For the penultimate review of my 2023 October Challenge I’m checking out the long anticipated and recently released “Five Nights At Freddy’s”. This is of course based on the hugely successful survival horror video game series from 2014 onwards. So disclaimer up front: Although I own the first few games, I never got around to playing them. I know a reasonable amount about them, but I no doubt missed a lot of references. That said, that also means I’m not going to give the film any bonus points just for including Easter Eggs. This is directed by Emma Tammi
A Magical Place.
The movie is set mostly at “Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza”, a closed down 80’s diner that is likely based off Chuck E. Cheese that features large animatronic robots that resemble anthropomorphic animals. In the prologue we see the death of the previous security guard at the hands of the animatronic monsters and we are then treated to a pretty cool intro credits sequence involving what appears to be a tribute to the 8-bit style minigames from some of the games. We’ve then introduced to our protagonist “Mike Schmidt” played by Josh Hutcherson (Mike was also the protagonist from the first game). This version of Mike has a young sister Abby (Piper Rubio) he takes care off and a traumatized past where his brother was kidnapped and never seen again.
Mike is desperate to find a job so he doesn’t have to give up custody of his sister to their greedy Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson). As a result he takes the job of the new night security guard at the Pizzeria. The place has a strange effect on him though, where his recurring dream about the kidnap of his brother is altered to including five mysterious children that he believes may hold the secret to the identity of the kidnapper. Things reach a whole new level of crazy though when he discovers the animatronics are possessed by the souls of murdered children and it’s these children that were appearing to him. This revelation puts him and his sister in imminent danger however, both from the animatronics and their mysterious master.
Horror In The Hallways.
So the first thing to mention here is as far as being a horror goes, the movie is very light. There isn’t really much in the way of jump scares, though the animatronics are done very well and do look pretty menacing. There are kills of course, mostly in one section where Aunt Jane sends a group of thugs to smash up the diner in an attempt to get Mike fired. The problem here really is that all the kills are either people we don’t know (The original security guard) or bad people we are meant to dislike and none of the kills are themselves particularly interesting. The horror elements are also very spread out, so if you turned up to watch people slaughtered by animatronics you will probably be disappointed.
That out of the way, there’s actually a lot of positives with this movie. It just may not be what people expect going in. What it does excel at is the general look. As I mentioned above the animatronics look great and it’s satisfying to see quality practical effects on my screen again. The monsters have enough life to both be able to express basic emotions and to provide a suitable amount of menace. The diner also looks great and the general feel seems to fit really well with what I would expect for something with 80’s ties. Of course 80’s nostalgia has been done to death, but here it used right. Never really pushing it too far, though of course it’s not set in the 80’s that’s just where the diner originates.
The Players And The Game.
The second thing I liked here was how they managed to take the basic premise of the game and work a character driven story into it. This is very much Mike’s movie, but his sister and officer Vanessa Shelly (Played by Elizabeth Lail) all get decent character development. Even the con woman babysitter (Secretly working for his aunt) actually has an implied crisis of conscience after having grown attached to Abby. Through this the movie actually has the feel of a family film and with its PG-13 rating I think parents could find this quite a suitable Halloween film for the family.
In regards to the actors performances I can’t say any particularly stand out. Probably Mary Stuart Masterson is most notable, though her role is short and her character one dimensional. The other characters are absolutely fine, but nothing more. The music is a little hit and miss, in places working very well but in others feeling sort of generic. Having not played the game I don’t know if there were any musical references, but I gather the first game largely used modified public domain music so probably not. The story itself appears to be very true to the main story/theme of the game, with only a few minor modifications which were entirely reasonable to make it work as a film. Of course big fans of the game may disagree on that, I can only go by the broad strokes I’m aware of.
Freddy Vs Willy Vs Banana!
Since this movie was beaten to the screen by two knock off’s of its concept, it’s worth examining how those contrasts with them. The movies I’m talking about here are “The Banana Splits” (2019) and “Willy’s Wonderland” (2021). The Splits was the first out and utilized a licence for the Banana Splits franchise, a legit children’ s program’s variety show that ran from 1970-1982. A bold movie and the movie itself was perhaps the most straight horror of the three. I actually quite enjoyed it and anyone that hasn’t seen it and wanted more horror to this movie should probably give it a shot.
Willy’s Wonderland however was largely a subversion of the concept, where the animatronics (In this case possessed by a serial killer and his acolytes) come across something more terrifying than themselves… Nicholas Cage. It’s actually a huge amount of fun, but must be said is really more about Cage’s character. This one was far more action orientated and far less of a character story since Cage keeps silent the whole time and outside of some obsessive compulsive behaviour is largely just an ass kicking machine.
Despite coming out last, Five Nights At Freddy’s contrasts really well with it’s imitators. It provides something they don’t with its more family friendly, polished and character driven approach and with that, carves out it’s own place in the world of psycho animatronics. Perhaps most importantly though in the head to head, the animatronics simply look much better in this Movie (Credit to the Jim Henson team for that). Is it better though? I think all three films will have their supporters. Personally I preferred WIlly’s Wonderland, but I would say Freddy’s is the objective best of the bunch.
Conclusion.
Overall this was an entertaining film. It dragged a tiny bit in places and the actual horror elements were a bit disappointing both in their number and quality. However it has a great atmosphere, solid character writing and appears to be relatively true to the game. Far truer than most video game adaptations anyway. So this is a strong 6/10. Worth a watch, even if you aren’t a fan of the games.
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