Yahoo News Five Nights at Freddy's movie adaptation is disappointingly generic
Five Nights at Freddy's has taken so long to reach the big screen that it was beaten to the punch by FNAF-esque Willy's Wonderland, which saw Nicolas Cage beating up some homicidal animatronics.
Originally announced in 2015, the movie adaptation of the popular Five Nights at Freddy's video game series has gone through a series of changes, including a completed script that was scrapped by FNAF creator Scott Cawthon in November 2018.
It was said that Cawthon ditched that script in favour of an idea he "liked better" and he took full responsibility for the new delay. However, now that the movie has finally arrived, you might be wondering whether that original idea – whatever it was – could actually have been better.
What's ended up as the Five Nights at Freddy's movie is something packed with video game nods but lumbered by a generic plot that could disappoint fans and leave newcomers wondering what the fuss is about.
With Cawthon on board as a co-writer and producer, it won't be a surprise that Five Nights at Freddy's is very faithful to the video game series. The movie draws from the first three games, as well as other established FNAF canon, but takes its setup from the first game.
Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) is in desperate need of a job to ensure that he can continue looking after his sister Abby (Piper Rubio). So when he's offered a place as a security guard at the shut-down Freddy Fazbear's Pizza by career counsellor Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard), he doesn't really think twice.
After his first night on the job though, Mike begins to uncover the dark secret at the heart of Freddy's with the help of enigmatic local police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail). It soon becomes clear that Mike's job of "keeping people out" of Freddy's might not actually be his most important task...
Given that the early games were fixed in one location with action taking place on security cameras, Five Nights at Freddy's had to expand the world and it initially does so with a lot of promise.
Aside from a cold-open kill, Freddy and co are kept to the sidelines to build the relationship between Mike and Abby, with Hutcherson and Rubio creating a believable and affecting sibling bond. When Mike's on his shifts, there are early nods to the games and some pleasingly retro touches, like a weird VHS security training tape.
The cast has been expanded beyond just Mike from the first game, although they are mainly just cannon fodder. You won't mind though when they're brutally dispatched in the movie's standout sequence, with director Emma Tammi finding inventive ways to keep gore to a minimum.
But all of this promise quickly dissipates as Five Nights at Freddy's settles into an overdone trudge of unresolved trauma and exposition dumps. There's very little tension here and barely a trace of the game's simple, yet terrifying, mechanic of shutting doors or turning on lights to keep animatronics away.
It certainly looks the part and you can't fault the animatronics, which are spot-on recreations of the game characters. The same could be said for the story, which pulls in various bits of canon and is sure to leave fans delighted with the various Easter eggs.
Yet it never really feels like much more than a ticking of elements off a list. The movie certainly has the trappings of FNAF, but little of the appeal or tone of the games, which leaves you wondering who it's for. It's not tense or odd enough for long-term fans, while also not being engaging enough for newcomers.
It's possible that after so long, fans might just be glad to see Five Nights at Freddy's recreated so faithfully on the big screen. You're left wishing that the filmmakers just leaned into that aspect more, relying on that to draw newcomers in rather the bland story we're left with.
Five Nights at Freddy's is out now in UK cinemas and arrives in US cinemas and on Peacock in the US on October 27.
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