Spoilers for the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie.
Spanning various games and books, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” (FNaF) is a popular survival horror game following the repercussions of the murderous tendencies of William Afton.
Together with Henry Emily, William Afton–better known as The Man Behind the Slaughter–first began the Freddy’s Diner franchise as an innocent outlet for kids to have fun. However, the intentions of William eventually turned sinister, and his mounting discontent with life led to a growing envy of Henry’s skillful animatronic creations. To put an end to Henry’s joy, he murdered his daughter Charlie Emily, and stuffed her body into the robot Henry had built to protect her, the Security Puppet.
The onslaught continued with the Missing Children’s Incident, in which William, disguised in his bunny suit, lured in five children and killed them.
With the brunt of murderous accusations on his back, William had a falling out with Henry during a brief altercation.
On that note, the movie adaptation was released on October 26, 2023, revolving around Michael Schmidt–played by Josh Hutcherson–who must grapple with the emotional burdens of feeling responsible for his brother’s abduction, balancing a stable job, and taking care of his younger sister Abby after the loss of their parents. Typical older sibling activities.
The film’s cinematography is great; in fact, there are subtle allusions to the game that only fans would understand, such as the brief appearance of the infamous “It’s Me” and the Puppet’s face in the backdrop of a scene.
The film also featured Matpat, a legendary figure in the FNaF fanbase due to his significant contributions to the lore on the channel “The Game Theorists”, which has caused him to go insane piecing the puzzles together.
Although many were unhappy that Markiplier, another iconic figure, would not be featured in the film, some of his own plans for his upcoming film “Iron Lung” clashed with the film dates.
Aside from these fantastic details—not to mention all the amazing shots we had of Hutcherson—the film was a huge letdown.
Jacksepticeye’s tweet expressing his disapproval of the movie he had been reviewing ahead of its release date was the first indication of this. Regretfully, I agree.
I have been a fan of the franchise since I was a child, keeping up with all of the updates and playthroughs, so I had high hopes for the film coming in.
My first takeaway was that Michael Afton was not the star of the show, which was slightly disappointing as it would have been exciting to see Purple Guy, but it did not detract from the movie. My second was the lack of violence.
The biggest bummer for me, however, was during the fort scene. Was it cute? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it? Sure. But it did not capture the franchise’s core, which is pure, unadulterated horror.
Perhaps the scene was set to humanize the victims, after all, we tend to forget that they’re just children. Still, that is all thrown out the window when they happily watch the spring-lock suit give in and sink its claws into their killer. It is almost like they were trying to recognize the loyalty of the fans but also incorporate the new viewers, which left us with a really confusing and unfulfilling watch.
To further support the notion that the movie lacked the spirit of the horror game, there weren’t really any major jump scares. FNaF revolutionized the horror game industry because of its unique element of jump scares, a fundamental component found at the core of most contemporary horror games, yet this crucial detail was omitted. There was only one jump scare sound!
The movie felt like a money grab. Cawthon–whose every word is untrustworthy–and other film crew members chose to target parents and kids rather than the ardent supporters of the franchise who have been here since 2013.
They intended for the FNaF movie to be something you could casually enjoy whether or not you have been keeping up with the games, but to be honest, I think it would have done better if it had followed the original narrative.
FNaF stood out from other horror games of the era because it wasn’t afraid to prey on people’s unconscious, innate fears of masked individuals, even if those masks were disguised as cute animals.
The game succeeded in making them even more horrifying, warping your perception into being afraid of a massive yellow chicken because of the violence it’s capable of. This is missing in the movie, but you can’t really take the animatronics seriously without the blood and guts; they just look silly.
The highlight of the film was–ironically enough–the end, when “Five Nights at Freddy’s” by The Living Tombstone played. Then, Michael’s brother inadvertently suggested a sequel by urging him to come find him in an incomprehensible, warped voice. It was a nice reminder of all the messages we had to decode in FNaF.
Let’s just hope the next movie is better than this one!