Directed By Emma Tammi

Starring – Josh Hutcherson, Mary Stuart Masterson, Matthew Lillard

The Plot – Mike Schmidt (Hutcherson), a night guard at a local diner, becomes troubled after confronting the truth about the animatronic costumes that reside: they aren’t just robots. They are alive. Will he be able to survive all five nights at this haunted diner? Or is something more sinister at play?

Rated PG-13 for strong violent content, bloody images and adult language

Five Nights At Freddy’s | Official Trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

Series creator and screenwriter Scott Cawthon has supplanted more depth to this property than any gamer could ever imagine, with a narrative exploration of childhood trauma that works surprisingly well in contrast to the creepy atmosphere of an abandoned childhood eatery. While this element does take up a majority of the focus in the film’s first half, suppressing Freddy’s to the background of the engagement, its incorporation in the many adult characters speaks volumes to the spontaneity of their emotional responses, and in the case of Mike fuels the fire of speculation from within that has left him haunted by one fateful day within his childhood that ultimately and unfortunately changed his life forever. Beyond this, Tammi’s articulation of adapting the setting of the popular video game to the silver screen is impeccable, in both the creepiness of the atmosphere, which seamlessly taps into the unnerving emphasis of abandoned buildings and lifelike animatronics, but also in the effectiveness of the set decorations and design, which naturally imbed that lived-in kind of quality to urban decay that inspires excitement to the daring explorer within all of us. While I don’t feel that “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was ever scary, an unfortunate element that I will get to later, I will say that what few moments of tension that it does attain is because of the ambiance of the titular setting, where anything quite literally feels possible. Enriching this charm even further is an eclectically engaging soundtrack that each receive new life when performed by sinister animatronic animals in an abandoned dining room. The obvious favorite is “Talking in Your Sleep” from The Romantics, which plays consistently throughout the electrical flicks throughout the building, but there’s also some noteworthy surprises in 80’s glam rock that casually got my toes tapping, all while channeling childlike nostalgia that has left this setting immortal to the hands of time, while we the audience have aged. Lastly, much credit goes to the entire ensemble, who commit to the cause of this video game-turned-movie, but primarily Hutcherson and Lillard, who each possess this gravitas to the way they command the screen. For Hutcherson, it’s an overwhelming vulnerability factor in both the uncertainty of the environment that he has just walked into, but also this internal longing for his character’s own emotional instability at the hands of trauma that provide his most challenging work to date, but for Lillard, it’s chewing as much of the scenery as we would expect from one of Hollywood’s most radiant personalities. Lillard isn’t in the movie much, but what little time he’s given allows him the unshakeable grip on audience attention, with little quirks and ticks to the responses of the character that Matthew has thoroughly spent time fleshing out.

NEGATIVES

For every action unloaded by Tammi in bringing the uniqueness of this world to life on the silver screen, there’s an even greater reaction that hinders its accessibility factor, especially for newfound fans like myself who know little to nothing about its universal appeal. The first of these hinderances easily stems from that aforementioned lack of focus in suppressing Freddy’s to the back for the first half of this movie. While I appreciated that the script attempted to add depth to his characters and their biggest fears, it comes at the cost of restlessness from audiences who are seeking to live and breathe inside of Freddy’s, which ultimately limits its scaring potential from the word go. Further clouding the frights are the lack of punch to them that never transpires beyond momentary jump scares. For once, I’m not insulting a movie’s jump scares, as it’s a well known aspect of the games that the movie is based on, but instead I think it’s the PG-13 rating that does it a grave misservice, especially in the scrubbing of what is ultimately depicted. It’s obvious that a majority of this audience is kids or early teenagers, and that the production is trying to cater to as many of them as possible, but I truly feel that this film could’ve been so much better if they fully embraced the mayhem of the concept, with buckets of blood and devastating kills to inspire such gratifying pay-offs. In addition to this, the film is a complete tonal mess in the consistency of its nearly two hour run time, with shifts and spikes that never work smoothly as one cohesive film. Sometimes it’s the psychological intensity of aforementioned childhood traumas, while others it’s the dramatic melancholy of a familial custody battle, and others a full-fledged horror movie, with characters continuously fighting for their lives. It’s not impossible for these tones to work together, as films like “Se7en” or “Candyman” marry drama and horror spectacularly, but here the variation from one scene to the next leaves Tammi’s direction feeling a bit disjointed, especially with the structure of scenes that swing so feverishly with little to no warning. Finally, the script’s biggest issue, and one that continuously broke my concentration, is an abundance of illogical instances that Cawthon can’t even begin to justify. I can understand that arguing logic in a movie with haunted animatronic animals doesn’t make me sound sane, but in the boundaries of humanity, this script overlooks police officers inability to search or find four adult bodies in this restaurant, in a room that should easily be one of the first to search. In addition, animatronics apparently have the ability to travel across town without drawing attention to themselves, plumbing and electrical is still being paid in a building that has been closed for over twenty-five years, and smashed glass on pinball and arcade machines suddenly fixes itself by the next time they’re shown in frame. Even in a movie with so many strange things going on, these were the ones that dropped my jaw the furthest, leaving it all the more difficult to go along with the established rules that Cawthon made for himself.

OVERALL
“Five Nights at Freddy’s” falls flat on scares, blank on personality, and jaded on consistency, leaving an uninspired mediocrity to the cinematic execution of a video game that practically writes itself. While the cast continuously commit themselves, and Tammi can at least set the stage in conjuring all of the feelings of the franchise’s fandom inside of the familiarity of this abandoned restaurant, she follows it up by hiding in the confines of the movie’s underwhelming rating, leaving it and its patrons condemned by a crumbling foundation.

My Grade: 5/10 or D