Five Nights at Freddy's Movie Review
Five Nights at Freddy's is a PG-13 horror thriller inspired by the popular video game series ''Five Nights at Freddy's''. Although the movie is decently bloody for a PG-13 edition, it's probably not as gruesome and scary as players of the video game series might expect. With a run-time of 110 minutes and a budget of 20 million USD, the movie made almost 300 million USD and is Blumhouse's biggest-selling movie yet. A sequel ( Five Nights at Freddy's 2 ) is set to be released on December 5, 2025.
The movie revolves around Mike who applies to be a night security guard at a family-friendly pizzeria that shut down in the '80s after some children went missing. His job prospects are slim, and he desperately needs money to keep custody of his sister Abby. Mike also suffers from an ever-returning nightmare about the time when his little brother Garrett got kidnapped. While working night shifts at the pizzeria, his dreams start to get worse and grow to be even more troubling. The abandoned building is also home to animatronics who move at night and seem to be possessed by ghosts.
One of director Emma Tammi's first decisions was committing to practical effects instead of CGI to bring the animatronics to life. Because she knew, practical effects would suit the movie's eerie atmosphere better, she decided to work with Jim Henson's Creature Shop situated in California. The Shop specializes in animatronic and puppet building and also made multiple famous puppets like the muppet crew. The animatronics look very realistic and are one of the strong points of the movie.
The cast consists of many competent actors. Most notably Josh Hutcherson ( Mike ) played his role as the struggling security guard very well. Five Nights at Freddy's also offers very special and fun cameos. The movie features two YouTubers and even an actor we know from another very famous horror movie. Matthew Lillard - who played Stu Macher in the original Scream - played William Afton, the main antihero of this movie. FNAF also features two YouTubers, CoryxKenshin and MatPat who have connections to the video game series. Very amusing and thoughtful to incorporate them into the movie as a way to give back to those who made the FNAF series into what it is now.
What didn't work so well were the dream sequences Mike had nightly. The concept and the general idea of him having nightmares, about his younger brother getting kidnapped, which get worse and more detailed every night that he is at the pizzeria is decent. Although I feel like this is a missed opportunity. After two or three days at his job, ghosts of little children appear in his dream which act mysteriously. These ghosts are the souls of the children kidnapped by William Afton ( the animatronics). The movie doesn't do much with this tho and doesn't really explain or explore the children any further.
The whole trying to find the kidnapper of his little brother Mike goes threw, is also kind off lackluster. At the end of the film, Mike finds out that William Afton was actually the one who took his little brother from him. Sadly that's where it ends. No animatronic representing his little brother or ghost which appears in his dreams. Unfortunately this isn't expanded on.
Five Nights at Freddy's is an amazing movie for fans of the video game series but even people who are unfamiliar with it could have a good time watching the movie. A perfectly serviceable film that fundamentally works and offers a fun time.
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Philip Thys
