This article contains spoilers for some sections of Five Nights At Freddy’s: The Movie.
Eight years, seven directors, 15 scripts, and two studios. Needless to say, the Five Nights At Freddy’s (FNAF) movie was highly anticipated from the start.
Based on the hit 2014 franchise of the same name, a movie had been expected from the start; eventually being announced with Warner Bros in 2016 before Scott Cawthon, the creator of FNAF, announced shortly afterward that the movie rights were being moved to Blumhouse Studios.
The movie, directed by Emma Tammi, stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, a man working as a night guard at an abandoned Freddy’s location as he and his sister Abby, played by Piper Rubio, are put through the wringer by haunted animatronics.
Viewers are certainly split on the movie with a 31% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but don’t let that discourage you as it also has an 87% audience rating.
I saw the movie on October 27th, the day it was released. The theater was packed, and many movie-goers (including yours truly) were in costume, or carrying around merchandise from the games or movie.
The movie starts strong with a scene of an unnamed security guard, played by Ryan Reinike, crawling through the vents, before being caught, strapped down, and killed with a saw-filled Freddy mask (off-screen). The movie then goes into a credit sequence of 8-bit animations of a man in a yellow Bonnie suit bringing kids away from parties.
At this point, the energy in the theater was already incredible. People were buzzing with excitement.
When the movie truly opens, viewers quickly learn that Mike is searching for a job, lives with and cares for his younger sister, Abby, and that he believes that memories can be revisited in dreams. We’re shown that Mike has been fired from his previous job and has been struggling to find a new one.
After his career counselor, Steve Raglin, played by Matthew Lillard, goes over his horrible job history, Mike is offered the security job at Freddy’s but refuses because he can’t work nights.
At this moment, someone in the theater shouted something about that being the “right choice,” and I’ll leave it to you to decide whether they meant not working at Freddy’s or not working the night shift.
The audience then learns that his aunt is attempting to get custody of Abby, so to make his work records look better in court, he decides to take the job.
Mike spends the nights at work sleeping, revisiting the day his brother was kidnapped in his dreams, and trying to find anything that anyone has missed. We’re also introduced to Vanessa, played by Elizabeth Lail, who is a police officer who is very familiar with Freddy’s and its history.
Over the course of five nights, Mike unravels the secrets of the pizzeria and the murders that happened there. During the fifth and final night, Vanessa reveals to him that she’s the daughter of the man behind the slaughter, and the owner of the Fazbear company, William Afton.
A moment later, we get an appearance from William Afton, revealing he’s been in disguise as Steve Raglan before stabbing Vanessa as she tries to stop him from hurting Abby. He’s killed through the spring locks in his suit before Mike and Abby escape, carrying a badly wounded Vanessa. The movie closes with Vanessa in the hospital and Abby asking if she can visit the animatronics again.
Fans who go in looking for a gory horror movie, or even just a genuinely scary movie, will be disappointed. But people need to realize that it was never going to be that. Even though the original games were never intended for children, they have had a very large young following from the beginning, and they were always going to make it mostly child-friendly. Note the mostly. This movie may not be Saw, but it’s not exactly Trolls either.
It’s a movie that, while it may not stay accurate to lore, clearly loves the games and their story. It’s a movie for the fans. Why else would there be deep-cut references like Sparky the Dog or cameos like MatPat or CoryxKenshin?
It may be a controversial opinion, but I’d argue that a new, fresh take on the story was needed. The games, with all their nonsense and constant new lore, needed a clean slate. Yes, some things did seem to come out of left field, but it was all done for a reason. If you spend a few minutes thinking about some of the stranger choices before you complain, you may realize why they were made. Also, it helps the movie be approachable to people who aren’t familiar with the source material and even people who are. The franchise is many things and one of those things is confusing.
I’ve now seen the movie multiple times and have seen different amounts of audience interaction at each showing. Honestly, I think that seeing it for the first time with an audience that cheered and cracked jokes and simply reacted made the experience all the better. It’s still fun in a silent theater, but it adds a sense of community, knowing that everyone around me was just as excited about this movie as I was.
In my personal opinion, I would give the movie an 8/10. It was everything I wanted. It was somewhat goofy, but it never took itself too seriously. Yes, there are weaker sections, but I would say that the performances alone carry those bits. Emma Tammi makes the movie memorable with her direction and visuals, and the characters are well-written and enjoyable to watch.
