“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” the adaptation of the hit video game, has finally been released close to a decade after the original game’s release and being greenlit in 2015. In that time, the game jumpstarted many now-famous Youtubers’ careers through lets-plays and fan videos, as well as earned a special place in Gen Z and Gen Alpha culture.
It makes sense that an adaptation of this game would be made, despite its limited premise of holing up in a security room while nightmarish, off-brand Chuck E. Cheese animatronics try to kill you. It’s an idea that has gotten old, especially in film, but director Emma Tammi and Blumhouse do a surprisingly good job at keeping things fresh and exciting—for the most part.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s” sets itself up in a serious light that actually works. The movie’s protagonist, security guard Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), has a lot going on. He has to take care of his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio), fight against his aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson) for custody and deal with the childhood trauma of witnessing his brother get kidnapped. He copes by taking sleeping pills and forcing himself to relive the memory through his dreams, obsessing over who took his brother.
The film spends a lot of time building up this character, showing everything he is going through until he ends up a security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a long-abandoned family entertainment restaurant. It was shut down due to kids going missing there in the ‘80s. Except for a brief opening scene, this place isn’t seen until twenty minutes in.
The film still takes its time building up to the animatronics, creating mystery with the place affecting Mike’s dreams and furthering his need to find out who his brother’s abductor was. This pace allows the technological aspects to be expressively spooky. Marc Fisichella’s production design with Freddy Fazbear’s is delightfully creepy, and its archaic arcade feels unsettling once you first see it. That same feeling goes into Mike and Abby’s house, which looks depressing from the diluted wall colors but period accurate for 2000.
The cinematography, while nothing unique, makes everything feel gloomy. The simple use of close-ups creates a fitting, small scale for what characters like Mike are going through.
All of these things could make for a solid adaptation, but the film sadly falters as it goes on.
While Hutcherson is taking his role seriously, giving a genuinely good performance, everyone else acts like they’re in a comedy. Juxtaposed with Mike struggling to take care of his sister and deal with his trauma, we have Masterson as the treacherous Aunt Jane, who schemes with her bumbling lawyer sidekick to frame her nephew as a way to get custody, essentially playing her like a cartoon villain. Matthew Lillard plays Mike’s career counselor, noticeably acting more over-the-top than the protagonist.
Even Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), the police officer who befriends Mike, is played with an overly upbeat attitude that doesn’t quite work when more about her character is revealed. It seems like either Hutcherson got the wrong memo for how to play the role or everyone else did.
That tone issue becomes more prevalent by the second half, when a twist is revealed, causing the film to become suddenly lighthearted and silly. By the time things need to be serious again for the climax, the tension the movie managed to build up is gone. This tonal shift also creates a question: Who is this for?
Despite the serious tone and creep factor, there’s a scene where MatPat as a waiter says “That’s just a theory,” while explaining the importance of lunch. With all the violent deaths and subject matter of child murder, the PG-13 rating makes all the deaths happen off-screen or in shadow. Even though the animatronics are supposed to be threatening, there’s a gag where Freddy Fazbear enters a cab, with CoryxKenshin as the driver.
The film keeps going back and forth between being creepy and goofy, never balancing itself with what it wants to be. It becomes an uneven experience, with scenes either being effective or cringe-worthy, and it never gets fixed.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is an adaptation that is stuck between two goals: being a fun fan film for people to cheer at cameos and easter eggs, and being a serious, moody horror film about a man confronting his childhood trauma. It leads to an awkward, yet still fun watch for those familiar with the source material.
The film does work well in being serious enough for older kids to think they’re watching a “real” movie while being silly enough to keep them interested. In a way, I consider ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ fun for the whole family.
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