Review: The 'Five Nights at Freddy's' movie adaptation is just satisfying enough
Review: The 'Five Nights at Freddy's' movie adaptation is just satisfying enough
The reimagining of the popular scary video game franchise relies heavily on Josh Hutcherson's star power
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This review does not contain spoilers.
Every time October rolls around, a new line-up of horror movies come to town. This year, one in particular has almost a decade’s worth of backstory, fan theories, and aficionados before it even hit the big screen – Five Nights at Freddy’s.
That’s because it was a popular video game franchise first.
YouTube popularized the game after its release in 2014. Since, more than six additional games were developed, continuing old plot-lines and launching new ones.
The concept at it’s simplest is that you’ve been tasked to watch over an old, entertainment restaurant similar to Chuck E. Cheese as giant, animatronic animals roam the halls. Seems like nothing could go wrong there.
Because of all the content, Five Nights at Freddy’s (otherwise referred to as FNAF) is known for its “lore.”1 That is, fans piece together what happened when as they cross-reference the games and the easter eggs hidden inside them. Most of the lore is fan theories, while some of it gets confirmed by other games.
The sheer amount of content related to the lore, though, sets the expectations for the movie incredibly high for those who know the history of the franchise.
The PG-13 film did a good job of incorporating elements a fan would care about, while also opening the story up to those not versed in the franchise. It did feel like its target audience was brave 13-year-olds, so kudos to them on that. The cast was barebones, but the set was an impressive reimagining of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.
True to the game, it had plenty of jump scares and suspenseful moments. I think I held my hand over my eyes for a good half of the movie, and I did scream out loud in a theater full of three at one point.
Josh Hutcherson gave the acting performance of his LIFE as the main character – a depressed, 20-something who takes the job as a security guard in order to take care of his younger sister. He was arguably the best part of the movie. I’d nominate him for an Oscar. The child actors also felt like they were at the top of their game.
Elizabeth Lail is a lovely actress, but as Vanessa Monroe the writers did her dirty with half-baked dialogue and a flimsy backstory that could’ve done more fan service. Nothing she did or said made sense. The movie ended up leaving a ton of plot-holes because of that and relied too much on Hutcherson’s dreams to fill screen time.
I felt like I got everything I expected from the adaptation. Since I went in expecting it to be terrible, I was pleasantly surprised. The film ends up loosely fitting in with the lore, while also having moments that make you go, “Uh, how does this make any sense?”
Thankfully, the ridiculousness of the CGI characters made it easy to sleep when I got home. I mean, come on, how can you be scared of a stupid looking cupcake that eats people’s faces?
The movie is being seen as a success at the box office. Hopefully they get renewed for a sequel, otherwise the last ten minutes of the film where they whiningly hint at another movie will be for nothing.
My weekly roundup:
🎶 What I’m Listening To: Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault) by Taylor Swift
🎞️ What I’m Watching: Queer Eye
🔎 What I’m Reading: Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan
Read the full Gen Z Dictionary here.
Lore: The backstory of something