SPOILER ALERT: I AM TALKING ABOUT THE WHOLE MOVIE, SO IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT/DON’T WANT IT SPOILED, THEN DON’T READ THIS FURTHER. Now that I’ve said that, let’s get into it.
This past weekend, my roommate and I went to the Athena Grand movie theater (as is our weekly tradition) and saw the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. We both like the FNAF franchise and FNAF Youtubers, so we were super excited about this movie coming out. We even made shirts. Here is what I thought of it:
To preface, we didn’t know a ton about the lore in detail, however, we know the basics and we’ve seen most of the VHS tapes. Right before, we refreshed our knowledge by watching a few YouTube videos about the lore and what we needed to know to understand the movie. This was a great idea because having the information fresh in my mind really made the movie for me. The opening credits especially great- the way it shows Springtrap Bonnie taking the kids away one-by-one was great. Even if you don’t know the lore, I feel like it gives you an idea of what happened without knowing everything. Knowing the lore also makes it so much more fun to spot the easter eggs hidden throughout the film. As soon I got home from watching it, my TikTok For You page was FLOODED with analyses of the movie (and Josh Hutcherson thirst traps), and I realized just how many easter eggs I missed. For instance, my favorite, is the fact that under “Mike” on the video tape he watches, IT SAYS “FRITZ.” Allegedly it says Fritz, but it shows a “tz” underneath, so what else could it be?
I enjoyed it, though it wasn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen. Last time I checked it had a 2.7 star rating on Letterboxd. It’s obviously not getting rave reviews. The movie was definitely not what I had hoped for, but it was still fun to watch. The animatronics were cool to see, the personalities of the characters were on point, and it was really exciting to see them on screen. Also, Matthew Lillard is my king and I will bow down to him for all eternity. The story of the movie was at least somewhat interesting. I wish it was more accurate to the lore. (Like why on Earth did they make Vannessa William Afton’s daughter?) I think of it like musical adaptations of movies. Musical adaptations are so much better when they aren’t a copy and paste version of the movie with some random music thrown in, and so maybe that is what they were trying to do here, create a new story. I guess a lot of the lore is speculation, so maybe the movie is just trying to clear some things up.
The number one thing they should have added, that I am super disappointed wasn’t in there, was a classic FNAF 1 jump scare, especially at the end of the credits when the screen is black. If it would have had like a final screen with the power in the security room turning off and then a Freddy jump scare, that would have made the movie a 10/10 for me to be honest. I feel like they could have done so much more for the horror in this movie, and they just didn’t. I understand it is a “kids movie”, but I feel like the majority audience is actually older teens and young adults that grew up with the games. There were definitely some parts that were pretty suspenseful, but nothing really scary.
This movie did some things I liked, but there are a lot of things I wish were added. I wish Markiplier could have been in it. Anyway, I’m gonna go ahead and rate this movie 5/10 on the movie scale, and a 7.5/10 on the nostalgia scale.