Twigs - Five Nights at Freddy's

Is this where you want to be?

[Note: This review will discuss elements of Five Nights at Freddy’s that were revealed in promotional material, such as trailers. If you’re someone who enjoys going into recent movies knowing as little as possible, you may want to skip reading this review.]

A good chunk of my early teenage years were defined by Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Since the day I first downloaded the game and played the entire thing in one sitting, right up until today, the independent horror franchise crafted by Scott Cawthon has been a massive influence in my own storytelling. Not just the horror elements of the series, but also its hidden lore, carefully-planned expansion, and general memorable nature. Theorycrafting was a big passtime of mine—and even though few know it, I figured out some elements of the ever-expanding lore on my own before many famous YouTubers made them popular. That is to say, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a franchise I understand. Despite having little interaction with it since the fifth game, Sister Location, came out in 2016, I still remember everything about the franchise that made it so unique.

I want you to know this because I do come from a place of bias when talking about this franchise and the content produced for it. While I’ve yet play any games beyond Sister Location and likely won’t be touching any expanded universe material, I still hold a fondness for the franchise that hasn’t really left. So much so that, yes, before seeing this movie I did brush up on the lore that was added after I stopped following so closely (lore that only made me want to jump back in!). And I was right to, because Five Nights at Freddy’s is a movie I cannot recommend to general audiences. Because, in order to fully appreciate this film, you need to be a fan of the game series. This is very much the type of movie that you can’t watch without at least knowing the basics of how the game operates. While there are elements of the film that try to appeal to a wider, general public, these fall flat compared to elements of fanservice, familiarity, and world-building. Essentially, you cannot watch this movie if you don’t already like Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Which is probably why I loved it so much.

Five Nights at Freddy’s pulls from the story of the first game in the franchise, but twists certain elements to relay a new version of its canon on the big screen. This version of the tale follows Mike Schmidt, a young man fighting a custody battle over his kid sister Abby following the deaths of his parents. Down on his luck and fired from his job due to an incident that happened during his shift, Mike decides to take up an overnight security guard job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. The abandoned restaurant is home to four animatronic characters: Bonnie, Chica, Foxy (the best one), and the titular Freddy Fazbear. As Mike’s first week on the job goes on, he begins to have strange dreams connected to his past, all while a newcomer helps him uncover the mystery behind the establishment—and why he was sent to work there.

The plot of this film is rather predictable throughout the majority of its runtime. No matter your familiarity level with the games, you’ll be able to figure out within the first half of the film what’s really going on. However, the obviousness of some of the film’s big, inner-story twists are complimented by a stellar performance from Josh Hutcherson. Since I personally haven’t seen him in anything beyond The Hunger Games films, I wasn’t sure how to feel about his starring role going in. However, he ended up becoming the emotional anchor for a very fanservice-heavy movie. Because of this, I was sold on his emotional reaction to everything happening around him, especially when his own backstory became the centerpiece of the film. It was an interesting take on the series that felt fresh while harkening back to everything that makes the franchise engaging.

And of course, I would be remiss to talk about the film without mentioning the highly impressive animatronic work that went into it. All the mascot characters in Five Nights at Freddy’s were created using real, remote-controlled animatronics, making their dangerous presence all the more terrifying in the film. This allows for a level of personality for the robots to shine through. As someone whose favorite of the original four is Foxy, I was glad to see a similar amount of bias translated into the making of this film. Or maybe the 14-year-old me buried somewhere in my soul thought there was more of the pirate than there really was—because I still can’t help but think he’s cool. Regardless, the animatronics were incredibly uncanny and detailed in their presentation, revealing just how much love and care went into making them feel like their gaming counterparts. It also added to the creepiness factor of them, something that was only derailed by one out-of-place yet fun scene which quickly switched back into the horror of the movie.

Though said out-of-place scene (which sees the animatronics acting in a more benevolent way than usual) felt like a very defining capstone for the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. One of the notable elements of the film is that its screenplay was written by Cawthon, the aforementioned creator of the series. Cawthon’s origin story regarding how he ended up creating the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise has always fascinated me. Despite having never made a horror game in his life, he cobbled together the first FNAF after critics of his Christian children’s games said his animal characters were too robotic-looking. As such, the first game in the franchise feels like a unique experience compared to later, more complex entries. It feels bare-bones and amateur, yet crafted with a love and effort reflective of a unique artistic vision. Here was a game from someone who had never made a horror game before, and it felt like a creator showing the world his naïve heart on his sleeve.

This same feeling translates over to the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. While Emma Tammi’s highly competent and general horror movie flair for direction carried the film visually, as a writer, I was drawn to the screenplay and how it operated. There was an interesting mix of horror, humor, and fanservice that ended up being an incredibly engaging experience. Mostly because it felt like the kind of interconnectivity I haven’t fully experienced in a movie before. Much like his first game in the series, this is very clearly the first time Cawthon has written a screenplay. And yet, because of that, it had a charm to it I’ve only really ever seen in low-budget, first-time director indie films.

The humor and horror sometimes go hand-in-hand, but also sometimes drift apart when the story decides it needs one or the other more for a particular scene. There are small references to not only the deeper lore of the games, but the the fandom who bolstered the franchise to Internet stardom. There’s even a major plot twist at the start of the film’s third act you simply wouldn’t understand if you weren’t a fan of the franchise. It feels like both a personal journey in a writing sense, as well as something entirely catered to those who made the series as popular as it is today. A love letter to fans of the franchise who are invested in its animatronic characters and its hidden lore. And, given just how massive a fandom the game series has, the record-breaking box office success of the movie comes as no surprise. If anything, I’m shocked it hasn’t crossed $200 million worldwide yet! But I suppose that’ll be saved for this coming weekend (assuming its dual release on Peacock doesn’t impact those numbers).

Overall, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a unique filmgoing experience that, while not for everyone, delivers perfectly on what fans of the franchise would expect from it. Not only does it appeal to multiple facets of the fandom through its character presentation and lore, but the movie as a whole has an entirely different presentation than any other horror film I’ve seen this year. While it’s understandable why some critics would be confused, not understanding the appeal of the movie, those familiar with the franchise will see it for what it is: A love letter to the fans that helped boost a point-and-click horror game into a multi-generational phenomenon.

Here’s to the movie’s continued successful performance, so even more films based on the franchise can grace the big screen!

***

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