Written By: Holly Pulley, Staff Writer
GREAT?: The highly awaited Five Nights At Freddy’s movie is finally out.
After eight years of anticipation, the Five Nights At Freddy’s movie finally hits theaters with a bang. The first trailer, released on May 16, 2023, caused an immediate reaction in the fanbase. People were writing theories about the movie, appreciating the cast list, and joking about the hypothetical horrible graphics all over the internet. Even though many fans immediately had negative predictions for the screen adaptation, in my very humble opinion, the movie perfectly illustrated the franchise because of its level of humor, accuracy of the animatronics, and the quality of the story in general.
For those who don’t know, Five Nights At Freddy’s is a nine game series in which the player is a security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Their job is to ensure the safety of the establishment and watch over the restaurant’s signature animatronics who can “get a bit quirky at night,” according to Telephone Guy from the first FNAF game. Each animatronic is possessed by a child who died inside of it by the hands of the owner William Afton. Their human souls give them the power to roam free and scare the player which ultimately kills them. The player’s job is to survive five nights at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, enduring jump scares, faulty lighting, and escaping through claustrophobic vents.
With all that being said, each predicament provided happened in the movie, and seamlessly at that. The movie starts with a man opening a vent to escape a dangerous situation while the door behind him bangs. Once he gets to his destination, he climbs out to attempt an escape, not knowing the exit is jammed. The scene ends with Foxy, one of the core four robots in the games, entering, his hum echoing through the walls as he proceeds to kill the security guard. The opening scene alone is enough to prove that this movie aims to follow the lore of the games and do it confidently. Opening with a character using the infamous escape route from the game and a jumpscare from one of the main animatronics right off the bat demonstrates the creators’ dedication to this movie. Next, when Mike Schmidt, the main character of the movie, gets the job as the new security guard at Fazbear’s Pizza, the animatronics possess him on the first night, messing with the lighting and leaving him with a peculiar feeling about the establishment he is protecting. Possession is, quite literally, one of the main tactics the animatronics have. They use it to move, to frighten, and to kill in both the games and the movie. By keeping this crucial power, the viewer with a wide knowledge of the lore is fascinated with the creators’ attempts to introduce a somewhat more realistic storyline while maintaining the original plot, and the new reader is welcomed into the fandom by fascinating plot.
The animatronics, and I can’t say this enough, were the best part of the movie. The acting was great and the plot was parallel with the existing storyline, but the animatronics made it all feel so much more real. Their design was impeccable, all metal and dirty fabric, just like the games. Their movements were extremely robotic, leaving no room for unnecessary claims that they were too real. While two animatronics were controlled by an actor inside of them, Foxy the Pirate was actually a robot! All of his movements were controlled by a device, which made him even scarier. Considering that, in the original lore, dead children are stuffed into the metal stomach of the animatronic, Foxy’s iron hardware made him all the more terrifying.
All in all, The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie is worth a watch. It’s an exciting, easy-to-follow movie that even people oblivious to FNAF can enjoy.