So let’s get this right out of the way: I have never played a single game in the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise in my life whatsoever. The few video games I have played have mostly been first-person shooters, L.A. Noire or borrowing my brother’s Grand Theft Auto 5 just to drive cars like a crazy person. I have never played any horror games at all, but I remember hearing about Five Nights at Freddy’s because of the big animatronic teddy bears and all the jumpscares it caused gamers. It was a big old sensation when it came out in 2014 and has remained popular with video game fans and horror fans. Many of my friends have played the game and know all about the mythology and the lore. I myself have no clue what any of the story elements of the game could possibly have been, so it felt like an odd decision to go along with said friends to see this much-anticipated film adaptation of Freddy’s. Should I really bother seeing a film adapted from a beloved source material as a complete novice? Or maybe I could bring something fresh to the experience, and seek out for myself whether or not the film works for someone completely alien to the games and more objectively answer the question: does this work as a standalone movie? And the answer is…kind of?
I did go into Five Nights at Freddy’s with an open mind, despite knowing virtually nothing about the lore behind the games and barely even knowing the actual plot of the film itself. I didn’t even know what actors would appear in the film, that is how little I knew about it. And the film does open in an exciting way that actually raised my expectations. Maybe this could be something good, or at the very least entertaining. The opening, whilst nothing exceptional in its own right, was still well constructed and conveyed a sense of tension I felt was appropriate given my (limited) knowledge of the games. This was promising I thought, a legitimately fun and entertaining fast-paced horror movie.
And then the plot starts. We are introduced to the main protagonist Mike Schmidt, played in the film by Josh Hutcherson in what I believe is the first non-Hunger Games role I’ve seen him in (how ironic then that the trailer for the new Hunger Games prequel played in the theater). He is caring for his younger sister Abby (played very well by newcomer Piper Rubio), although at first I suspected it was his daughter given the rather sizable age difference. Anyhow, Mike is fired from his job as a security guard when he violently beats up a parent he suspects to be a child abductor. He must find a job fast, otherwise his comically evil aunt Jane will take custody over Abby. Out of pure desperation he accepts a job as a caretaker of the old, rundown establishment Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. And on his first night, he falls asleep. And on the second night, he falls asleep again but is awoken by a police officer named Vanessa. Then on the third night he bring Abby when her regular babysitter doesn’t show up. Then the animatronics seem to be alive. Then on the fourth night they all build a fort together out of tables and chairs to the sounds of a cheesy 80s pop tune. And it was at this point I thought to myself: “wait a minute, isn’t this supposed to be a horror movie?”
In a way I’m torn on this aspect of the movie. On the one hand I appreciate the attempt to establish and build up these characters to an audience of people like myself who are not familiar with the games, the lore and the rules of this world. I would not be familiar with Mike Schmidt’s guilt over the childhood trauma of witnessing his kid brother get kidnapped (and you can bet all your life savings that’s going to be revealed to us later in the film), so I appreciate the filmmakers trying to give us some background. And initially I was quite fond of the flashbacks, especially once it’s revealed Mike is consciously thinking back on the incident partially in search of clues for who the mysterious assailant might be. Closeups of details he believes to be important such as a frisbee landing on the ground or his mother spilling some liquid on their table work in that respect. But then the film cuts back to these flashbacks so often, and eventually the adult Mike appears and starts talking to a mysterious group of children in the dream, making me think it was just Groundhog Day but inside someone’s dreams. It spends so much time on this issue and on scenes related to this that I was starting to get bored by the halfway mark of the 109-minute long film.
I think in a big way the lack of tension was the thing that truly killed any attempts at horror for me. Despite the films repeated attempts to convey Mike’s desperation in taking this job and revelations of some underlying evil happening at the pizzeria it is undercut by multiple scenes of almost nothing happening, several moments of supposed scares that turn out to be fakeouts and most baffling of all the subplot involving the comically evil aunt Jane. Why she acts the way she does is explained away as her desiring government checks for taking care of Abby but is never expanded upon. Although Mary Stuart Masterson was very funny in her portrayal of the character she nevertheless felt very out of place for the rather serious tone the rest of the film contained. Even worse on that front was her lawyer, who even though he only appears in two scenes in the entire film with virtually no dialogue, he made me laugh often just because of his silent reactions to the things being said in his presence. But as funny as their scenes could be, they clashed with the overall tone of the rest of the film. Had it been more in the vein of a horror comedy like Gremlins (at one point Chris Columbus was scheduled to direct this film) they might have worked better, but in its current form they strike me as odd.
If there is anything in this film that strikes me as truly impressive I would have to say the animatronics themselves are quite well done. They were performed either as marionettes puppetered by members of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, or actors/stuntmen inside the costumes performing their scenes, which means they were all done practically which in this day and age is close to a miracle. Even if we can do marvelous things with CGI and digital effects now it still never beats a practical in-camera effect, even if said effect looks bad. I just wish they could’ve been applied to a better movie. Apart from the animatronics there is nothing technically in this movie that particularly stands out to me. It’s not a poorly made film by any means, it’s merely fine. But for me that is not enough.
In short, if you want to watch a horror movie with animatronics and a janitor, watch Willy’s Wonderland instead. It’s technically less competent and is overall really weird and a whole lot dumber, but it is tonally much more consistent and a lot more entertaining than Five Nights at Freddy’s.
A Fistful of Film 