The highly anticipated film adaptation of the iconic “Five Nights at Freddy’s” (FNAF) released on Oct. 27, directed by Emma Tammi with a central focus on the storyline of the first video game in Scott Cawthon’s FNAF series.
The first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is a point-and-click style horror game requiring players to endure a total of five nightshifts as Mike Schmidt, a security guard, works at an enclosed pizzeria filled with vengeful animatronics. The game originally released on Aug. 8, 2014.
Similarly, the premise of the movie follows the life of a troubled Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), who is haunted by the memory of the abduction and murder of his younger brother Garrett (Lucas Grant). He oddly enough ends up taking a job as a nighttime security guard in the same location other children were murdered by the person who took his brother’s life.
Impressively, there were cameos from popular FNAF Youtubers including MatPat and CoryxKenshin.
Fans of the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” franchise will appreciate how the movie focuses on a specific portion of the FNAF timeline because of its long history explored in a total of 13 video games and over 20 book adaptations.
The puppeteers did a good job imitating the robotic movement of the animatronics throughout the film. There was an extreme level of attention to detail on the visual components of the film, especially the Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Spring Bonnie animatronics and how similar they were to the original game’s models. This, paired with a realistic visual representation of a run down ’90s arcade pizzeria, gives off nostalgic feeling.
Due to the movie’s PG-13 rating, and out of respect to the franchise’s younger audience demographic, Chica’s Cupcake was the main attacker and the most aggressive animatronic. The rating also clarifies why most of the murder scenes cut away right before a character is killed.
Yet the movie featured moments of suspense and tension as the plot unfolded and progressed, specifically in the scene where viewers witness the “bite of 2000” through the use of silhouette lighting showing Freddy chop off the upper body of one of the burglars.
Since the game incorporated jumpscares, so did the film adaption with multiple hard cuts to an extreme close up of Balloon Boy. These jumpscares create a general consensus from Scott Cawthon himself that Balloon Boy is a nightmare-fueled, creepy character.
The film was able to capture the different personalities of the ghost kids when they built a huge fort with Abby (Piper Rubio), showcasing the playful behavior of the children. This is a major contrast to later in the film when the animatronics were hunting down and killing Aunt Jane’s (Mary Stuart Masterson) mercenaries, symbolizing their souls are still full of rage for being murdered by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).
To a certain extent, it is understandable why some critics might find the story dull or fast-paced, but from the perspective of someone who has been following the franchise since the release of the first FNAF game, the film does a good job incorporating important elements of the lore.
The relationship between Mike and Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) felt like a necessary detour in the central plot to give the audience a better representation of who the characters are outside of “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”
The film does a great job of explaining the basics of the lore for viewers who unfamiliar with the franchise’s story.
Another homage to the fans was the ending credit song choice, the infamous YouTube track titled “Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 Song” by The Living Tombstone.
The movie’s finale sets up perfectly for a second film adaption. From the franchise’s game release history it would be safe to assume there will be a “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” movie in the future.
My film rating is 7.8/10.
Anyone interested in watching Mike’s journey working as a security guard at a rundown pizzeria full of haunted animatronics can see it in theaters or stream the film on Peacock.
