Five Nights at Freddy’s (15)

Dir: Emma Tammi

Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, Matthew Lillard

Five Nights at Freddy’s lacks the scares or originality to make it an effective horror film in its own right but it will no doubt be a hit with its large and loyal fanbase

Ever since the release of the very much maligned Super Mario Bros. in 1993, countless video game franchises have attempted to adapt their stories onto the big screen, with varying levels of success. While most video game adaptations have not gone down well with the critics, the vast fanbases of the original titles have seen them rack up large numbers at the box office. A prime example of this is the recent adaptation of Super Mario, which came out earlier this year. The film grossed over $1 Billion at the global box office, and is the second highest grossing film of the year so far, only being surpassed by the juggernaut that is Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.

Therefore, it came as no surprise to me when ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s‘ was announced in 2022, as the small indie horror franchise has gained one of the largest online followings of any video game franchise in the past decade. Production on the film started as early as 2015 when Warner Bros. acquired the rights to the film but after a few false starts, Jason Blum and Blumhouse took over production. This was definitely a wise move for the franchise and its creator Scott Cawthon, as Blumhouse has an ever growing reputation for taking in excellent returns for their low budget horror titles.

For those not aware of the video game that the movie is based on, the premise is relatively simple. The player takes control of an unseen security guard, as he works the night shift at an abandoned family restaurant and arcade named Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. It is the job of the player to survive each night as they are attacked by the restaurants animatronic mascots, including the titular Freddy himself. Despite the simplistic narrative to the game, it was a huge success and spawned many sequels and spinoffs, as well as a large online fan forum that in turn creative an ever expanding lore and canon to for the franchise.

In the film, the security guard, Mike Schmidt, is played by Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games franchise). Mike is a troubled young adult, who feels somewhat responsible for his brothers kidnapping from an unknown assailant years prior. Being racked with guilt, Mike resorts to taking sleeping pills, in order to reconstruct the kidnapping in his dreams, to look for clues as to who was responsible. The kidnapping saw Mike’s perfect American suburban family fall to pieces, resulting in him being the sole guardian of his younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio). After assaulting a negligent father whilst working as a security guard at a shopping mall, Mike loses his job and is threatened by social services that custody of Abby will be passed on to their estranged aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson).

Out of desperation, Mike takes a job offer from his career counsellor, Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard), at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, working the night shift as a security guard. Over the next five nights, Mike becomes increasingly suspicious of the local police officer, Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) as well as the restaurants animatronics – Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Mr. Cupcake – as they come alive and attempt to murder anyone who may be loitering around the restaurant after hours.

The first thing to address with this review, is that I am not the target demographic for this film. Despite it having a 15 certificate in the UK, meaning no one under the age of 15 can see it, the target audience is the large teenage fanbase that grew up with these games. There will be older fans who this will no doubt appeal to as well but I was too old at the time of the games release to really get invested into them. I am very much aware of the games though, but any movie, whether it be an original property or adapted from another media, such as video games, should be able to stand on its own. Unfortunately, when it comes to ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s‘, it does not.

The main issue I had with this adaptation, which I actually saw on Halloween, is that it is nowhere near scary enough. For any horror film to be successful, it has to be scary, or have some psychological impact that will have you coming out the screening traumatized by what you have just witnessed play out. I however, came out feeling the same as I went in, as my mood and heartrate was never really heightened at any point throughout the movie’s 110 minute runtime. As well as lacking in scares, the film is also very predictable, with generic character development and a final reveal and payoff that could be telegraphed just from the trailers alone. While this may be in keeping with the plot of the video games, I feel like Scott Cawthon, who co-wrote the film, had to restructure his highly successful video game creation in order for it to work on the big screen.

The only real positives I can take from the film is the production design. With Cawthon being a co-writer and producer, he would have no doubt been a huge influence on the film’s set design, in particular the design and layout of the Pizzeria itself, which perfectly encapsulates the eerie atmosphere of a once thriving establishment which is now home to ghosts and living animatronics – almost like an episode of Scooby-Doo.

I would not go so far to say that I disliked the film, it has its moments, and is definitely better than the low budget rehash we got in 2021 with Willy’s Wonderland, starring Nicolas Cage. I would just say that it was a disappointment, and leans far too heavy into fan service with plenty of easter eggs an references for fans of the game to point out from start to finish.

‘Five Nights at Freddy’s‘ is not overtly bad, it is competent enough as a film with a decent central performance from Josh Hutcherson, but ultimately falls into the continuously growing category of disappointing video game adaptations. Despite my reservations however, the film will no doubt be a huge success with fans of the game and is already turning out to be another box office hit for both video game movies and Blumhouse.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is now showing in Cinemas