Around ten years ago I started noticing all the buzz surrounding something called Five Nights at Freddy’s. Mainly at comic cons and the like, a buttload of merchandise was popping up everywhere. For the most part showcasing this creepy looking teddy bear.
I pride myself on my horror knowledge, I’m usually at least aware of new horror movies or games, if I haven’t already consumed them. So, when this new franchise seemingly came out of the blue, I was a little confused. Especially when there was a ‘Freddy’ in the title, my horror brain immediately went to Freddy Kruger of A Nightmare on Elm Street infamy. Turns out it has nothing to do with my favourite dream demon.
Indeed, all this was all stemming from a new hit videogame set around a night security guard being terrorised by some animatronics. It was a PC release initially, and being the console gamer that I am, it was never on my radar. Eventually I played the game when a PlayStation port became available, and immediately recognised its horrifying appeal.
I wanted to know more about these characters, and quickly made my way through teenage novels set around the games. But they proved less than satisfying. All I could think was ‘man, this would make for an incredible horror film.’ The games already had a bit of cinematic flare and with the right guiding hand in the director’s chair, this world could really come to life. Well, that day is finally here.
Night Shift
The Five Nights at Freddy’s film follows Michael Schmidt, a security guard who takes an overnight gig at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, an abandoned family diner that’s main attraction was its animal animatronic entertainment. What at first seems like a cruisy job, quickly becomes the opposite when the robots come to life and start killing anyone who breaks in.
Straight of the bat, I was impressed by the visuals and feel of this film adaption. There are certain shots that are straight out of the videogame. The look of the animatronics match those of the game and the scary but almost cartoony atmosphere is present inside the diner.
Kill… But not too much
When the killing starts, it’s as entertaining as I would expect, with some laugh-out-loud and even cheering moments. Although they do seem to pull their punches when it comes to the gore…
This is where I started to question: Who is this movie made for?
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Judging by some of the merch out there and those young adult novels that I read, it feels like the games, while quite terrifying, were aimed at more of a tween audience. So, I assumed that’s the level of horror that we’d be dealing with here in the movie. Incidentally, the tone feels a bit too scary for kids of that age, but not hardcore enough for grown adults. Sadly falling somewhere in between and not fully appealing to either.
Elevated horror?
Instead of just making a killer robot movie, the filmmakers do attempt to elevate things. Funnily enough, this brings things back into the realm of Freddy Kruger.
Our protagonist is haunted throughout the film by a grave mistake he made as a child, which is stunningly portrayed by actor Josh Hutcherson. He was distracted for just a second when somebody kidnaps his younger brother, who he was supposed to be watching. Now grown, Michael dwells on this moment, believing in a theory that states that our brains record every single detail of every single second of our lives. With the right prompting, our brain can show us these details in our dreams. Michael believes if he dreams of the moment when his brother was abducted enough, he could obtain the identity of the man who took him and finally enact his revenge.
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This is a really interesting concept, and I’d love to explore it. I applaud the attempt to give this ‘silly’ videogame adaption a bump, but is it a bit much for a movie about murderous animatronics that look like stuffed animals?
Hutcherson nails the mopey performance that is expected of him chasing this ‘dream’, but it kind of sucks the fun out of the movie.
I would’ve just stuck with the animatronics angle to be honest; they almost feel like a bit of an afterthought in the end.
Freddy who?
Saying that, I do like the reasoning behind why these robot animals are coming to life, I won’t spoil it here, but it is both gratifying and icky at the same time.
Though, I would have liked to have seen them differentiate the animal’s characters. Sure, I can tell the difference between a bunny and a chicken, but in the game, it was especially a big deal when Foxy was coming for you. When he hit your screen, you knew you were in trouble. But he feels no different really to the other characters in the film. And what’s Freddy’s deal? The bear is literally in the movie’s title, but means nothing.
Again, no spoilers, but the film’s ‘twist’ ending, you can see a mile away. Instead of trying to be clever with all this dream talk, maybe they could’ve built up to that in a more satisfying manner.
What’s the deal?
When it comes down to it, the filmmakers needed to keep moving in one direction. The game was a fun, campy, jump-scare-fest that I feel like could’ve been easily replicated in movie form and appealed to a mass audience.
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If you’re going to make machines that rival a Saw film in the way they could kill a man, run with that. Don’t tease gore, then not give it. If you want to make an elevated horror film around dream recollection, maybe using the game-movie adaption about animatronic monsters wasn’t the right platform to tell that story.
Although I have ragged on this movie quite a bit, I did leave the cinema with a smile on my face. As I’ve said, Josh Hutcherson is great and Matthew Lillard makes an appearance that almost matches his Scream craziness.
The diner looks fantastic and it was cool to compare everything to the games, but it should’ve been FUN. If you want some of that, I recommend watching Nicolas Cage in Willy’s Wonderland. That movie does what Freddy’s could’ve, but didn’t.
Quest Daily Scores Five Nights at Freddy’s:
6/10
Five Nights at Freddy’s is in cinemas now.
