my thoughts are marbles, roll with me

96. [Movie Review] Five Nights at Freddy's (2023): These are my friends!

[Spoilers, if you are interested in watching the movie!]

My thoughts are pretty much straight forward- not a fan of the games (I've never played the games, nor do I plan to), but just a film audience, layperson's perspective. I tried to find the lore of the video game without any jump scares or gore (I don't like jump scares or any horror elements to be honest), but I've only found a couple of texts and references that I quickly skimmed through. I want to watch some YouTube analysis video essays of this game franchise, but I'm just too much of a coward to see them with minimal jump scares that some YouTubers try to add in for the purpose of story-telling the lore. If you're into the games and love them dearly, please take my review with a pinch of salt.

Cast

I really appreciated that the video game creator had a really big hand in creating the movie. So many cheers and applause to him for what he's made with his game franchise. It truly is successful among all ages. I turned around when the movie was over to see all the people who watched it with me and nearly half of the audience were children. They didn't scream like me though.

According to my friends, the costume design and set design was very true to the game. I think that it has enough fan service for the hardcore lovers of FNAF gang, but when I look at it with the perspective of a modern horror film audience, it's really just "eh." I think this is kind of an attempt at a money grab for the gamers... That's just my opinion on this.

Those animatronic designs were simply so good. I think I read that they didn't use all CGI for them? They use real animatronics and they were simply beautiful in live action. They were a bit scary in the eyes and the metallic bits, but not overly horrific. They were honestly kinda gentle looking during the middle part of the movie where the main characters were building a fort together inside of the stage/game area of the building. Props to the design team of this movie because wow I was so impressed by how true to the game and true to life they looked.

There were a couple of "cheap" jump scares that made me yelp in the cinema. I was sitting with my friend who claimed that he loved watching horror movies, but also got frightened when I jumped in my seat. I really dislike jump scares. I don't enjoy them at all. It's just a cheap shock.

Did I enjoy FNAF? Uh, honestly yeah. This movie was kind of iconic. Honestly, it wasn't terrible, but it felt half baked. I was told that it reflected the simple game mechanics from the first Five Nights at Freddy's game. This being a film adaptation got me interested. It didn't look like it was going to be a masterpiece of a film, but honestly I thought it was a fun time. It was a great theater experience. I think they also set it up for a sequel towards the end.

I loved the atmosphere of the film. Right away, I knew that we weren't in the 2020's. I thought maybe it was the late 90s or early 00's? The props, activities, set design of the movie did such a really good job of representing a different era. I was a little confused why there were literally 3 aerial shots, like they were a little out of place: (1) Mike (Josh Hutcherson) in the bed; (2) the coffee shot during the William Afton (Matthew Lillard) and Mike (Josh Hutcherson) office scene, (3) the car driving on the road. Those were all of them (I think!!).

The characters had a weird... chemistry with each other? At least to me. I didn't understand Mike and Abby's dynamic until much later (I couldn't tell if they were siblings or relatives or whatever). After a little bit, I was convinced about their family relationship and thought they were very sweet together. That lady police officer was kinda just sus the entire time, even after her reveal to Mike. Her character was like, all over the place? She was just... so weird? Matthew Lillard was a bad dad, but he was so father in this movie. It's a shame he didn't get much development in the movie. I feel like they had to hold a little bit back in the movie so that they didn't step over that PG-13 rating. The cast honestly did the best they did with what they had. There were some goofy-ass lines thrown in there.

For example, there was a bitchy aunt (honestly, I didn't think she was that much of a bitch, but I had to remove myself from reality and suspend my disbelief.), who wanted to claim the sister as her own and take Josh Hutcherson to court. She sat in a diner with her lawyer and demanded the neighbors of the sister and brother duo for morally-comprising info about them so that she could win at the trial. An out-of-pocket comment from one of the characters was uttered and I was so damn confused.

"What if we just kill him?" lol where the hell did that come from?

Honestly, I think the movie went right by the lore and the cinematography was very good. I think if I were a parent and my kid wanted to watch a horror film, I would totally take them to this movie.

I rated this 3 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd.

~ trying to find non-scary fnaf lore,

<3 K