Draft:The Walten Files

• Comment: Reddit and Youtube are generally unreliable sources and cannot b e used to denote notability. Sulfurboy (talk) 07:08, 31 August 2026 (UTC)

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The Walten Files
Genre	Analog horror Psychological thriller Animation Science fiction Found footage
Created by	Martín Paredes
Inspired by	Five Nights at Freddy's
Directed by	Martín Paredes
Composers	Jacob Woodson Sweet Tuesday
Country of origin	Chile
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	5
Production
Animators	Martín Paredes Gerard Carey Kyle DeNigris
Original release
Network	YouTube
Release	April 26, 2020 (2020-04-26) – present

The Walten Files is an analog horror web series created by Chilean filmmaker and animator Martín Paredes. Inspired by the Five Nights At Freddy's game franchise, the series focuses on the fictional restaurant Bon's Burgers and the strange events surrounding it. The story is presented through different VHS tapes such as employee training videos, found footage recordings, animated segments and a real canonical website.

Premise

In April 2020, self-proclaimed "mystery solver" Anthony Miller begins uploading old found VHS tapes to his personal YouTube channel. The premise shown in the tapes are as follows:

In the late 1950s, college friends Jack Walten and Felix Kranken come up with the concept of animatronic children's entertainment. The two create a company and turn their idea into the children's restaurant Bon's Burgers. The restaurant opened in the summer of 1974 and contained an arcade and an animatronic show led by the animatronic band, "The Showstoppers". It was short-lived, however, as a series of connected disappearances surrounding members of the company occured around the grand opening of the restaurant. The disappearances included co-founder Jack Walten and his entire family, except for his eldest daughter Sophie. This prompted mass police investigation, which ultimately led to the shut-down and closure of Bon's Burgers.

Years later in the early 1980s, Sophie Walten has grown up and lives with her girlfriend, Jenny Letterson, in a hotel. Since the disappearance of her family, Sophie has been taking amnesia-inducing medication as a psychological treatment. One day, Jenny brings over an old thrown-out arcade machine from Bon's Burgers causing Sophie to slowly remember her family and the disappearances. Sophie then joins Bon's Burger's old parent company in an attempt to reveal the secrets of Bon's Burgers and to uncover the mysterious disappearance of her family.

Episodes

The Walten Files has 5 currently aired episodes from its first season. It is confirmed however that the series will consist of 12 episodes over 2 seasons, with 6 episodes per season.

Season 1

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Length	Original release date
1	"Company Introductory Tape"	Martín Paredes	Martín Paredes	10:19 (original) 11:05 (reupload)	April 26, 2020 (2020-04-26) (original) February 19, 2023 (2023-02-19) (reupload)
Self-proclaimed "mystery solver" Anthony Miller uploads three VHS tapes detailing the history of Bon’s Burgers, an animatronic restaurant created by Jack Walten and Felix Kranken. The first tape serves as a Bunny Smiles Incorporated orientation video for technical maintenance workers, introducing the K-9 Storage Facility in Saint Juana's Forest, where restaurant items were relocated after undisclosed incidents forced its closure. It ends abruptly with a reversed audio message from a cartoon gray rabbit directed at a girl named Sophie, warning that "they will be back for you soon." The second tape features a heavily corrupted 1979 animated episode of "Little Bon's Neighbourhood." The glitching footage shifts to an eerie living room television displaying a missing poster and cries for co-founder Jack Walten, who disappeared on June 11th, 1974 under mysterious circumstances. The final tape reveals October 1982 archival footage of new employee Brian Stells inspecting the stored animatronics at the K-9 Storage Facility. While testing the the movements of the animatronic to see if it still works after all these years, Bon mysteriously activates on his own, mistakes Brian for a specific woman, and relentlessly pursues and kills him in the forest. Note: The original video was deleted on January 2023 due to a copyright strike. The reupload is largely the same, aside from new footage of Brian driving/running in Saint Juana's Forest.
2	"Relocate Project"	Martín Paredes	Martín Paredes	17:56	June 28, 2020 (2020-06-28)
	"Lucky You"			4:04	June 26, 2020 (2020-06-26) (uploaded) June 28, 2020 (2020-06-28) (accessible)
Anthony discovers four tapes detailing Bunny Smiles Incorporated’s "Relocate Project," an initiative to reopen Bon’s Burgers following its abrupt shutdown in the summer of 1974. The first tape explains the company’s relocation plan, while the second demonstrates the new features for the reprogrammed Banny animatronic before cutting to a sequence hinting at the demise of a woman named Susan Woodings. The third tape, framed as a technical support training guide for the K-9 Storage Facility, becomes corrupted to reveal the murder of Rosemary Walten—wife of BSI co-founder Jack Walten—who was lured backstage by a mysterious voice, dismembered by Bon, and stuffed into the Sha animatronic, causing her spirit to possess it. The final tape documents July 1978 archival footage of three employees attempting to reprogram the animatronics at K-9. During the visit, employee Ashley Parks uses a key mysteriously given to her by the company to enter the facility’s basement, discovering a clown animatronic named Billy and a cassette listing deceased or missing figures linked to the restaurant. Upon playing the tape through Billy, Ashley is brutally killed by Bon and stuffed inside the clown animatronic. The mysterious tape begins with a timeline of the short-lived run of Bon's Burgers during the summer of 1974. Then, a voice begins to speak in acknowledgement on the viewers' confusion of what they were just shown. They assure us that "answers will be given eventually," but warn us not to jump to conclusions with the pieces we have been given so far, as this is "only the beginning." He then states, "He is so sorry about what he did to them, but there's nothing he can do, remember that." They start repeating the phrase, "Safety in pills, Sophie," as the final moments of BSI employees Brian Stells and Ashley Parks are shown, followed by a pill bottle with Sophie's name on it. The tape then cuts to presumably two voices fighting for the viewers' trust; one of them explaining that the spirits who are trying to reach out want us to know their stories, while the other insists that they are happy with their existence and that they "made them beautiful."
3	"BunnyFarm"	Martín Paredes	Martín Paredes	58:56	March 19, 2021 (2021-03-19)
	"Guilty"			7:04	October 16, 2020 (2020-10-16) (uploaded) March 19, 2021 (2021-03-19) (accessible)
Set in October 1982, the archival footage follows the series' protagonist, Sophie Walten—who is now a young adult—as her girlfriend, Jenny Letterson, introduces her to the beta version of "BunnyFarm," an unreleased arcade game produced by Bunny Smiles Incorporated. When left to play alone, Sophie discovers strange glitches through which restless spirits contact her, revealing their gruesome deaths at the hands of the Bon animatronic. As the game grows more unstable, Sophie realizes these victims were people who worked at BSI, that she knew when she was a child—a truth previously suppressed by her prescription medication. The final spirits are revealed as her younger siblings, Edd and Molly, who perished in a May 1974 car crash caused by BSI co-founder Felix Kranken—who intoxicated himself with drinks while chaperoning the children for a school party, subsequently possessing their animatronic doll Rocket. Ultimately, the character Showbear informs Sophie that these spirits have been waiting specifically for her. The video contains archived audio recordings made by Felix. In the first two, he and Jack introduce the new hire to their company and states that all one needs to succeed is hope, while expressing excitement for the CyberFun Tech deal and the Bon's Burgers project. The third one takes place on May 2nd, 1974, the night that Felix got in a car crash. Felix begins by saying he messed up, admitting that he has had a drinking problem for a long time and carries a recorder to remember what happens when he is drunk. He is grieving Molly and Edward's deaths and worring about what to tell Jack, confessing that he buried his children in the forest near the accident out of panic because he couldn't stand the idea of Jack seeing his children's corpses. He tries to reassure himself that everything will be fine.
4	"CyberFun Tech"	Martín Paredes	Martín Paredes Bravvyy/Eva C.	36:18	February 1, 2024 (2024-02-01) (uploaded) February 9, 2024 (2024-02-09) (premiered)
	"Lacrimosa"			7:23	January 31, 2024 (2024-01-31) (uploaded) February 9, 2024 (2024-02-09) (accessible)
The episode opens with archival footage of employees Susan Woodings and Charles Brook showcasing facial tracking and map scanning tools developed by partner companies CyberFun Tech and Bunny Smiles Incorporated. On the night of June 30th, 1974, Susan inspects the Bon animatronic, which unexpectedly comes to life, violently mauls her, breaks her neck, and drags her away. The narrative then flashes back to May 3rd, where a frantic Felix disposes of evidence from Edd and Molly’s fatal car crash in a river before attempting to drown himself. Sometime later, a paranoid Felix records an audio log admitting the children's deaths to Jack and Rosemary without disclosing his fault, even as the victims' spirits attempt to reach him through the Rocket doll. Finally, on July 1st, the scene transitions to Wonderland—a purgatory-like dimension for the dead—where Edd and Molly search for Susan while an entity named "Bon" (revealed to be the one who possessed the Bon animatronic and attack her) offers to preserve her life by letting her inhabit the Banny animatronic. The video begins with the Brigton Police Department investigating the disappearance of siblings Edward and Molly Walten. It then cuts to a tape explaining the inner workings of CyberFun Tech's animatronic technology, including their abilities to record their surroundings to navigate and scan a person's face for recognition—which is stated do be faulty due to only allowing a certain number of combinations, meaning that identities can be easily mistaken. The tape then abruptly cuts to Susan getting into the Banny animatronic by Bon, while Charles can be heard (via voicemail) expressing concern for her recent "disappearance" in the background, pleading anyone to immediately call him back if she is ever found. Susan—with the body of Banny—wakes up back in Wonderland, in an endless area resembling Bon's Burgers. Upon reaching the entrance, a mysterious voice (presumably Edd) opens the door to lure Susan to safety. As she hesitates on leaving, Susan turns her head and is met with "Bon," who was standing right near the entrance with her.
5	"Faces of Grief"	Martín Paredes	Martín Paredes Bravvyy/Eva C. Kyle DeNigris Gerard Carey	1:20:03	July 25, 2026 (2026-07-25) (uploaded) July 31, 2026 (2026-07-31) (premiered)
	"My Soul"			18:22	July 23, 2026 (2026-07-23) (uploaded) July 31, 2026 (2026-07-31) (accessible)
Following the presumed death of her children Edd and Molly in a car crash caused by Felix, Rosemary Walten navigates the five stages of grief while processing her trauma through working on a disturbing stop-motion film. As her husband Jack mysteriously vanishes shortly after, Rosemary's mental state rapidly deteriorates amid growing emotional strain with her surviving daughter, Sophie. Consumed by the months of immense guilt, isolation, and frightening visions, Rosemary attempts to commit suicide by drowning herself at a river in Saint Juana's Forest—briefly ending up in Wonderland and meeting up with Edd and Molly, who tell her that what happened wasn't her fault and she deserves to live a happy life—before being rescued and placed in police custody by chief detective Dereck Collins. However, the spirit "Bon" lures her away from the station to Bon's Burgers under the promise of reuniting her with her lost family and fixing her broken life. Ultimately, "Bon" brutally murders and dismembers Rosemary, stuffing her body into the Sha animatronic to force her into a twisted state of eternal peace within Wonderland. In late July 1974, chief detective Dereck Collins investigates the mysteries surrounding Bon's Burgers by attempting to interview an evasive Felix Kranken and a traumatized Sophie Walten. The Brighton Police Department review Rosemary Walten's journal entries (dated between November 1955 to July 1974), which detail her early personal insecurities and her subsequent downward spiral following the tragic losses of her husband Jack, and her children Edd and Molly. Facing the most perplexing case of his career, Dereck recounts how Rosemary inexplicably vanished from her police cell—an escape backed by glitched CCTV footage showing "Bon" before leaving her cell empty. As public anxiety grows over a rumored "B.S.I. Killer," Dereck expresses confusion over Jack Walten's missing person posters mysteriously changing, prompting him to pray for mercy on the town. The episode shifts forward to 1982 at Jenny Letterson's apartment, where a picture of Jenny and an adult Sophie sits on a desk just as Sophie reaches for her pill bottle.

Development and themes

The conception of the series can be traced back to between mid-2016 and early 2017, when Paredes came up with the idea of a Five Nights at Freddy's fangame where William Afton ran experiments on his children–one of which was named "Bon-Bon" according to his interpretation. This idea would be expanded upon in late 2017, when Paredes began working with a small team on a new game, which was under the working title of "Welcome to Bon's Burgers." The game would've followed Sophie Walten working as a nightguard for a Bunny Smiles Incorporated location, while defending herself against numerous animatronics that were controlled by brain-wave technology. By January 2019, Paredes would devote hours of his life to the game, ruining his sleep schedule in the process while taking weeks to months working on game assets. It got to the point where he hated working on this game, but was also simultaneously afraid of canceling the project entirely due to not wanting to disappoint his team. In late 2019, Paredes eventually decided to distance himself from the game, realizing how much of a toll it took on his mental health.

After putting the project to rest, Paredes instead utilized the unused gameplay, cutscenes, voice acting, and soundtrack from the game to form a 10-episode series called The Walten Archives, which would be in the style of a 1970s documentary of what was believed to have happened surrounding the BSI murders by the public, with the spirits glitching the documentary to show the true story. Paredes would be working on the series in late 2019 until he began watching more analog horror series such as Local 58, Kraina Grzybów TV, and Squimpus McGrimpus' FNAF VHS series, convincing him to recreate the series' concept from scratch as an analog horror series. Adjusting his vision for the new project, Paredes began production on the series in December 2019. He officially announced the cancelation of his fangame in January 2020, expecting his team to be upset about this decision. To his complete surprise, they were okay with the decision as they also expressed concern about Paredes' mental health while working on the game.

Reception

Reception for the series has been overwhelmingly positive, with viewers and online horror critics widely praising the web series as a defining contribution to the analog horror subgenre. Audience response frequently highlights series creator Martín Paredes' ability to subvert mascot horror tropes by embedding a deeply human tragedy—centered on grief, alcoholism, and family collapse—within a foundation of vintage VHS aesthetics. In retrospective discussions, Paredes noted that the massive fan response transformed what began as an indie solo passion project into a sprawling collaborative effort, with community-driven lore analysis, fan art, and theory videos directly fueling the momentum and aesthetic polish of subsequent episodes across the series. Viewers particularly commend the series for prioritizing psychological dread and surreal visual storytelling over conventional jumpscares.

A significant portion of the positive community reception focuses on the character voice acting, which fans cite as a key factor in elevating the story's emotional weight above traditional analog horror media. Artist and animator Gerard Carey, who portrays Susan Woodings, reflected on the intense audience sympathy for Susan's agonizing fate, noting how viewers gravitated toward her vocal performance to feel the genuine horror and vulnerability of her trapped state. Similarly, assistant animator Kyle DeNigris, who voices Charles and Boozoo, highlighted how the fanbase meticulously analyzed every line delivery and audio pitch, utilizing subtle vocal details to piece together Charles' ambiguous backstory and broader connections within the timeline. This level of fan scrutiny demonstrated a shift in community reception toward praising character-driven drama and nuanced voice performances within the genre.

The characterization and visual horror of the primary antagonist, Bon, also generated immense fascination and critical acclaim, with many in the community describing him as one of the most unsettling figures in modern digital horror. Writer and voice actress Eva C, who portrays Bon, pointed to the audience's visceral reactions to Bon's mechanical distortion and eerie composure as a cornerstone of the series' lasting cultural impact within indie horror spaces. Furthermore, community reception extended into collaborative side projects and fan-led content; assistant artist Pietro Martins emphasized how the community's enthusiastic engagement with auxiliary material helped maintain active fan discussion and lore building during extended production breaks between main episodes. Together, the positive reception of the core team's performances and the active participation of its fanbase established The Walten Files as a landmark, community-backed analog horror franchise.

External links

• Official The Walten Files series playlist
• Find Jack Walten