Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) User Reviews

9/10 for looks - 3/10 for screenplay

[Chri-seened-it · 5/10 · 27 October 2023]

If you loved the FNAF games, go see this, at the base level it's fun to see this stuff come to life, especially when the costume design and set design are this good.

If you're a harsh critic, you might HATE this film.

Its biggest problems are character development overall storyline, and horror factor. (This would be better if R-Rated, however, that's not to say you can't make a great PG13 horror flick.)

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.

How to Make it Better?: I can see this being a MUCH better film if they were to treat it like a one-room horror adventure, much like the game. Keep Mike in the chair, terrified of leaving the office, trying to keep the monsters back. (Something like Devil, or Panic Room) - Throughout the film they could've given him flashbacks to connect dots, conversations over the phone, and during the day he makes rounds in the town to figure things out - Then they could make his reason for going back each night valuable, like he wants to solve the mystery of the animatronics, etc.

Just fell flat, beautiful to look at, some fun scenes, but you won't recommend the film to anyone who hasn't played FNAF.

Fantastic Visuals, Wafer-Thin Story

[tankboy-46851 · 6/10 · 27 October 2023]

So, I know it must be extremely difficult to take a simple gaming concept like Five Nights at Freddy's and stretch that idea out into a full blown movie. I totally understand that artistic hardship, but...The script missed the mark folks.

I honestly enjoyed the stunning look of everything, which I gather most people assume would be top notch given the studio that made the film, but wow... the basic story was so very weak. I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to horror movies, but this was moving into borderline "cheese", parody territory.

The positives: I was living for the look of the creature costumes. So many kudos there. The acting is pretty decent for a studio movie, as it really should be. Matthew Lillard was the standout performance in my opinion. The music was pretty cool too.

Everything considered, I honestly enjoyed myself, which is the point of any entertainment product after all. So I give it a six. But that side-story, and most of the dialogue really needed to bake in the oven a little longer before being served up.

Massive script issues

[katharine-nichols · 5/10 · 31 October 2023]

Just saw Five Nights at Freddy's. That.... was a hot mess. Let's talk about positives first. The Jim Henson Shop out did themselves bringing Freddy and friends to life. They did primarily practical effects and it shows, the animatronics being the best part of the film. Another positive is the music, which was outstanding!

Unfortunately, that's where my positives stop. This film has two major problems. First, it's PG13. This movie would have benefitted greatly from an R rating, it was tamer than the games. Second, the film can't decide if it is for fans or newcomers. The actual FNAF storyline is largely secondary to the plot of the lead character trying to discover who kidnapped his brother as a child. It's annoying, because when it's not being FNAF, it's just boring. (Also maybe it's the direction given, but the leads were pretty bland). They try to do a mystery thing with the FNAF storyline that doesn't work if you know the games. Matthew Lillard was perfectly cast, but woefully underused (He's in maybe 15min of the movie). Overall, I have to give FNAF the movie a C-. If you want a good version of Five Nights in film, stick with Willy's Wonderland, it's much better.

Had so much potential!

[djrmc24 · 4/10 · 30 October 2023]

Five Night at Freddy's was a pretty big letdown. I went in with the expectation to have a pretty scary fun time. Instead what I got was a boring cliche riddled film. Right from the start you can tell this film was geared toward the younger audience. We really don't get much scenes with Freddy and his friends even though they are supposed to be the main attraction here. There is to much setup to the story which is not interesting at all and not enough kills/thrills. Maybe under a different Director or writer this could have turned out to be a more enjoyable experience. Five Night at Freddy's gets a 4 low stars out of 10 from me.

A Good Time!

[Liam3011 · 7/10 · 25 October 2023]

Just fresh out of the cinema after seeing Five Nights at Freddy's, so here's my spoiler free review for it.

Now, personally, I don't find the actual concept of FNAF all that scary so I personally wasn't "scared" watching this. The jumpscares were effective but did this movie ever really make me feel uneasy? No, not really. But again, that's personal preference and not a dig at the movie at all.

The sound design, cinematography and the overall design of everything (from the animatronics to the actual restaurant) is incredible.

Now, here in the UK the film is rated 15 (which means children cannot watch it. Even if they are accompanied by an adult). In the USA, I know it's PG-13. For Americans who are probably wondering "Can I take my kid to see this?". Well, that's down to you. The film isn't overloaded with gory imagery, but there are one or two moments where it is extremely brutal, so just keep that in mind.

The "twist" at the end, and yes there's a twist, is... predictable, in all honesty. If you don't know anything about the lore, then yeah it might catch you off guard. But if you're even just slightly knowledgable about it, you probably wouldn't call it a twist.

Out of the horror movies I have seen, I'd honestly say this is one of the more lighthearted ones. There's a lot of humour here, as well as moments that do kinda make you think "Is this a horror film?". It's not "balls-to-the-wall" scary and I honestly don't think it was trying to be, nor does it need to be. It's just a fun film with horror elements, to me.

Overall, really enjoyed it and would recommend it if you're wanting something to watch for spooky season that is not too intense. It'd also be a great entry for anyone just getting into horror movies.

Classic throwback missing the horror element

[OliS_19 · 5/10 · 25 October 2023]

The Fnaf movie was a rollercoaster of mixed feelings. Part of the film is fun and thrilling, but the otherside of the plot feels rushed and has nit picky issues many will see.

As someone who played the games and knows the story, for the casual fans this may be quite a confusing and the horror element is missing due to the age cap. It did not give me the same thrills the games gave. The animatronics are well designed and planned out but the movie pacing and plot will really annoy a majority. Some of the characters feel almost lifeless. The game element was missing with cameras, lights and power.

Not as good as I'd hoped, but I still enjoyed it.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 12 November 2023]

A security guard gets a job, and suddenly realises he's going to have an incredibly challenging and difficult night.

I genuinely and desperately wanted to love this film, the trailers looked so cool, and despite not being a gamer, I knew of the game.

Now, if I were judging this solely on the visuals, I'd be giving it a mammoth score, and healing praise onto it, it does look fantastic, and as for the 'locals,' they look so cool, the special effects are great, genuinely a smashing looking film, one that my fifteen year old self would have loved.

Now, the important bit, the translation from game to film, I really wish I could say it worked brilliantly, I'm not sure, I think there's something missing, does the story work? Sadly I'd have to argue that I don't think it does.

I think younger teens will genuinely enjoy this movie, for horror lovers like myself, it may be lacking a bit of bite, similar to M3GAN, very watchable, just a little tame.

6/10.

Nothing really special

[AfricanBro · 5/10 · 31 October 2023]

I found the concept to be a bit cartoonish, so I was expecting it to be more fun. The story had a slow start, and the main character's easily startled, and his constant jumpiness gets old pretty quick. Surprisingly, there weren't many jump scares, and it felt like a slasher movie without the slashing. They shied away from showing the gruesome stuff, opting for screams, shadows, and implied horrors. It's a little bit slow paced, thought it was a slow burn buildup but it doesn't get to the highs. It feels like it drags slightly.

While the premise was interesting, it seemed like they focused solely on the plot, neglecting the fun and scariness. The concept was fresh, but it lacked imagination in the end. The whole "kidnapped little brother" storyline felt like an excuse for allowing his sister to interact with the robots, even though it was illogical given how much he cared for her. Hard to believe he wanted to find his brother so much he's willing to 'sacrifice' his sister. This inconsistency was hard to overlook.

The film wasn't particularly thrilling, but I I did like how the aunt got got, even though it wasn't shown explicitly. The introduction of the yellow rabbit was genuinely scary, how he walked out, but once he started talking he wasn't so frightening anymore..

Anyway, it's a little generic, not as fun nor creepy as it could've been; not too much to get you interested in the characters even though they did have some depth. Ultimately, a pretty mediocre and forgettable film.

Don't listen to the critics and see it for yourself type of movie

[jacobtarter · 6/10 · 27 October 2023]

More of a 6.5/10 imo , kind of a casual fan of the franchise but It's an enjoyable movie. Animatronics , and the set are easily the best part . Acting is solid . U just feel bad for Mike , after all he's been through and currently going through with his aunt , not being able to keep a job to support him and his sister . It's kinda hard not to feel bad for him after losing his parents and his brother getting kidnapped. Matthew Lillard prob had the best performance. He did do a really good job imo as William there at the end , but he's barely in it . Ending imo was that good , I just think it woulda been better and more interesting if they didn't turn or he "still had control of them " at the end cause of the sequels (which I think their doing) cause now they don't have a legitimate reason to be these killer ghost robots .Even tho I did like the missing kid storyline , I don't get how Abby or any of the ghost kids knew abt it Garrett. They wasn't supposed to have any memory of what happened , so how could they know abt him ? Also I didn't really like Vanessa's. It's not the good type of dislike u want in a movie , but the bad type . She's just not a good written character. She had so many times to tell Mike what happened, but didn't until the end (which is extremely risky and dumb to wait that long ) the actor did a solid job it's just the writing that screwed her. Some of the kills were fine, just they couldn't show much of it cause of the PG13 rating . Which I'm fine with, even tho they woulda definitely benefited from being rated R, I understand their a kids horror franchise and making it go rated R eliminates majority of their fanbase. I can definitely see it being scary to some kids too . This next part is not me critiquing, just a wishlist for the next movie that coulda been in this one. 1 is ofc the bite of 87 scene , and another I wish there was a scene like the first game where the security guard (or Mike ) is just checking the cameras, and constantly closing the doors whenever one of them gets close to it and he has to save the power too. It woulda been really cool to see in live action.

For the Fans

[justdialready · 8/10 · 27 October 2023]

I will try to keep this short and concise but overall I think the movie holds up to most expectations. Many of the negative reviews here are concerned with the plot but completely ignore the other amazing aspects of this movie, so I will talk about each of them one by one.

I don't think the plot is that convoluted but that just might be because I've been a fan of FNAF for 9 years and I'm used to unnecessarily confusing plots. After watching the movie I could look back and say, yeah I understood that, so in my opinion it's not too bad.

Lore-wise I don't think this movie is meant to be groundbreaking or anything, and that's not what I was expecting. If you come into this movie looking for game lore I don't think you would enjoy it as much as you would if you were just in it for the experience.

The acting in this movie is incredible and I also really like the costumes and they really sell the show.

The atmosphere lives up the expectations being based off of the first game, it feels really authentic and I quite enjoyed finding Easter eggs and such in the background.

The music and scares were all pretty well done and I enjoyed them :)

At the end of the day this movie is meant to be for the fans and I think that may be the reason why it's so negatively reviewed by the critics. I think as a movie meant for the fans it does what it needed to do and finally gave us the movie adaptation of this game we've been waiting for.

Good fun, could've been a lot better

[alex_ashman · 7/10 · 25 October 2023]

I'll tell it straight to the point since this is the first review of this movie on IMDB. I'm a big fan of the games - there's some fan service, some really weird scenes I did not expect, and it wasn't scary at all. Completely lacked any jumpscares which, bearing in mind the games are built on them was a bit of a disappointment. I liked the acting and the animatronics were absolutely incredible. Sets were great. Some nods to the silver eyes book and purple guy but no bite of '87. No Markiplier so don't get excited to see him, he's not in it.

I'd give it a solid 8/10 since I never thought it'd even see light of day and the atmosphere was spot on.

Great Visuals and a terrible plot

[reyesjj-73880 · 3/10 · 29 October 2023]

They change the entire plot of the games and did way too much in such a short amount of time. They combined the pizza complex with the Pizzeria from the first game lore and it didn't make any sense at all. Vanessa is now a cop and purple guy daughter. When she was just some unlucky Employee that got Possess by glitch trap. As someone who grew up with the games and watched everyone timeline videos about the lore, it just a shame that they weren't more Faithful to the games that we grow up playing. Glad we got to see matpat and Corey but we really need mark to be i this movie too. Watch it for yourself and make your own opinion.

I really wanted to like this one

[chenp-54708 · 3/10 · 26 October 2023]

The Five Nights at Freddy's franchise is interesting and while I haven't' followed up with the most recent lore and games, when I was in middle and high school, I really enjoyed playing the game especially the first three as I thought they were fun and had some fun scares. I always like the animatronics designs and I did like the character of Foxy and Freddy. I had known about this movie since the beginning of its development and after being in development hell for years with various directors and writers switching, it is finally out. I knew this movie wasn't going to be some art-house/grand movie and I wanted to watch this for the purposes of having some entertainment and popcorn fun. As a whole, there are some good moments but it's underwhelming.

Throughout, the production, setting and the atmosphere is solid as it helps to add the tone of the environment. On the technical aspects, the technical, costumes and effects are great. Especially the animatronic character designs as the character models of Freddy, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy look great. Moments where the animatronics were at play and the characters having to be situated around them, especially the building the fort scene and the group destroying the pizzeria, were pretty good and fun to observe. With the designs from the Jim Henson's Creature Shop, it's impressive and I appreciate them not using CGI on the designs. Including some decent gore effects. Unfortunately, the positive aspects are overshadowed with extremely dull characters and messy plot. The narrative is kind of all over the place as it feels like the writers are trying to shoehorn many ideas together in one and it makes things messy. There are some concepts that I thought were interesting but they were rarely utilized.

Honestly, the performances weren't really great. Matthew Lillard's performance was pretty good but the rest of the cast members weren't great, especially some of the child performances. Including the cameos as they felt like they were just there rather than have the cameos be creative. The direction from Emma Tammi was decent but there are certain direction moments that felt sloppy and uneven on certain moments. None of the characters were interesting as they felt uninvesting and too thin to care about while at the same time, they were given some pretty bad dialogue which made things a bit difficult to believe a single word from them. Most of the horror elements feels weak as it is filled with horror cliches and serious moments that sometimes feel unintentionally hilarious. There are some attempts of non-serious tone and humor used but it doesn't work and comes off as forced.

The soundtrack was okay and some of the pacing was off which made certain moments pretty boring. I understand this movie is more for the younger audience which is perfect for them but as a whole, it's pretty disappointing since the animatronics are the best part but the movie could have been better. Overall, the fanbase will like this and while I do appreciate the technical aspects, it's not a good adaptation.

Brilliantly visually, yet it lacked a sense of the original game.

[jadehilton-44857 · 7/10 · 25 October 2023]

Started off slow, but the pacing was more or less the usual for a horror film. Although it was more of a thriller than a horror in my opinion. Probably because the movie was rated a 15. It was not scary at all yet it made you feel creeped out. Vanessa being Williams daughter is a bit confusing to the games lore, as well as Mike not actually being Williams child also. It got a bit childish when all the animatronics team up with Abby to make a fort. I felt disappointed that the movie went towards that direction. I wanted a scare, but all in all the movie was not actually too bad. It was visually brilliant, with the animatronics looking spot on compared to the game, but the plot just needed quite a bit of work. The visuals were worked on more than the storyline, a big let down for someone as myself who has been waiting 10 years for the film and has been a long time fan of the franchise. I was sad to see that Markiplier is indeed NOT in the movie, but I hope to see him in the second. Although a couple of other youtubers did make appearances.

Too childish for adults, too mature for children

[pedroquintaoo · 4/10 · 8 November 2023]

"Five Nights at Freddy's" is a film that seems to stay faithful to the games, especially in its portrayal of the creepy animatronic characters that capture the eerie spirit of the game's characters. Despite the film not being as bad as some critics suggest, it falls short of being truly impressive. It can be described as a generic, light production that manages to entertain until the end.

On the downside, the film is quite moderate in terms of violence and scares. The scares it does offer are mostly predictable and lack the ability to truly terrify, relying on dated techniques. Furthermore, the lack of violence makes it feel somewhat juvenile. The characters in the film come across as somewhat caricatured and unrealistic, particularly the human villains who seem like they're straight out of a 90s teen comedy. The direction also falls short, leaving "Five Nights at Freddy's" lacking a distinct identity and failing to cater to both the child and adult audience.

Alright, but completely diferent from the games

[sofiamotaneto · 6/10 · 27 October 2023]

If you have zero knowledge about the games this is a nice watch (if you don't think much), however if you do it will be both confusing an disappointing (Do still watch it though),

Firstly, all the characters and family relationships are really mixed up, all of William Afton's motives for killing children is gone. For some reason Vanessa is William's daughter instead of Mike, who had his younger brother Garrett (supposedly CC) kidnapped (what?!?) and is taking care of his sister Abby (who?!?). What I mean is fnaf has very (VERY) deep and confusing lore, but the writers had Scott to ask questions, there were a lot of good stories opportunities about what is already known about the stories (like following mike going from restaurant to restaurant, etc).

Even if you don't know the franchise, there are a lot of plot holes, like the five children are in the animatronics (freddy, bonnie, chica, foxy, and I guess cupcake?), but where did Garrett go? Why are some children in animatronics and other not. Also, why would William want to employ Mike? He had no reason to kill him, is it just for fun orrr???

I enjoyed the movie, the acting is nice and its well filmed, it isn't scary, but it's not bad. It went above my expectations (they were really low), except in that one scene where the animatronics are all laying down in the "tent", that was the only real horror in the movie... Anyways, I think Mike is a good character, but Vanessa is useless and only there for exposition and "HE IS MY FATHER!!!".

I say watch it and make your own opinion about it.

Freddy has an identity crisis

[iamMarkPrice · 2/10 · 22 December 2023]

If you were a tween in the 2010s, you are no doubt excited to see this beloved horror franchise leap from your PC to the big screen as the latest nostalgia film eager to cynically part you from your money. Traditionally, translating video games into movies is not an easy task. It requires immense love, creativity and time from someone who truly understands and respects the source material. You, as a fan of this franchise are hoping that due care was taken to craft a faithful experience worthy of your nostalgia dollars. I would love to say that's exactly what this film is, that it brings to life all those memories from your childhood with the nurturing warmth they deserve. I wish I could say this is a new horror icon. Unfortunately I can not.

Far from the care necessary to produce a coherent rendition of the jump scare laden franchise, this is a film unsure of what it wants to be, what it is about or how it should get there. The writing is careless to the point of becoming disrespectful to the very nostalgia they used to draw you in. What we get is a film that is hard to justify as a Five Nights at Freddy's film devoid of any jump scares, instead manicly switching between genres and themes in some kind of existential identity crisis. It's sometimes a family drama about a child custody battle, before it switches into a sci-fi dreamscape nior about a lost brother, a gritty romance, a coming of age story and even a heist movie. Sometimes it happens to be set in Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, but that is only for a third or less of the film. It does contain Freddy and his band of ghoulish friends, but they mostly just stand around like easter eggs in the background of another movie.

Little in Five Nights at Freddy's makes sense, starting with its title, since lead character Mike only spends three nights in the building. The events which take place have no consequences, in the films universe as if they were in a 90s sitcom that resets after every episode. Crimes are committed, but nobody cares or remembers. Conversations are had, that are immediately forgotten. The characters have unrealistic and unconvincing conversations that betray the film's low-quality writing. Nobody does their job and it does not matter. Five Nights at Freddy's is a movie adaptation disaster lacking in even the most basic of stakes or reason for the audience to care.

What about fun, you may ask. Surely, Five Nights at Freddy's compensates for its lack of coherence with some humorous and self-referential fun. Well, you are out of luck there too. The film wastes so much time switching between its multiple identities that the characters end up doing nothing but talking in disconnected monologues passed each other or sleeping for most of the film. When a horror franchise devotes more time to watching a character sleep than to anything resembling action, you know you have wasted your money.

As Scott Cawthon, the creator of this franchise, I would feel outraged by the way writer/director Emma Tammi has ruined this IP. It is not hard to envision legal action coming soon, the film is just that terrible. Five Nights at Freddy's reminds us after a decade of Marvel comic film adoptions, that if you want something done properly you have to do it yourself.

No masterpiece here

[nawinds · 6/10 · 26 October 2023]

Anyway it's hard to write an exciting plot based on this game... I think this plot is more like a plot of some cartoon, not a film. However it's far different from the video game and for me was rather unexpected. Don't expect that the security guard Mike will be sitting in a room with CCTV through the film, he won't. Moreover, he won't be the only victim of animatronics.

Except for Mike there was a police officer, who was also engaged in investigation of animatronics night activity for some reason (no spoilers at this point) as well as Mike's younger sister, who eventually was the one to get everyone in troublejust becauseofher own curiosity.

I can't say it is a scary film at all. It only has about 6 screamers. Well, there also were some disgusting scenes at the end, but they are more disgusting, than scary. And in my view, they'd better didn't include them, as I find them disrespectfulfor the viewers.

All in all, fans of the game can see the other, extended legend of what's happening in pizzeria. But don't think this will be a masterpiece. I would rate it as 6.5 out of 10.

I don't care about Garrett

[robertscotthixon · 5/10 · 1 November 2023]

Overall, a lazy story focused on keeping the animatronics offscreen unless completely necessary, the saving grace is the animatronics when they appear.

Maybe budget? Maybe trying to build a deeper story but I got so tired of the kidnapped brother storyline, I get how it's important but did not need to take up that much time with it. It felt like a cop-out for production not having enough money to have the characters in more scenes. The constant flashbacks to the same scene ruined it for me.

That said, the animatronics were incredible, just scarce throughout the movie, and not in a "keeping the scary stuff unseen" way. I like the characters, but especially the cop's story fell apart at the end. She can't be good and not tell them what's going on.

Overall, a lazy story focused on keeping the animatronics offscreen unless completely necessary, the saving grace is the animatronics when they appear.

It's for the fans, to have a good time

[gurday · 8/10 · 27 October 2023]

Listen, this is no cinematographic masterpiece, but it's a good whimsical even sometimes satirical camp movie. I was not worried when different critic pages reviewed it with low scores, because it's not for them...it's for the fans.

Do not take it too seriously, let it flow, enjoy the funny effects, have fun with it.

Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lilliard's performances were absolutely amazing. They bring so many good memories and was great to see them perform together.

Obviously the movie is setting up for a sequel and we will be seated when it's announced. I just hope there are more little silly jumpscares 🤣

Nostalgic, Vanilla, Cliche.

[MyNickIsNick · 6/10 · 27 December 2023]

It goes without saying that my childhood has been impacted by the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise quite deeply. I used to talk to friends about each game and watch countless hours of theory videos. I even remember coming back from school each day, holding my breath when I refreshed the website showing sneak peaks of the next game.

The models of the animatronics were superb, they were nearly perfect. The only complaint I have is how their eyes just glowed a lame hue of orange whenever they got mad, which does not compare to the hollow white dots of the exoskeleton beneath that you'd constantly see in the franchise.

The story and characters were underwhelming. Not at one point throughout the movie did I feel like I genuinely cared about any of it, even though I tried to. There was no suspense, horror or fun. I even started to doze off near the end.

Overall, I do think that any fan of the franchise should give this movie a go, just for the sake of viewing more content. But, I do not recommend to people that haven't been invested from the start.

Age rating ruined it.

[olivia-washington · 4/10 · 25 October 2023]

I'll preface this review by saying I have not played any of the games and barely know the plot. I knew it was about animatronic robots who try to kill the security guard and you play as security but that's pretty much my knowledge. I do not know if the movie did the games justice.

Having said that, this movie was boring af. The age rating really ruined it. It would have been a banging movie if there was more blood, gore, death, violence, etc. Most of the violence was too tame or implied, and the deaths happened off screen. It needed more "80's slasher" vibes.

Lillard was awesome as always though.

Five Nights at Freddy's: One of the biggest let downs of 2023

[Platypuschow · 4/10 · 3 January 2024]

Plot

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.

Cast

Passable hand Josh Hutcherson leads while flanked by Matthew Lillard whose appearance is making me feel old! Other notable names include Mary Stuart Masterson and Michael P. Sullivan.

Verdict

I'm a hardcore gamer but I'll be honest with you I never got on the Five Nights at Freddy's train. In fact I've probably played one of the games and for a total of 10-15 minutes, I loved the idea but the execution never gripped me in fact I never really "Got" them which frustrates me.

The concept however was fit for a movie but video game adaptations are historically dreadful in the vast majority of instances so any logical person will go in assuming the worst and I did. However much like the games I really wanted to like it, this to me was one of the most anticipated movies of 2023 and I went in with fingers crossed.

Alas I didn't expect nor want it to feel like less of a horror film and more of a strange melodrama. Now I'm not aware of the lore behind Five Nights at Freddy's so I don't know how accurate it is but I really didn't like the plot so with that wrapped around the melodrama elements it made for a film that failed to get my attention.

When the action kicks in it looks, adequate but the kills were lacking and there just wasn't enough of it. Also for an adaptation of the most famous jump scares video game, there weren't many scares let alone jump ones.

FIve Nights at Freddy's is a heartbreaking disappointment and I hoped for so very much more.

Rants

I weirdly hoped that after watching this it would give me the kick up the backside to really sit down and invest some time into the games. Alas instead I fear more disappointment so think I'll lay that idea to rest. There's enough disappointment in the gaming world at the moment without me going looking for it.

Breakdown

Looks the part Matthew Lilliard is decent here Hutcherson always looks like he's bored Weak kills Pants plot Too much melodrama.

The plot is poorly written.

[smithcheyenne-01198 · 6/10 · 1 November 2023]

The story for this movie is inept. Instead of just using the idea of kid friendly animatronics going hay wire and running amok, they went with this complex paranormal murder mystery story. I get that this is based on the graphic novels and not the games lore, but that doesn't justify this movies poor plot. There's very little horror and action. The characters spend most of their time chatting and arguing. It wasn't towards the end where it started feeling the games where the animatronics turn hostile and began attacking the human characters. Mathew Lillards character Afton is a poorly written villain. He only appeared in three scenes and just pops up in the end and we're supposed to be shocked that he was the children's killer. There were no hints or buildup at all to him being the killer but the character Vanessa reveals that she's his daughter and tells us everything we need to know about what her Dads crimes right before he comes out to kill Mike. It's also worth pointing out that Vanessa's last name is Kelly and she doesn't even have the last name as her Dad. Which is why we never saw the daughter plot twist coming. It also doesn't make sense how exactly Afton has control over the children's ghosts and is able to manipulate them into killing. In his final scene, Afton realizes that he's about to get his comeuppance from the animatronics and yells out "I always come back!!" For some reason the plot tries to make Afton out to be some kind of supernatural villain who can't be killed. It also doesn't make sense how the animatronics didn't know that Afton was the killer. Mikes little sister Abby had to draw a picture to explain to them that Afton was their killer to turn against him. I also can't figure out why Afton hired Mike as the night guard for his restaurant. I thought perhaps he wanted to lure him in there so he could kill him in privacy. But if that's the case then why did he wait five nights to do it? He also berates his daughter for failing to keep everything a secret from Mike and refusing to kill him if he found out the truth. Which makes me doubt that killing him himself was his motive.

Unsure of what it wants to be

[willallan-80639 · 5/10 · 25 October 2023]

It felt like it was an action movie at times, if it wasn't for its ties with the games which were good the film would be very bad. The fan service made the film worthwhile. Storyline felt rushed and incomplete. The big ending one of the most impactful and significant events seemed brushed over and honestly not amazing, it felt rushed aswell as over simplified. Cameos and fan service was enjoyable but that's what they're there for. If it wasn't for them it wouldn't be enjoyable as characters motives are weak and change with little influence. The entire premise was weak with how we interacted with the animatronics.