Five Nights at Freddy’s is the would-be horror knock-out based on the hit video game franchise of the same name with a reputation for getting your heart thumping. Sadly, the movie adaptation feels like a missed opportunity without any of the promised scares.
While this reviewer hadn’t played the games before watching the movie, it is obvious through pop culture osmosis that FNaF was known for being incredibly scary. The games arguably helped now-famous YouTubers become as popular as they are, such as PewDiePie and CoryXKenshin, the latter of whom makes a delightful cameo in the movie. In turn, the popularity of those playthroughs caused the games to see meteoric success.
Like the games, the story centers on an individual, Josh Hutcherson’s Mike Schmidt, who becomes a security guard at a rundown eatery/arcade known as Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. But it soon becomes clear something isn’t right about the restaurant that resembles the Showbiz Pizza of old, or today’s Chuck E. Cheese. Like those establishments, animal mascots are at the center of the appeal for Freddy’s.
However, Mike soon realizes his job meant to convince the courts he is qualified to be the legal guardian of his kid sister, Piper Rubio’s Abby, is a fight for survival. That is because, at night, the animatronic animals come to life and attempt to murder anyone who pokes around in the facility. On paper, this is a great premise that should result in frightening moments and a creepy vibe, but odd story choices prevent it from fully coming to fruition.
For instance, Mike has a tendency to fall asleep on the job and enter dream sequences where he has psychic communications with ghosts in scenes that take place in the woods in broad daylight. Not only are the dreams not scary at all, but they take us away from the setting of the shadow-filled pizzeria more often than not.
Without knowing much about the games, it seems like a setting and a premise such as this would lend itself to terrifying tension-building if executed in the right way. For instance, Mike is tasked with watching the live security camera footage from an aging closed-circuit system, while he also must view an old VHS training tape. In past horrors, the aesthetic of obsolete media was used to build a creepy vibe by way of featuring baffling and frightening imagery in the VHS format, such as in movies like The Ring or even last year’s Skinamarink, but this approach was left on the table in FNaF.
It seems like what should’ve played out is Mike watching the security camera footage as a glimmer of creepy things show up on screen, such as a shadowy figure moving in the background or a chair being mysteriously knocked over. The tension could slowly build as more and more of these anomalous events happen, until a terrifying animatronic suddenly jumps to the center of the frame or pops up in person. But every time it seems to be going in this direction, it suddenly cuts away to the tension-deflating dream sequences.
Now, the dream sequence subplot is fascinating in itself, but it feels like it belongs in an entirely different movie. You see, Mike is also trying to solve the mystery of his brother who was kidnapped as a child, so the wooded area he returns to is him reliving the memory of witnessing that happen. Mike is also asking the ghosts for help in trying to solve the case, and while this is interesting, it feels like a totally separate story tonally.
Another issue is that the movie relies too heavily on the mystery of Mike’s missing brother to string us along, rather than the mystery of Freddy’s, its lore, and the history behind the animatronics themselves. About halfway through the movie, we get a huge reveal about why they come to life. Again, this deflates the tension since hearing an explanation about them so early is counter to the conventional wisdom that “you fear what you don’t understand.” The film tries to incorporate further twists and scares from that point on, but by then it’s too late.
What this reviewer would’ve loved to see is a movie where, instead of Mike habitually falling asleep at the wrong times, he is an insomniac. We see his security guard shift through his eyes, with scenes staying firmly planted at Freddy’s. More and more, subtle creepy things start to happen on the security camera footage and his surroundings. But is it his own mind playing tricks on him via sleep deprivation, like in the movie The Machinist? Or are they animatronics truly coming to life? You don’t know for the majority of the movie until a stunning reveal two-thirds of the way through.
As much as the movie came across as dull and an overall unenjoyable experience, it isn’t without its praiseworthy aspects. Even though the execution didn’t necessarily work, there was clearly a passion behind Emma Tammi’s direction, and she’s hopefully got a promising career after this movie runs its course. FNaF is not only well-directed, but the actors give it their all. The problems in the end are the script by Scott Cawthon, Seth Cuddeback, and Tammi, the lack of scares, and it just being a misfire of an idea. Everybody has a bad day at the office, and despite the considerable talent and production value oozing from the screen, this is one such case.
That said, the most admirable aspect is probably the animatronics themselves. They look terrific and incredibly weren’t created with CGI. Instead, it was with the help of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop through real animatronic technology that they were brought to life.
Though the performances of Hutcherson and Rubio are solid, Matthew Lillard is a major standout. He relishes in a role that longtime fans of his horror roots will appreciate. The cinematography and set design are also nice, even if the premise of how the story itself was approached doesn’t necessarily utilize them to maximum effect.
