Five Nights at Freddy's

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.

A young unemployed man called Mike (Josh Hucherson) who is taking care of his sister (Piper Rubio) starts working as a night security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant. Mike meets police officer Vanessa Shelly (Elizabeth Lail) , who shows him around the restaurant and tells him that the place closed in the 1980s. There he discovers that strange events are happening in relation to his past when his younger brother was kidnapped by a strange individual who took him in a car to an undetermined location. When he's working 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. Can you survive?. When the night shift starts, the nightmare begins !.

Adaptation of the successful video game saga of the same title created in 2014 by Scott Cawthon. Exciting terror movie packing suspenseful horror, thrills, chills, graphic violence, gory scenes and grisly killings. ¨Blumhouse" creates a disturbing and grim horror film about a murderous animatronics, and a young starring who is subjected to intense work stress that does not see prepared to take care of his younger sister. Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) gives a new vision of terror, this is a twisted horror tale with animatronics that begin to take on a life of its own, being consistently paced, adequately played and with a lot of gore, blood, twists and turns . Bizarre terror movie that's heavy on creepy scenes with acceptable, though mainly inside production design, including brilliant photography and over-the-top special effects. A sinister and unsettling flick that goes on growing more and more and developing little by little until the unexpected conclusion. It is an acceptable story that relies heavily on the impressive special effects from the fantastic animatronics. Stars Josh Hutcherson who gives a passable acting as the young man who discovers animatronics move and kill anyone they see, Piper Rubio as his small sister Abby, Elizabeth Lail as a beautiful police woman, Matthew Lillard as counselor Steve Raglan, who offers him work as a night guard and Mary Stuart Masterson as his nasty and selfish aunt.

This is one of Jason Blum's many successful productions in the horror genre. His formula for making movies as inexpensively as possible does not mean looking for low-budget movies to see if he likes them, but looking for movies he likes, and then see if they can be done on a low budget. According Jason Blum himself his rules for making a cheap movie include: 1) Limit the amount of speaking parts, because actors with lines get an additional fee; 2) Limit the amount of locations (preferably only one); 3) Pay actors the legally minimum, and offer them a percentage of perspective profits; 4) Never break the budget, don't ask for more money. His notorious films include the following: ¨The Exorcist: Believer¨, ¨Get Out¨, ¨Night Swin¨, ¨M3GAN¨, ¨Halloweeen Kills¨, ¨The Gallows Act I and II¨, ¨Insidious saga¨, ¨Firestarter¨, ¨Exposure¨, ¨Nanny¨, ¨A House on the Bayou¨ , ¨The Invisible Man¨, ¨Us¨, ¨Happy Death Day 1 and 2¨, among others.

The motion picture was uneven but professionally directed by Emma Tammi. She has worked for both film and television, such as: ¨Into the Dark¨ (2018), ¨The Left Right Game¨ (2020), ¨The Left Right Game¨ (2020), ¨The Wind¨ (2018), ¨Election Day: Lens Across America¨ (2017), and ¨Fair Chase (2014)¨. ¨Five Nights at Freddy's¨(2023) rating: 5.5/10. Average but passable and acceptable.

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.

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.

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.