There is a precedent for bad video game movie adaptations. These are usually purely meant as cash grabs, enticing children that care little for plot, logic, and production quality to spend their parents’ money to see the same characters they know on a bigger screen. This is arguably a pretty devastating mindset to have when reviewing any movie, and even though I try to remain unbiased, my expectations were pretty low for Five Nights at Freddy’s. Boy, was I wrong.
To give context, I have played the games occasionally over the years. While the gameplay itself is enjoyable, what I loved even more was the deep lore that each game contributed to, and how I had to piece it all together and speculate how the next game would completely change it all. Watching YouTubers like The Game Theorist, also known as MatPat, explains several theories about the game’s story after each release became routine and was an integral component of the game experience for me.
This is why this movie was such a surprise: despite my low expectations, the film is endowed with a shockingly endearing story that actually gives the characters weight and realistic motivations. These are expanded from the backstories in the games, and add additional details and stakes to the plot. For one, Mike’s relentless pursuit to remember his younger brother’s kidnapper through his own dreams was surprisingly tear-jerking, and was an interesting concept that I had not experienced before. The movie stays faithful to the lore, and any fan will recognize dozens of references that show that a true fan of the games made this movie, put together with delicate love.
Along with the plot, the effects and scares were especially tantalizing. I remained on the edge of my seat the whole time, as the movie’s primary mode of communicating fear wasn’t the cheap jump scares I expected, but a slow, foreboding horror that refused to let up. The film actually contained very few jump scares, and rather used the much more potent incorporation of slow shots, creepy music, and general sense of tension. The CGI of the animatronics was also on point, and they looked tangible and grounded, while also maintaining a sense of freaky, warped dream-like reality. The production for this film was absolutely perfect in execution.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Both Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Lail were amazing, as Mike and Vanessa, and Matthew Lillard (loved him from the Scooby-Doo films) brought a certain frantic energy that was indescribable. Piper Rubio surpassed the annoying-kid trope that I have become so accustomed to in recent movies, and she actually gave a solid, intelligent performance for someone her age. I also very much enjoyed the MatPat cameo, and I knew at that point that the film was a definitely a love-letter to fans of the FNAF franchise.
Five Nights at Freddy’s are in theaters now, and you definitely do not want to miss it this Halloween season.