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While it may be steeped in lore for loyal fans, ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ fails to deliver on its story and execution for being considered one of the scariest video games of all time.

I went into this film with little knowledge behind the video game franchise of the same name.  While I enjoy the occasional Pokemon and Animal Crossing installments that are put out, I am not a huge video game person.  I respect the art and craft that go into making a video game; I just wish I was more skilled when it came to the actual gameplay.  However, I do not think that your knowledge or skills should dictate how you view a movie adaptation of the source material.  Even though fans of the franchise are going to be the main driving force behind its creation, everyone deserves a well-made film.  Unfortunately, this was not it.

Five Nights at Freddy’s (most commonly known as FNAF) is an indie video game franchise where you as the player are hired to be the night security guard tasked with watching over a variety of family-style restaurants similar to Chuck-E-Cheese.  Over the course of nine games, you learn more about the animatronics, the family behind the creation of the restaurants, and the twisted, sinister events that happen behind the scenes over the course of decades.  There is a ton of lore behind each of the games that kept loyal fans coming back year after year.  Even just talking to my high school students who grew up with the games, they had so much to talk to me about and how deep everything goes.  It is the perfect series of games to adapt into a future potential movie series.  

The film, from what I have been informed by my students, takes a few liberties from the first game, the one in which we as the audience are following.  We are introduced to our protagonist Mike (Josh Hutcherson) who is sent to a career counselor (Matthew Lillard) after a string of short-term jobs have gone wrong.  He is given the opportunity to be night security guard at a closed family pizza restaurant, Freddy Faxbear’s Pizza.  Even though the pay and hours are not good, Mike takes the job so he can continue to have custody over his sister Abby (Piper Rubio).  Mike is also being haunted by the nightmare of witnessing his younger brother being kidnapped right in front of him as kids, causing him to have the same recurring dream hoping to learn more about who did it.  While working at Freddy’s, Mike’s dreams begin to change as creepy events with the animatronics arise.  Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), a police officer, joins Mike on some of his night shifts, giving him the background on why Freddy’s closed back in the 1980s.  But every night presents our characters with a new discovery, a new horror, and a new deeper connection to this rundown pizza place.

The biggest fault of the film is its script.  The creator of the franchise, Scott Cawthon, was a co-writer of the screenplay alongside the film’s director, Emma Tammi.  It’s great when you are able to have the original mind behind the successful games working with you, but that does not always guarantee that the movie will follow in the successful footsteps.  When you have nine games filled with lore, you may want to try to include as much as you can because you are not guaranteed a sequel.  So the film ends up being a lot more telling instead of showing.  There is a good story hidden within this film, but there are so many plots and subjects that are brought up throughout that it can be easy to get lost.  Even as someone who is not familiar with the background, it felt like there were multiple games worth of information trying to be shoved into this less than two-hour movie.  Although it is mostly based on the original game, it feels as though we are getting bits and pieces from all different sources, like you are watching a recap video about the story on YouTube.  As someone who is a part of fandoms, it is fun to think about all of the Easter eggs that could be included in a film, but when the characters spend more time explaining everything because so much has been included, leaving the audience with nothing to piece along the way themselves.  And if you have no clue about anything going on, it may be even less enjoyable even for a casual viewer.

With its history of being one of the scariest video games, it was perfect to not only release it around Halloween but to also market it as a horror film.  However, with its young audience being the target audience, we are mostly greeted with classic jump scares.  There are some scary moments – the opening scene is one that sticks out – but it is not as scary as the advertisements would make you think.  Some of the most gruesome parts are either shown through shadows or explained during exposition.  While I can appreciate that the creatives behind the camera wanted to make sure their fans of all ages could enjoy the film, it was that line of thinking that brought the horror aspect of it way down.  This could also be seen as a positive; letting young children be introduced to the horror genre with light jump scares and scary scenes in the shadows can be a great starter to get them more interested without being too freaked out.  There are both good and bad things with the way the horror was approached by the creatives – I just hope it inspired a young fan to become a new horror enthusiast.

While the script may not be up to par, all of the performances are entertaining.  Josh Hutcherson returns to the big screen as the player-insert character of Mike.  Every role that Hutcherson plays is always entertaining in some way and this was no different.  He is charismatic and charming while bringing heart to the character in his more tender moments.  It may not have been his best written role, but he brings it all in every scene that he is in.  Piper Rubio, who plays his younger sister, brings the childhood innocence the lore of the story depends on.  She is sweet and caring and just wants to be herself, something that can be inspirational to young fans.  Elizabeth Lial, while enjoyable anytime she is on screen, gets dealt the unfortunate hand of being the info-dumper with a majority of her scenes.  She would have been a more enjoyable character to watch if the script allowed her to branch out.  Matthew Lillard always understands the assignment he is given and his character of the career counselor is no different.  While the script may not be as strong as it could have been, that does not stop this cast from bringing their all during the entire run time.  With its fanbase being as large as it is, a few cameos also popped up.  MatPat (Matthew Patrick) and CoryxKenshin (Cory DeVante Williams), two YouTubers known for their Five Nights at Freddy’s content, showed up as a waiter and cabbie, respectively.  Another prominent YouTuber, Markiplier (Mark Fischbach) was also supposed to appear but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.

This is a film for the fans.  After talking about it with my students who grew up with the franchise, you could tell how passionate they are about everything that comes from its creator.  While the script tries to add too much lore that it becomes an exposition dump to the very basic and traditional jump scares, the fans had fun.  Some are upset about some of the creative changes made from the game that appeared in the final product, but seeing the looks on their faces told me everything I really needed to know about this film.    

Grade: C

Oscar Prospects: 
Likely: None
Should Be Considered: None

Where to Watch: In Theaters and Streaming on Peacock