Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

 

Genre: Horror/ Adaptation 

Time: 1h 49mins

Director: Emma Tammi

Quick Summary: A troubled security guard begins working at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. During his first night on the job, he realizes that the night shift won't be so easy to get through. Pretty soon he will unveil what actually happened at Freddy's.

The teenager in me is very angry with this.

I don't know what exactly it is about this that makes it so far from what the games were like, but Jesus. Honestly, this felt more like a drama story about some guy trying to get a job to keep his little sister from going to their horrible aunt. Not a lot of it actually takes place at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, the place where the games actually take place. Maybe the story wasn't that interesting but it really dragged out for a while.

I know I should judge it from a fresh perspective, but I am someone who followed the games fully throughout my teenage years, and this felt like such a gut punch to the fans. Most of the information given in this was either incorrect or massively changed things that we already knew. The stuff didn't make sense, and it made the whole thing about our main character's lost brother. This could have been a good tie-in with some of the animatronics, but they didn't even bother with that. There are other things such as them being controlled by someone, and how they "defeat" the bad guy at the end. Honestly, the whole story is pretty ridiculous. 

Admittedly, I did like the look of the animatronics so a big shoutout to the Jim Henson company for bringing them to life. Though, this might just be me, at times they looked very out of place and they moved really strangely. There was a lot of thought put into the look of this film, as there is a nice handful of visual references and easter eggs which were fun to spot. 

It is a shame this wasn't scary at all. I wish there was a lot more to do with our protagonist working the night shifts and the animatronics slowly came to life and we got to see them stalk the poor guy. But no. We had to sit through him dreaming about this brother for the twentieth time. As for the jumpscares, I was disappointed again as they were reduced to loud noises. Honestly, there were a lot of lighthearted and too many fun moments to even consider this scary. 

The acting wasn't too bad, Hutchinson and Lillard are as good as they can be with the writing they were given. Same with the kids in the movie. None of the characters were interesting as they felt so dull and too thin to care about.

As for the ending, that was honestly so horrible. Like the rest of the film, it was a mess. It was over incredibly fast, and it just made the experience so much more disappointing. I think the plot that this film actually revolves around is so boring and really didn't need to be in this, it distracts from what I assume most people like me when to go see, a horror game brought to the big screen.

If you're a fan of the games, be prepared to be disappointed.

2/10

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