's taken quite a while to get everything just right because I really wanna get it just right. I wanna look at it in the future, I want it to be one of those projects you can look back and be like, "I liked making this, I enjoyed the way this turned out," and it does take a lot of time. I don't wanna be lazy on this project because I know so many people are attached to these characters, and it's crazy how much people like the story and characters and I really don't wanna disappoint them.

It's less about expectations and much more about the fact that I wanna tell my story the way it should be told. I want this story to be told in the best way possible, and I want it to be in which way that you can re-watch it and still feel the same emotions and still feel for the characters and the stuff that's going on.

Q: Are you going to keep going a more emotionally route in the series from this point on?

A: The episodes from now on will be very emotional in the sense that the story gets much more intimate and heartbreaking in a lot of moments, and I can't say what will happen obviously, but it's kinda heartbreaking in a good way. I'm just super excited to show it to everyone.

Q: Do you have any final words for the fans?

A:I think that this series has the most creative and imaginative fan base, and I really wouldn't change that for anything. There are just so many brilliant people that I can see will have a bright future because they're just so creative with the series. They don't play it safe. They look at the series and they add their own style and uniqueness to it when they make fan art, or cosplay, or even memes, and I really appreciate that because I was the same way with the stuff I like, like FNAF. So I really appreciate that.

You can watch The Walten Files on Martin Walls' YouTube channel.