‘Five Nights At Freddy’s’ Spoiler-Free Review
Image Source: IMDb
Five Nights at Freddy’s fans finally got their film adaptation. The game has been hugely popular since its release in 2014, and many have been begging for a film adaptation for almost as long. The box office has shown tangible evidence of fans’ excitement for the film since it is now on its way to being Blumhouse’s most successful film to date. The PG-13 film was planned to be the perfect gateway film for younger audiences making their way into the horror genre. Unfortunately, the film that Blumhouse delivered was underwhelming and disappointing.
I have not played the games, but I have seen a ton of playthroughs, and the one thing they all had in common was terrifying jump scares. The animatronics are known for their ability to scare the pants off players, and many of them have the ability to open parts of their bodies and show horrifying faces. The film’s trailer promised these jump scares, but they were nowhere to be found in the actual film. Rather than actual jump scares, the film relies on loud noises to scare audiences and mostly avoids using the animatronics for the jump scares. The casting for the starring roles in the film was flawless, but the supporting cast was one of the things that ruined this movie. The stars of the film did what they could with a bad script, and Matthew Lillard really carried every scene that he was in. The supporting cast was goofy and brought nothing to the overall film. They also pulled you out of the flow of the film every time they were on screen.
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Image Source: IMDb
The movie follows a young man who is down on his luck and trying to support his young sister. He can’t seem to keep a job, and he is at risk of losing custody of his sister if he can’t find a new job quickly. After meeting with a career counselor, he is told about a nighttime security guard position at an abandoned pizza place known as Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. The counselor tells him that it’s an easy job and all he has to do is keep people out. Strange things begin to happen, and when the security guard is forced to bring his sister to the pizzeria with him, he soon learns that he is more connected to the place than he realized.
The animatronics and horror easter eggs are the only things that save this movie. The animatronics are truly spectacular to watch throughout the film, especially the level of emotion that can be seen on their faces. The decision to use actual suits for the animatronics rather than CGI was a genius move. There are also plenty of classic horror easter eggs from films like Scream, Saw, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The biggest letdown with this movie is the writing. There is such an amazing concept, but it falls terribly flat. Rather than focusing on Freddy’s, there are so many storylines, and most of them make absolutely no sense to the film. The result is a film that was promised to be horror but instead felt like a psychological thriller with elements of a family or crime drama. Even the climax of the movie isn’t safe because right in the middle of the action there is a happy fort-building scene that not only stops the action completely but doesn’t make any sense with anything else that had been happening in the narrative. The film is less than two hours in length, but by the end, you feel like it’s been closer to three hours because it drags on at a slow, choppy, and frustrating speed.
Rating: 5/10
Five Nights at Freddy’s is currently in theaters and streaming on Peacock.
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