Written by: Joseph Schmidt (’24)
Five Nights At Freddy’s is a movie set in the year 2000, where Mike Schmidt (played by the talented Josh Hutcherson), the main protagonist, is struggling to find any work to take care of his younger sister, Abby and avoid eviction. His only hope is a night shift at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, an abandoned family restaurant. Mike soon finds out that “where fantasy and fun comes to life”, so do other things, as the abandoned animatronics Bonnie, Chica, Freddy, and Foxy are still active, and they are not friendly. With the help of a local police officer, Vanessa, Mike struggles to survive each night shift at the pizzeria and figure out why the animatronics are out for blood.
If any of you know the famous games this movie is based off of, then you can probably relate to how excited I was to finally see this movie completed and released. The movie gives you a first hand look into how the animatronics operate during the night within the opening minutes. It gave a sense of anticipation but also the uneasiness one could expect from a thriller. The movie also has a great sense of mystery, as we follow Mike’s journey as he tries to figure out why the animatronics are so dangerous as well as his nightmare of his brother’s kidnapping. The plot bounces back and forth between the shifts at Freddy’s and Mike battling his aunt for custody over his sister, Abby, which does provide a tiny bit of contrast to the dangers of Freddy’s with a grounding real-world challenge which we can sympathize with. The sense of danger and intensity, however, is kept up really well through the first half of the film until they interrupt with a very out-of-place montage. The movie took a turn there, and everything became far less serious.
However, the movie does slowly and carefully redeem itself near the end. The feeling of intensity didn’t really come back entirely, but the dangers became obvious again in the final chapter as stakes were raised for all the characters. The ending of the movie felt satisfactory as the mysteries all came together and the final villain was revealed.
Overall, I did enjoy the movie! It was a fun watch, and the acting was great. Every character had a necessary role, and nobody felt out of place. The cinematography is nothing too special, but that helps lend a hand to the deadness of Mike’s life as he struggles to stay afloat. However, the movie is definitely more based off of the books instead of the original video games, which I did find to be slightly disappointing. The movie’s story stayed partially faithful to the game’s lore, though it seemed as though it wanted to take a new approach to the franchise and its threats.
Personally, I wish the movie relied on the games’ story and lore more heavily, as the animatronics felt dangerous but never truly threatening to the characters. They felt more like creepy obstacles than scary threats, and I hope they change that. The PG-13 rating for the movie also hindered its creative capabilities, I believe. Much of the original Five Nights at Freddy’s lore involves darker topics than the movie is able to touch on and any topics the movie does bring to the big screen aren’t translated very well. However, for a rating of PG-13, I will say that Blumhouse did a fantastic job of convincing us otherwise. Could it have been more creative if it had a different rating? Yes. But it did not disappoint me, it simply made me wish for more.
In conclusion, I liked the movie! It did well overall, and I was genuinely surprised and excited by some of the details and reveals. With a sequel already confirmed to be in pre-production, I’m excited to see how they build off of the first movie into the second one, and with hopes that they’ll improve and grow the overall story of Five Nights at Freddys. ★
Final Grade: 7/10
