Gideon Dunbar
My first reaction to "Five Nights at Freddy’s", or FNAF for short, was one of joy. I was pleased to see a movie that was finally not just a movie about a game, but a game turned into a movie. The story, the sets, the characters, everything that I loved about the games had been preserved and improved.
For those that are unfamiliar with the original source, FNAF started as a point and click horror game. The plot is simple: You are a security guard on the nightwatch at Freddy Fazbear’s pizza place, an animatronic restaurant similar to Chucky Cheese. You sit in an office with two doors on either side, limited electricity, and security cameras. Your job is to watch the monitors and get through the titular five nights. After your first night, the animatronic robots start to get a little quirky. They begin wandering the halls, and you get a voicemail message from the previous night guard that warns you about what they’ll do if they find you. From then on, the game rapidly increases in difficulty, as the four main animatronics attempt to make their way to your office.
For the most part, the movie preserves this premise, adding more depth to provide an actual plot. Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) is a struggling security guard who can barely hold down a job, let alone provide for his little sister, Abby (Piper Rubio). Out of desperation, he takes a strange job offer at Freddy’s, and learns that the things around him are not as they seem, and that the animatronics he’s guarding are possessed by vengeful spirits.
The plot itself, while pretty solid, will not win any awards. It mainly exists in order to buoy the highlights of the movie, the animatronics themselves: Chica, Foxy, Bonnie, and Freddy. To say the animatronics are the best part of this movie is an understatement. Constructed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the same company that creates the Muppets, they are brilliantly designed. Looking at them is like seeing the original game brought to life. Alongside that, they are portrayed in the movie brilliantly, with the direction and acting giving them a menacing, gigantic presence.
Unfortunately, nothing is perfect, and this movie most certainly is not. While my first reaction was joy, from othera were confusion. The plot is difficult to follow at times, and certain characters don’t have enough screen time to justify their presence. The villain barely does anything until the tail end of the movie, and even at the end he
doesn’t accomplish much. Regardless of that, FNAF accomplishes its goal of being simply a fun movie. It doesn’t try to be supremely great, it simply tries to not be terrible, and at that it excels.
Overall, "Five Nights at Freddy’s" is a shining example of a videogame movie done well, being simultaneously a fun horror movie that anyone can watch and enjoy and a longtime fan’s paradise, filled with easter eggs and references. My overall review is a solid 8 out of 10.