Scott Cawthon, the creator of the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, managed to turn his widely famous horror game into a watchable adaptation. The movie was released on October 27th of this year to the big screen and the movie-streaming service, Peacock, to mixed reviews. Despite critics giving the movie a twenty-nine percent on rotten tomatoes, fans like me enjoyed the lore and the iconic set come to life.
Mike (Josh Hutcherson), the security guard, is sent to work at the rundown Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, years after its closing, during the night shift. Mike is quickly introduced to the possessed animatronics living in the building who seem to be connected to his family more than he realizes.
The video game’s classic protagonist and antagonist, Mike and William Afton, are played by Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard respectively. Each actor gives a proper face to each character despite the lack of physical descriptions in the video games. I enjoyed seeing both actors playing their roles, and I think that Cawthon stayed true to his franchise’s lore with their personalities.
The real determining factor of the movie’s worthiness stems from the video games: how terrifying are the jump scares? There were a few well-timed frights that genuinely made my heart stop, but most of them did not come from the animatronics themselves. I would have liked a few more scares that came from the main characters so I could compare them with the death animations seen in the video games.
My favorite part of the movie was the animatronics themselves. The animatronics looked and behaved exactly how pizza place animatronics do in real life, like at Chuck E. Cheese, but, surprisingly, were played by real human actors. The gigantic character costumes were made and worn by puppeteers from Jim Henson Studios, which gave the animatronics a highly detailed outer appearance while still allowing for the stiff movements seen in real robots.
Similarly, the movie’s set of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place almost has a personality of its own with its heavily detailed and stylized design. From the character stained-glass windows above each booth to the accurate decor of an 80’s arcade, the visuals in the movie are stunning to look at. My favorite parts of the movie were the slow panning shots of the pizza place where I could compare the movie’s set to the other FNAF locations I had seen in the games.
I think that the most important part of the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ movie for most fans, including me, were the easter eggs and references to the rest of the franchise. The movie had a nice balance of self-awareness and not breaking the fourth wall. There were several cleverly placed references to the fanbase, as well as other secrets that added to the Five Nights at Freddy’s lore.
Just as the franchise’s game and novel plotlines were hard to follow, the movie sadly also followed this trend. While it helped to connect the movie to its corresponding FNAF media, the plot lacked both in a complete storyline and common sense.
Multiple times I was left confused by a character’s reaction to very jarring events. Even in the trailer, the main character Mike seems to have comprehended the idea that the animatronics are conscious beings with very little forethought. While it is necessary that Mike knows that the animatronics were not just robots, the explanation about how and why could have been a more prominent aspect of the movie.
I would rate ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ a solid 3.5/5, with the majority of the deductions surrounding the lack of sense in the plot. Although the plot lacks detail, I would still encourage any fellow FNAF fans to take the time to watch the film because of its amazingly accurate set design and fun bits of lore.
