After waiting for nine years from its development hell, Five Nights at Freddy’s fans are getting ready to watch this horror movie that came out on October 27th. Just in time for the Halloween season. Can you survive this movie review?
Background Information:
Five Nights at Freddy’s is an indie horror game that released on August 8th, 2014. Eventually releasing a plethora of games in the following years. The game is about you needing to survive five nights as the security guard at the pizza parlor, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. That should be easy right? Wrong! You have to make sure you don’t get attacked by animatronics that roam around the pizza place. If they get near you, you best close your doors or else you’ll be met with a jumpscare. Better make sure you have enough power to survive the night. Some of the characters you’ll encounter during your night shift are Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Pirate. This game would eventually get a cult following once Youtubers, like Markiplier or PewDiePie played the game. This game was made by Scott Cawthon who’s been making games since the early 90’s. Mind you, he was a teenager when he developed his first game, Doofas. Besides making games, he’s also made 3D animated cartoons. Most if not all of those cartoons had something to do with Christianity. Going from family friendly content to horror was quite the unexpected twist. You’ll see this game franchise everywhere, on social media, at stores, libraries, in theatres and on the streaming service, Peacock. You really can’t avoid them.
The movie revolves around the character Mike Scmidt, who gets fired from his job as a guard at the mall after a violent occurrence. He’s then offered a job by his career counselor, Steve Raglan, to take the night shift at the abandoned pizza restaurant, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, which was huge in the 1980’s. He was hesitant at first but had no other options but to take the job for his sister, Abby, or else social services would take her away and be under authority of their aunt Jane. On his first day he doesn’t suspect much of the place. He ends up getting these weird dreams that take him to the day Garrett, his brother, got kidnapped but is also accompanied by five more children. It’s not until later on he meets a police officer that goes by the name of Vanessa, that truly introduces him to what this whole establishment really is. He eventually meets the main stars of the restaurant, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy. As the nights progress, he starts noticing paranormal activity going on once he sees the animatronics coming towards him. It’s up to Mike to survive five nights surrounded by killer animatronics and not let social services take his sister away from him.
Review:
I didn’t have huge expectations for this movie as most big fans of the game series did. I didn’t want to hype myself up because most of these video game to film adaptations don’t usually do the best when they come out and are met with harsh criticism. For me, I don’t mind those type of movie adaptations because I just love all things video games. Man, this movie was weird to watch, weird in a good way. This movie tried it’s best to stick to the original source material but didn’t fully get there. Of course, when it comes to movie making there’s bound to be restrictions and not everything from the original source material can be implemented. The plot, as most video game to film adaptations, was more or less its own thing and not too affiliated with the first game. I’d say the visuals were definitely what you would imagine if the game were to take place in our world. There were times where it felt like I was watching those early 2000’s movies where the color of the scenery looked grey or dull. It almost felt nostalgic when watching the film. I really wished that the animatronics had more speaking roles, most of the time they were just silent. I do understand why they didn’t have voices. In the first game they didn’t really talk, they’d just make sounds. The cast was amazing. I’m really glad they got Matthew Lillard in this movie. He’s already familiar with the scary scenarios with movies like Scream and the Scooby-Doo live action movies. The soundtrack for this movie was good. Most of it consisted of original composed music but also features some licensed songs. One of the songs that really stuck with me was Talking In Your Sleep. I’m a sucker for 80’s music so this being one of my favorite songs now is no surprise. It’s a shame that the infamous Carmen: Toreador song didn’t show up in the movie and only in the trailers for it. To think that the most recognizable song from the first game didn’t make into the movie was a huge disappointment for me. This movie has a lot of easter eggs for those die-hard fans to find, so if you’re a big fan of the game franchise, you’re in for a treat. Can you spot them all? This movie of course was made to please the fans of the games than critics, therefore has very mixed reviews from critics alike. It got a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score of 88%. What most people complained about the movie was that it wasn’t as scary as the game and the content rating as PG-13. Most people really wanted there to be an 18+ rating of the movie with more scary or gory content in it but that’s very unlikely considering the fanbase of the game consists of minors. For me, the movie felt as it was more of a thriller than a horror movie. It’s more suspenseful than scary. It had its fair share of corny moments, but they end up being somewhat fitting. As for a rating, I’d give it an 8/10.
Other Reviews:
I wanted to know what other people thought about this movie, so I got a few students to give me their takes on it.
Nathan Ochoa (Senior): “The movie appealed more to fans than the critics.”
Jennifer Bravo (Senior): “It was fun, it was silly. I like the references in it.”
Mycah Conrey (Senior): “Movie was ok but don’t expect any lore accuracy.”
Irvin Sanchez (Senior): “So I really loved the beginning because it reminded me of a cool 80’s slasher in a way. I love the horror elements but then you can start seeing the corny parts towards the middle and how they build a fort. Overall, I believe they should’ve made two versions, one for like little babies and another for the fans that are all grown up.”
Conclusion:
I thought this movie was great. Would I recommend this movie, yes. Does it have its flaws, of course. I feel like my childhood can rest easy now, knowing that this movie came out. It was more or less nine-year-old me that enjoyed it than 17-year-old me. Hopefully with its sequel that’s being in the works as I speak, Blumhouse Productions takes good notes of criticism from the first movie and makes it better than ever with their next one. You know what they say about sequels, the sequel is always better than the first one. Make sure to check out the trailer of the movie which is posted here to take a look at and to check the movie out on theaters or Peacock.
