My Past with Five Nights at Freddy’s
As much as I wouldn’t like to admit it, I grew up with Five Nights at Freddy’s (also known as FNAF). I was also a huge Markiplier fan growing up, which is how I learned about FNAF. It’s kind of like that one TikTok audio that says, “Welp. This is going to be my personality for the rest of my life.” Yeah, that was elementary to highschooler me. Although I didn’t talk about it that much in high school, I was still a massive fan minus the embarrassing FNAF-themed shirts. I was constantly watching new Markiplier, MatPat, and Jacksepticeye videos that featured anything FNAF related. I’m too much of a scaredy cat to play the games myself, but I would constant watch people play it.
That being said, I was pretty excited for the Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie to come out. I remember back when it was just a rumor and the release date kept being pushed further back. Then, when we finally got confirmation it was being done and Blumhouse was helping create it, everyone started to guess who would cameo in the movie.
Throughout the article, this is my own thoughts and opinions and in no way I am a professional film critic. This article will have spoilers of the movie, so this is your official spoiler warning. If you would like a review without spoilers, please look somewhere else.
Review as a FNAF Fan
As mentioned before, I was thrilled for the movie coming out. Scott Cawthon being right there throughout the process, similar to how Rick Riordan is with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series coming out in late December, gave fans hope that this would be an accurate adaptation. If you were apart of the FNAF fandom for a while, you would know that Scott Cawthon loves to hide little details that help build his universe.
From a fan stand point, I really enjoyed the fact that there was little “easter eggs” for fans, for the ones that have read all the books, played all the games, and/or seen other people play the games and summarize the books up. Some of my favorite easter eggs included MatPat’s and other YouTuber’s cameos, the diner in the movie (named Sparky’s) was a nod to the hoax of an animatronic dog being able to appear in the first Five Nights at Freddy’s game, and Mike’s alarm in the movie going off at 6:00 AM (which was the “safe time” where the games would let you move onto the next night).
It was great to see multiple sets based on locations from the games, alongside locations from featured in Five Nights at Freddy’s: Fazbear Frights series. I especially loved how the main character is Mike Schmidt, played my Josh Hutcherson, exactly how it is in the first game. Although, I would have liked it if it was able to be confirmed that Mike Schmidt was Micheal Afton, which is a popular theory among fans. Within the FNAF universe, it’s canon that Micheal Afton is William Afton’s son, William whom was played by Matthew Lillard. However, there’s other movies planned out, which will most likely let that be revealed. I also loved how it was a twist that Steve Raglan, played by Matthew Lillard, was revealed to be Micheal Afton, the person in charge of the killings. Another thing I loved about the movie was how similar the animatronics were to original game. It was really exciting to see something that you’ve been a fan of for years get turned into a major film. Especially when you’ve been on the crazy rollercoaster that being a part of the FNAF fandom is for a long time.
Even though there were a lot of positives in my opinion, there was some negative stuff I think about the movie. I would have liked if there was more “jumpscares” in the movie. Jumpscares were the way of losing the game in games, so I think it would have been nice to see that be similar in the movie. As an old FNAF fan, the plot twist that Vanessa ended up being Williams Afton’s daughter didn’t make sense to me. She was first introduced in Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted, but became a main character with the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach. However, with her introduction in the games, it was never hinted at that she was William Afton’s daughter. She was just considered one of Afton’s followers.
Overview
All in all, I really enjoyed the movie, both as a fan and movie watcher. I would rate it an 8/10 and 4 out of 5 stars. The movie did a great job of being able for fans to have something, while also have it be able to let people who aren’t fans enjoy the movie. In a way, it reminded me of how most movie adaptations are. Although it would help to know of the background information about Five Nights at Freddy’s, you could not know anything about it and enjoy the movie.