At the tail end of September, my Horror 101 article preparing for the Five Nights at Freddy’s film had thrust me into an Olympic swimming pool worth of lore. I was forced to reacquaint myself with a story I hadn’t been following for six games and had a lot of fun doing so. I became immersed in a tangled, nasty web of murder, twisted timelines, magical haunted metal, and surprisingly great voice acting. But it was all for a film I was apprehensive about. Adapting a franchise as mythically dense as FNAF seemed doomed to fail. 

Blumhouse makes a fun enough horror comedy for younger fans of the series— but will the mascot suit it’s made fit audiences at large? 

Five Nights at Freddy’s is Finally Here

When I sat in the theatre realizing it was actually here, a movie that had only been manifested in fake posters and fan trailers for almost a decade, I was unsurprisingly hit with a wave of nostalgia. For a moment, I was once again an annoying high schooler who had seen all the lets-plays and was arguing in the YouTube comments section about who that security guard was. And I’m not going to lie, it was fun for me. But I will try and divorce that personal bias from the very serious, adult business that is talking about faux-Chuck E. Cheese murder robots.

For those needing a catch-up: Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is a down-on-his-luck man whose nights are filled with the same horrific dream on repeat. In his waking hours, he struggles to hold down a job and support his younger sister Abby. With his Aunt Jane trying to wrestle custody of his sister from him, Mike is forced to take the graveyard shift as the night security of a defunct pizzeria: Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place. Shut down years ago due to a rash of missing children cases, his encounter with the uncanny animatronics that live there sets Mike on a path to learn the secret of their deaths– and his past. 

A Decent Piece of Gateway Horror for Horror Newbies

I will hit you with the cold water off the bat and say that despite the dire plot of the film, Five Nights is tonally off-key from how it was marketed and will be polarizing because of it. Those looking for a strait-laced horror film will enjoy the first act but might be better off seeking one of those animated fan films on YouTube for some real jolts of fear: Five Nights at Freddy’s ends up being a horror comedy for most of the runtime. It’s gateway horror like most PG-13 ventures, the same way the games were gateway horror for the primarily young fandom.

The fact that it gets more laughs than legitimate scares is understandable because of this, even if it is a tad disappointing to those expecting real frights. Barring one surprisingly violent death (the best shock of the film), we get mostly tempered demises for everyone. It’s more cute than blood-curdling, so don’t get your hopes up if you’re looking for something more on the side of the very corn-syrupy The Banana Splits Movie.

Visuals and Atmosphere: A Dingy, Nostalgic Vibe

Director Emma Tammi’s previous horror venture The Wind was a lot more stylized and a lot more emotionally heavy, so her selection piqued my interest early on, but this odd pick ultimately rendered little more than some good visuals given Five Nights sticks to as conventional of a look as possible in its presentation. Still, the set design and the locations fight against bog-standard camerawork and editing to create a great atmosphere for the film.

I’m always grateful for a movie that avoids those saccharine, neon-splattered depictions of the 90s that have become so popular; Five Nights opts instead for the much more realistic palette of dingy browns and beiges that makes every building interior feel like it is suffering from a special midwestern brand of dry rot. The inside of the pizzeria feels musty and damaged even when the lights are all on, and the arcade machines are glowing brightly. It’s not oversaturated and candy-like, and some choice lighting gives the film a good look.

So What About the Animatronics?   

Of course, the star of the show here is those animatronic suits. Freddy, Foxy, Bonnie, and Chica were a riot to see fully realized outside of 3D models and can range from adorable to menacing from scene to scene. Expressive eyes and only the slightest digital touch-ups make every animatronic look freakishly great on screen as the practical elements shine through with smooth movement. The best of these is Foxy, who gets ample time to stalk around and show off the look of these highly advanced endoskeletons (but we don’t get that iconic lunging jump scare, sadly, so a moment of silence for that).

And in terms of the actors, they’re led in quality by Hutcherson, who is enjoyable as Mike. Though he’s stuck dealing with a repetitive plot device for much of the runtime, his acting is compelling enough to make me want to keep seeing him. He’s sympathetic as the beleaguered big brother looking for a way out for his sister and him, so it works. Piper Rubio is fun as precocious kid sister Abby and Elizabeth Lail is serviceably ominous as lady-cop-who-knows-way-too-much Vanessa. They only do poorly when the script puts them in a corner with awkward, ham-fisted exposition, which isn’t that often but is noticeable.

Matthew Lillard’s Missed Opportunity

Finally, there is the big Matthew Lillard-shaped hole here. No, there’s nothing wrong with his performance. Don’t strap me into the Fazbear brand face blender yet. I wish he had more of a presence in the story, especially given the twist of this film stopped being a twist the second you see an actor of his quality playing a supposedly bit part. That is as much as I can say while still staying in the confines of my spoiler-free limits, but you can take a wide, swinging guess as to who he is and still hit your target. He isn’t around nearly enough, and while it’s easy to say they’ll remedy that in the sequel, the film fails to give him enough to do and pulls him into the story way too late. 

Needless to say, Stu Macher doesn’t need to eat his heart out just yet, that’s still Lillard’s most iconic performance.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Is a Fun but Flawed Adaptation

In the end, Five Nights at Freddy’s isn’t half bad, but doesn’t soar exceptionally high either. It is the definition of a decent gateway film to spookier ventures, and I had fun with it. It trades near-impenetrable complexity for something much more accessible for general audiences, whose mileage may vary if they go in expecting serious horror. Fans will enjoy seeing recognizable elements of the franchise, but even without that brand recognition carrying it, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a fun haunted house-style excursion for the Halloween season and sets itself to be fondly remembered as an intro to horror for today’s younger audiences.