Five Nights At Freddy’s (2023)
Emma Tammi’s Five Nights at Freddy’s is an enjoyable horror thriller, based on the popular video game, created by Scott Cawthon.
It tells the story of Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), a both financially and mentally troubled young man, who accepts a night job as a security guard at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
Mike has to care for his little sister Abby (Piper Rubio), who is in danger of being taken away by evil Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson), who wants full custody of Abby because of the money she would receive.
During his night shifts at Freddy’s Mike bonds with local policewoman Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail, with the charisma of Jennifer Lawrence), who for some reason seems to spend an awful lot of time at the disheveled pizza place.
Meanwhile, Mike is dealing with a childhood trauma about the disappearance of his younger brother Garrett (Lucas Grant), which happened years ago, during a day out with their parents.
It soon becomes clear there is a connection between this backstory and the present situation at Freddy’s. But what exactly?
The story also puts a lot of focus on the animatronic robots that were part of the attraction when Freddy’s Fazbears Pizza was at the peak of its popularity and now only come alive at night. But what piece of the puzzle do they fit? It may be murder just to find out.
The plot thickens even further when Mike starts bringing along Abby during his night shifts, but I won’t spoil what happens next.
Five Nights at Freddy’s is a fine example of a not too scary horror movie, that is perfect for a mainstream audience.
It’s not as inventive as M3gan (also produced by Blumhouse), but it serves up a decent mix of light and dark scenes, of fun and scary moments, that will appeal to both young and old, especially those of the scaredy-cat persuasion.
And with some fine actors - Matthew Lillard is a stand-out in a relatively small role - a crafty production design and the indispensable services of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop thrown in for good measure, this 25-million dollar production is bound to clean-up at the box office on opening weekend.
I do have some nits to pick. The story takes a while to get going, mainly because director Tammi puts so much emphasis on Mike’s trauma that the use of a few too many flashbacks at times prevent the story from moving forward.
Yet at the same time there are some editing choices that make other parts of the movie, like the climax, feel rushed - Five Nights runs for 110 minutes, but I would have been fine with a 2 hour version.
Still, I enjoyed myself quite a lot. The ending opens the door to a sequel and I know just enough about the video game to know that this movie barely scratches the surface and that there would be lots of possibilities for future franchise installments. So here’s hoping…
Note: Five Nights at Freddy’s is released all over the globe this week, with other countries to follow in the coming weeks, and Japan in February.