“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is a horror game franchise that has been around for nearly a decade and has recently been adapted into a horror movie.
The movie’s main character, Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), is looking for a job in order to maintain custody over his little sister Abby Schmidt (Piper Rubio). Schmidt goes to an eccentric job counselor who offers him a mysterious job at a run-down children’s entertainment venue, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While working there, strange things begin happening and he discovers that the animatronics featured at the facility are inhabited by the spirits of five murdered ghost children.
This movie is an homage to the oldest game in the series and personally, I found it to be reminiscent of playing the older games back when they came out. Not only does it feature iconic characters from the series, but it also expands on the game’s narrative, giving answers to many of the unanswered questions fans had about this game.
Overall, I found the movie to be rather faithful to the original games, however, that isn’t to say it is without fault. The animatronics in the movie come off as toned down and weren’t really scary to me. For example, they spend a whole scene building a pillow fort with the main characters which definitely comes off as cheesy. It also feels somewhat poorly paced. We find out everything much too fast and there is little payoff for the big dramatic reveals.
But back to things the film did well, the villain, William Afton (Mathew Lillard), comes off as menacing and bloodthirsty and the entire story does give a very disturbing energy. I think the sound and music aspects were done well; the haunting sound of children chanting in the background adds great atmosphere and foreshadowing.
This movie had me leaving the theatre with the same feeling that I got from the games. It’s nostalgic, spooky and funny and is a perfect movie for those who aren’t too into horror but who still want something scary to watch.
