Five Nights at Freddy's movie review - Aussieboyreviews
DOES FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S DELIVER THE SAME AMOUNT OF SCARES AS THE GAMES?
Whether you’re talking about jump-scares, the amount of tension or terrifying imagery, this terrible horror movie for kids and teens delivers very minimal of it. Five Nights at Freddy’s is a massive disappointment.
Storyline
A security guard haunted by a troubled past begins working the night shift at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a local family diner. However, he soon comes to realise that the restaurant holds dark secrets of its own.
Movie Images
Movie details
Director: Emma Tammi
Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, Matthew Lillard
Writer: Scott Cawthon, Seth Cuddeback, Emma Tammi
Release Date (Australia): 26 October 2023
Runtime: 109 minutes/1h 49m
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Country: USA
Language: English
CONTENT GUIDE (warning: May contain spoilers)
The film includes horror themes, as well as thematic elements such as trauma, the kidnapping of children and sequences of threat against adults and children inflicted by large robotic animals that are possessed by the ghosts of dead children.
The film contains scenes of horror violence including a character being stabbed, another character being slashed multiple times, mutilated corpses and a character being chomped in half by a robotic bear. These scenes feature small amounts of blood and injury detail.
The film contains occasional coarse language, including use of the words “s**t”, “ass” and “**shole”.
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mpaa rating
PG-13 (for strong violent content, bloody images and language)
Aussie boy's thoughts
What made the FNAF games so terrifying were the chilling atmospheres, extremely creepy sightings of the animatronics and the nail-biting sense of danger, which would end each round with an accomplishing win or a massive jump-scare. This atrociously bad family-horror movie just abandons those factors and introduces us to a bunch of characters and situations we don’t care about. Josh Hutcherson plays a security guard haunted by a troubled past who begins working the night shift at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a local family diner. However, he soon comes to realise that the restaurant holds dark secrets of its own.
When you look at the production design and the look of the animatronic animals, you’re witnessing such incredible potential that the film should’ve dedicated more of its focus to. Freddy Fazbear’s is a dilapidated building with so much detail cast upon every wall, floor and stage in every area. Freddy, Foxie, Bonnie and Chica are these giant machines that are super menacing when they’re standing still, but unfortunately, they always seem less threatening when we see them moving around in their robotic states.
Running just a minute short of 110 minutes, it would’ve been reasonable to have 20-30 minutes of character development towards the start before thrusting our lead character into the position of the security guard, and dedicating the rest of the film to that. Unfortunately however, this movie just goes ballistic with the amount of character development and sub-themes. It ends up being a “drama” about a man’s traumatic outlook on life, the abduction of a young child that took place decades ago, and a custody battle that’s been tossed into the mix at the last minute; that’s not what you should be saying about a new movie titled after and based off of the popular survival game series Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Excluding the atrocious amount of time used to set up the main character and the story that lap over the movie we came to see, Five Nights at Freddy’s is also extremely boring, and it has a major lack of terror and tension. The horror of most horror movies often consist of way too many jump-scares, but of course in the adaptation of a game that has a major focus on jump-scares delivered by the animatronics, there’s only a few jump-scares in this movie, which will leave so many hard-core fans in immense disappointment. It’s also worth noting that games weren’t focused on extreme violence or gore; it was always the high levels of terror that made them so effective. But without any real suspense, it would’ve made sense to just throw in a fun gore-fest.
Perhaps one of the film’s most annoying inclusions however, was something you knew would take place due to the trailers and marketing, is the fact that Josh Hutcherson’s character is also responsible for taking care of his child-aged sister. This is something that should’ve been limited to the story taking place outside of Freddy Fazbear’s, and you’d expect the kid to only have real value in that other plot. Unfortunately, the screenwriters have decided that this wide-eyed, fearless and creepy little girl who listens to no grown ups would be the source of bait for the animatronic animals. In many scenes, Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Lail will be having a conversation that’s suddenly interrupted by this girl screaming like she’s being attacked, to which they run out to save her, and it turns out that the animatronics are just being a little ticklish and goofy. These animatronics look awesome, the film is directed nicely, and there’s plenty of references and details that fans will enjoy picking up on. But looking past all of that, all that’s left is horror clichés, missed opportunities and the fact that they made another piece of garbage out of a game we love.
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