Verdict
Summary
Five Nights at Freddy’s will appeal to younger audiences more familiar with the videogame franchise however, for older viewers like myself who haven’t played the games it’s pretty tame and frankly quite boring at times. It’s maybe worth watching once but I’m not the target demographic here, so my opinion doesn’t really matter.
Plot: A troubled security guard begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. During his first night on the job, he realizes that the night shift won’t be so easy to get through. Pretty soon he will unveil what actually happened at Freddy’s.
Review: I’ve never played any of the Five Nights at Freddy’s videogames, so I couldn’t tell you if this is a faithful adaptation or not; I’m just judging it as a film in its own right. From the trailers I was expecting a fun movie with killer animatronics in the vein of Willy’s Wonderland but it ended up being far more serious and wasn’t especially fun or scary.
Most of the movie involves security guard Mike (Josh Hutcherson) being depressed about the loss of his younger brother, so it’s a far more serious tale than expected. I mean it’s all utter nonsense and it’s hard to take such a crazy concept seriously and yet I still enjoyed the movie mostly due to strong performances from the entire cast and it certainly wasn’t without its creepy moments.
I think the PG-13 rating hindered it for me so we didn’t get any gore, but at times it pushed the boundaries of the rating making it a good gateway horror picture for younger viewers.
The pacing is surprisingly sluggish and I found myself bored and even looking at my phone at various points as I was just waiting for something to happen, but hopefully in the inevitable sequel will up the scares and tension. The finale was worth the build up however, and there was some cool music too.
Overall, Five Nights at Freddy’s is probably more fun for younger audiences who are familiar with the games but as someone who has never played them it’s appeal was mostly lost on me. It certainly had its moments and the performances were solid all round but it wasn’t scary or all that fun, so it’s likely not something I would watch again.