“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” produced by Jason Blum and Scott Cawthon, is a PG-13 horror movie released Oct. 27. It is based on a popular video game that was originally released in August 2014 and a movie has been highly anticipated by its fandom since the game’s original release.
The movie follows Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), a young man who’s struggling to take care of his young sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), as he’s being haunted with the memory of his little brother’s disappearance.
In the beginning, we learn that Mike has a bad track record with keeping jobs and was at risk of losing custody of his little sister, so in desperation, he takes a position as a night guard at the abandoned ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria,’ with help from a police officer named Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail).
As the days pass, his experience becomes more and more bizarre as he learns about the chilling history of the pizzeria and how the animatronics get a bit quirky at night.
The biggest highlights in the movie had to be the casting and the animatronics. Having an iconic actor like Matthew Lillard as William Afton was extremely exciting, especially because of Lillard’s past of playing Stu Macher, the goofy but scary serial killer in Scream (1996). Lillard’s history fits right in with the silly nature of the original games.
Additionally, Hutcherson’s and Lail’s performances as Mike and Vanessa were nothing short of awesome. Both actors perfectly captured the characters that they were cast as and the majority of fans absolutely adored them.
The animatronic characters, created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, were done phenomenally and absolutely live up to the iconic machines from the original game. They were big, bulky, and creepy but still felt they were made for children, and overall looked just like a realistic version of their in-game counterparts.
However, the plot and dialogue fell flat at many points throughout the story, and at some points it easily felt more interesting to sit back and stare at the clock on your phone. The tone of the movie truly didn’t fit its genre and even in the horror scenes it doesn’t feel as scary or intense as it could have.
There were so many unfinished and even unnecessary subplots, which made the movie difficult to understand. The Aunt Jane plotline seemed interesting at first, until the script forgot about it. The traitorous babysitter? Who’s that again? And despite Vanessa being an enjoyable character to watch, her plotline didn’t make much sense.
When William Afton is revealed, he blames everything on Vanessa, yet the movie never explained why everything that happened was her fault.
Furthermore, the film was most definitely held back by its PG-13 rating. It makes sense that the writers would want the film to include children, given a large part of the fandom is made up of young teens, but the utter lack of horror and tension in a movie based on a game known for its terrifying scares is extremely disappointing.
If you’re the kind of person who loves to see cool scenery and machinery, or if you’re an old fan of the franchise looking for some nostalgia, I’d recommend this movie to you.
