Spooky Season 2023: Five Nights at Freddy’s Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s is the hotly anticipated adaptation of the popular and beloved video game franchise coming to theaters and streaming on Peacock (in the United States). The story finds recently fired and traumatized Mike (Hutcherson) is trying to win custody of his little sister Abby (Rubio) from his unstable aunt (Mary Stuart Masterson) as he starts a new job working as the nighttime security guard for the longtime shutdown Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. During his first night on the job, he quickly realizes that the night shifts won’t be as easy to get through as he expected when he starts to notice its animatronic characters come to life. From there, Mike must uncover the mystery and find out what actually happened at Freddy’s. A film adaptation of the Five Nights at Freddy’s video game franchise has been widely discussed and eagerly anticipated for years from both fans of the franchise and horror buffs alike ever since its rights were acquired by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse. With that, there understandably was a lot riding on it and though it’s not quite a disaster, it is definitely a misfire.

Having never played the video games or knowing the established lore and judging this primarily as a horror film, it is a disappointing watch that leaves a lot to be desired. There isn’t a single second that is scary or remotely creepy, and it relies far too heavily on obnoxious jump scares that most audiences are beyond sick of at this point. All one would hope to see from a film like this is giant animatronics killing people in an abandoned 80’s themed arcade and it barely even delivers on that, instead putting far too much focus on the Mike’s trauma and his custody battle involving his younger sister. While fine on its own, it didn’t have to spend so much time there or what would have redeemed it is if it played more into the main story. Nevertheless, it’s refreshing to see a horror film put that much focus and attention on its characters especially compared to the average studio horror film, but its purpose seemingly was to pad the runtime.

For a film with such a simple premise on paper, it is surprisingly convoluted and unless one is a big fan of the games or has at least some knowledge of them, a lot of its lore will likely go over the heads of audiences, topped off with its lead villain who feels like a complete afterthought. Every performance, for the most part, is solid including Matthew Lillard for whom the film does such a disservice. Despite the fact that his character was full of potential, it gives him nothing to do and which may be frustrating for those planning to see the film because of him. In the end, as much of a disappointment as this is, it’s not all bad and should more than satisfy horror buffs in the moment.

While Hutcherson doesn’t have the greatest material to work with, he’s rock solid as Mike and it’s nice seeing him lead a big movie like this again and maybe this can propel him to more leading roles. Meanwhile, Lail, as Vanessa, also shines while having strong chemistry with Hutcherson. On a technical level, the animatronic character work is spectacular and they are easily the most entertaining part of the film and one of its biggest problems in that they do not appear nearly enough. When it tries to be a horror film, it’s a lot of fun but outside of those few moments, it feels disinterested in even attempting to frighten or chill audiences. Though not entirely the fault of the film’s 14A/PG-13 rating, to its credit, it pushes that rating about as far as they possibly could.

At the end of the day, Five Nights at Freddy’s will likely please fans of the games or those who prefer tamer or more gateway level horror, but for everyone else it’ll make for a frustratingly-generic experience that could’ve been so much more. It’s a real shame that considering the sheer level of hype there was, the filmmakers squandered its potential this badly. At this point, audiences can only hope that the filmmakers and the studio address this film’s issues as they move forward towards an inevitable sequel, assuming it reaches or even surpasses its box office projections.

still courtesy of Universal Pictures

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/