So, nine years after the release of the first game, Five Nights at Freddy’s finally has a movie adaptation. The question is whether it’s actually any good. Spoilers for the movie ahead.
Directed by Emma Tammi, Five Nights at Freddy’s follows Mike (Josh Hutcherson), who takes a job as a night security guard for a defunct children’s entertainment restaurant filled with giant animatronics to try and provide for his little sister Abbey (Piper Rubio).
What works best – and what really is the most important aspect of the movie – is the relationship between Mike and Abbey. I’ve always had a lot of time for Josh Hutcherson as an actor (and he is giving Man Who’s Just Tired, Just So So Tired realness here, and trust me, I would know), and his on-screen chemistry with Piper Rubio is the eviscerated mechanical backbone of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Their affectionate but complicated and strained relationship feels really genuine, peppered with small details that fill out the sibling dynamic, and it’s that warmth and heart that serves the movie well. Maybe it’s just because I grew up with a big brother who probably wouldn’t want me to be eaten by haunted animatronics either, but it really worked for me.
And speaking of haunted animatronics, God, did I love the monster design here. This is a Henson Studios special, and it shows – Freddy and company look spot-on to me, convincingly cutesy enough that kids might like them, but with just enough in the way of unsettling details to serve their horror function. I adore the production design for the restaurant, too, the little details creating a distinct and recognizable backdrop. The iconic security office that serves as the base for the first game is lovingly recreated, and the movie is packed with little details and easter eggs for the gals in the know. It’s really nice to see the movie so fully embrace the aesthetic and style of the games, from the 8-bit opening credits to the security office tapes, and it does lend the movie a specific and unique feel. I’m not a huge fan of the YouTuber cameos, but they’re were inoffensive enough, and, with how much of the games’ success have relied on YouTube and Let’s Play channels, it feels fair to give them a nod here.
In terms of the cinematography, too, I love how Tammi incorporates her previous dreamlike and surreal style into this world without breaking the rules of the universe – it feels like an Emma Tammi film and a Five Nights at Freddy’s film in equal measure, and I wasn’t sure those two things would actually fit together as well as they do. She can put together a scare sequence, with the second act murder party a gleefully nasty massacre (the cupcake in the vent? I shrieked), and it felt like she was having loads of fun playing in this well-established world and bringing her own style to it.
But where the movie goes wrong, I think, is with the inclusion of Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail). Vanessa is a character cribbed from later FNAF games, and it really shows here – for me, she doesn’t fit comfortably into this story at all, and her inclusion feels more like an attempt to leverage in some advertising for more recent (and more profitable) game releases. She doesn’t fit in this story, because she was never meant for it. Though the movie does toss in a familial connection to try and ground her in this film, her presence here is confusing and confused; in playing mysterious, it’s almost hard to figure out where she’s coming from a lot of the time. She basically acts as a lore delivery machine, when it would have been way more interesting and compelling to see Mike uncover the mystery behind the pizzeria himself.
And, like other aspects of the story, Vanessa’s flimsy character feels like a victim of where the movie lacks. Though the central throughline of the movie is strong, there’s so much that feels missing, most significantly Matthew Lillard as William Afton. Afton is the iconic villain for the fans of the franchise, and, while I’m glad he was here, he’s also basically absent for the entirety of the second act, and rolls up for about three scenes without every really getting a chance to build up the real menace the character calls for. I am a huge fan of Lillard’s work (read as: I saw Scooby-Doo as a kid and never got over it), and what he does get is tantalizingly good, but it’s just not enough. His stature in this story doesn’t feel big enough to justify his big bad status, almost like some of the harsher edges have been sanded off to ensure a lower age rating and the bigger audience that comes with it.
Tammi has discussed the possibility of an R-rated cut and denied it was ever going to be anything other than a low-teens-rating movie, but I wish the movie had gone a little further with it’s horror and gore. The games themselves are relatively bloodless, with most of the horror either implied or shown in 8-bit form, but the movie lacks the bite (heh) of the horrors hiding in the pizzeria from hell. I understand why it shied away from including scenes depicting the murder of children, but leaning in to these aspects a bit more would have made Afton a more formidable villain and given the history of Freddy’s a bit more weight. I don’t need to see anyone’s frontal lobe get bitten off right on camera, but if you’re going to edge up to that nastiness, at least give us something of Afton’s crimes beyond just watching him trundle off in an evil car a half-dozen times, you know?
Overall, and as a fan of the early run of FNAF games, there was a real joy in finally seeing this story come to cinematic fruition. And, as a full piece, I think Five Nights at Freddy’s has more to recommend to it than to detract from it, especially if you love the games and this universe’s lore and backstory. But there were still aspects that lacked for me, and that felt more like cynical inclusions to relate the movie to more modern games than to expand the universe in an interesting way.
If you’ve seen it, what did you think of Five Nights at Freddy’s? If you’re a fan of the games, how did it stack up, and if you’re not, what did you think of the film? Let me know in the comments below!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Variety)
No But Listen 