There are hundreds of famous gaming franchises in the world, from Super Mario Brothers to Minecraft and, of course, the Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) series. The FNAF franchise consists of many games and now their very own movie, released in October. I’ve never played Five Nights at Freddy’s, and I know nothing about the lore. But after seeing the movie trailer and thinking it looked interesting, I decided to watch it in theaters. I thought the movie was quite entertaining overall.
The movie is about a man named Mike Schmidt (played by Josh Hutcherson) who’s taking care of his little sister, whose name is Abby (played by Piper Rubio), by himself. His aunt Jan (played by Mary Stuart Masterson) is taking him to court for custody of Abby. He needs to find a job quickly to prove he can care for her, but the only job available to him is as a security guard at the abandoned Five Nights at Freddy’s Pizzeria. He has no choice, so he takes it.
The first few nights on the job are normal; Mike sleeps his whole shift and then returns home. On his second night, he meets a police officer, Vanessa (played by Elizabeth Lail), who’s familiar with the pizzeria. Throughout the rest of the movie, Mike uncovers dark secrets about the pizzeria and his past. Vanessa warns him to mind his own business, but of course, he doesn’t. This leads to Mike fighting for his life against the animatronics that haunt the pizzeria, including Foxy the fox, Chicka the chicken, Bonnie the rabbit, and most famously, Freddy the bear. Against these animatronics, Mike has to decide whether his wants are more important than his sister’s.
There are many parts to this movie that make it entertaining. I find most unique the fact that the animatronics on set were 100 percent real. According to “Entertainment Weekly,” each part of the animatronic was controlled by a puppeteer somewhere off-set; this helped to make the animatronics more robot-like, which helps create the creepy setting of the movie.
Along with the distinctive characters on-set, the music and sound effects helped to really pull the movie together. Before watching the movie, I checked on social media to see what other people thought of it, and one of the things I noticed the most was how much people appreciated the music in the movie. Apparently, the background music also happened to be some of the main theme songs in the video game. Even though I didn’t have that personal connection, I really liked the background music because it helped accompany the creepy theme of the entire film.
The sound effects were also very impressive. Whenever an animatronic would move, they would have a very particular sound for whatever they moved. I thought this was very impressive because the sound effects would sound exactly how you think they would. For instance, when an animatronic would open its mouth, it would have the sound of metal clanking together, which I found impressive how the animatronics matched each movement with a unique sound of its own.
The main reason I liked the movie, however, was that I know nothing about the Five Nights at Freddy’s lore, but I understood everything in the movie. The movie overall reaches a broader audience because you can watch the movie regardless of whether you played the game.
I recommend this movie to anyone who loves suspenseful thrillers. Every aspect of this movie is enjoyable: from the sound and special effects to the music and, especially, the life-like animatronics. The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie was a great experience overall, and I think anybody would enjoy watching it—whether they played the game or not.
