By Andrew Mendia
The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie is the feature length adaptation of the iconic game with the same name. The film stars Josh Hutcherson in the leading role Mike, and Piper Rubio as his little sister, Abby. You follow Mike in this story as he loses his job as a security guard at a mall, only for him to pick up a job at the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria restaurant. Throughout the story he slowly uncovers the secrets and history of the Pizzeria which gets pretty dark and disturbing fast.
Alright, now picture this for just a second. You are a kid that just got home from school and went online only to have your entire YouTube homepage be blown up with videos about a potential FNAF Movie being in development. I was that kid and that also was 8 years ago. You see, I was an insane fan of this stupid little series for years and frankly, I still am. To see that this niche little thing I grew to love just months prior was already getting its own feature film was mind blowing to me as a child. Now when it came out, I only had one thought in my mind. That thought was that I was moderately satisfied and thought it was fine.
Yeah, coming from someone who’s adored this series since its inception in 2014, this movie’s fan service obviously kept me engaged and excited throughout the entire runtime. But, it didn’t mean I was completely oblivious to its flaws. For one, the lack of Matthew Lillard definitely dragged it down for me as it felt like a real waste of the skill of how perfect his casting is for the antagonist. And in retrospect, some of the writing and line delivery really did feel a bit silly at times, and it's extremely apparent in the last hour of the movie, and especially towards the climax. With some plot holes that are never solved or brought up, it really did feel like a large portion of the film was cut out. Like, a character just dies in the home of the main character and is never brought up after that.
That being said, there are parts of the film that I enjoyed greatly. For one, the lack of CG and use of puppets and actually animatronic robots is amazing, and makes the actual animatronics in each scene feel like they’re there. Secondly, Mike and Abby are incredibly strong characters and I really do like their dynamic. Josh Hutcherson really does a good job in this film, same with Matthew Lillard. Piper Rubio is a really good actress for how young she is and I do have a lot of faith for her future in acting.
Overall, the FNAF movie was definitely satisfying for me and I did enjoy it immensely, but acknowledge that it has flaws that do weigh down the film overall for me. If I could compare it to any movie, it’d be the Mario movie. It was fun to watch for fans but definitely had problems. I would recommend this film to fans or people that just enjoy a good fun movie. I do not recommend it if you are looking for a more dark and sinister horror movie, since that's not what this movie is at all. This film's PG-13 rating I believe benefitted it immensely, since this is a very good gateway introduction to the world of horror for younger audiences. And if you’re looking to buy a copy of the movie physically, here’s a link to the dvd / Blu-Ray release:
Final Rating:
3/5
Very interesting take on the movie
Great article! I really enjoyed the movie as well and am hopeful to see more of Matthew Lillard in the next movie.