Five Nights at Freddy's review

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S: 

A VERY DISAPPOINTING NIGHT AT FREDDY’S! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: * ½ out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, Carl the Cupcake, and Foxy in Five Nights at Freddy’s

 

            Freddy and his friends escape the video game world to haunt the big screen in Five Nights at Freddy’s, the new horror film from Blumhouse based on the incredibly popular video game series of the same name. I should make this clear, I have never played a Five Nights at Freddy’s game before, but I know of them and have seen videos covering them (I actually watched all of SomeCallMeJohnny’s Five Nights at Freddy’s game reviews the night before seeing this) so I have a basic understanding of what they’re like. 

            The games, created by Scott Cawthon and revolved around you controlling a night security guard, monitoring security cameras, and defending yourself from hostile animatronic characters at an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese/Showbiz-inspired pizza restaurant were so simple yet so impactful that it became a huge phenomenon with spin-offs, merchandise, and countless cosplays of the characters at conventions. So popular in fact that talks of a film adaptation of the series dated back to 2015 shortly after its inception the year prior with it originally being a co-production between Warner Bros. and The Jim Henson Company and Gil Kenan as the director which never happened. 

            After the success of other films cashing in on the concept like The Banana Splits Movie and Willy’s Wonderland, Five Nights at Freddy’s has finally hit the big screen courtesy of producer Jason Blum (The Purge franchise, Halloween (2018 trilogy), The Invisible Man (2020)) and Emma Tammi in her mainstream feature film directorial debut. So, after much anticipation especially among Five Nights at Freddy’s fans I can say that Freddy Fazbear’s cinematic debut…does not live up to the hype! 

            I’m not calling it one of the worst video game adaptations of all time as there is an attempt at capturing the spirit of the source material. Unfortunately, it gets bogged down by unnecessary plot elements and a serious lack of scares and campy fun. 

            The film follows Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson-Zathura, The Kids Are All Right, The Hunger Gamesfranchise), a troubled security guard beginning his new job at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a beloved family pizza restaurant from the 80s that was shut down due to reports of missing children. However, during the night shift Mike starts to notice unusual activity in the restaurant and that its animatronic characters are alive and causing all kinds of mischief and terror. 

            With the aid of his younger sister Abby (Newcomer, Piper Rubio) and a local police officer who is very well-educated about the Freddy Fazbear’s restaurant’s history named Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail-Once Upon a Time, Dead of Summer, You), Mike will uncover the dark secret behind the restaurant as the three of them fight to escape. 

            The film also stars Matthew Lillard (Scream, Scooby-Doo 1 and 2, The Descendants) as Mike’s career counselor Steve Raglan, Mary Stuart Masterson (Benny & Joon, Blindspot, For Life) as Mike and Abby’s Aunt Jane, and Theodus Crane (The Walking Dead, Underground) as Mike’s previous co-worker Jeremiah. 

            Overall, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a film that should be scary and fun, turns out it doesn’t really succeed at either. When it actually is Five Nights at Freddy’s, the film can be somewhat entertaining with a few inventive kills, campiness, and 80s nostalgia, but during the daytime, it becomes a slow, shallow, and just not very interesting mystery that audiences can figure out relatively quickly. 

            Probably the biggest problem with the film is that it is not scary with only one or two jump-scares in the whole thing. Again, I haven’t played the games, but I know jump-scares play a huge part in the game so having very little of the source material’s signature jump-scares almost feels as insulting as turning Bowser into a human being with a de-evolution gun. 

            The film is riddled with these dream sequences of Josh Hutcherson’s Mike in a forest with the ghosts of the missing children that exist only to drag the movie out to feature-length, and I guess, try to give some motive and backstory to Mike’s character with his brother getting kidnapped when he was young, but I thought it severely clashed with the campy and terrifying nature of the Five Nights at Freddy’s premise. There’s also a subplot with him in a legal battle against his aunt over child custody over his sister that felt very unnecessary and out-of-place. 

            So yeah, when it’s Five Nights at Freddy’s it’s a little fun, but when it tries to be a real movie it doesn’t work in the slightest. Which is a shame because the performances are perfectly fine, Josh Hutcherson is a decent leading man here and I did enjoy the dynamic he has with his younger sister, Matthew Lillard is also a treasure in this movie (And I’m not just saying that because I met him earlier this year at a convention) and I very much appreciated his efforts at trying to breathe life into the film. 

            The animatronics are fantastic and look like they’re ripped straight from the game which is one of the few things I constantly praise in the movie. I enjoyed how they move and interact with the human characters, their appearances blurring the line between playful and creepy, and the fact that the overall costumes, puppets, and animatronic machines do have real weight to them. 

            But aside from appealing practical effects and production design, some decent performances, and a few creative scares, Five Nights at Freddy’s can’t seem to make the transition to the big screen thus becomes another lackluster video game film adaptation. Maybe fans of the game will say otherwise as there are a ton of Easter Eggs and callbacks, but if you’re looking for a well-made animatronic horror movie that actually delivers, Banana Splits or Willy’s Wonderland.