MINI REVIEW: Five Night's At Freddy's (2023)
If only my original job at the arcade was this deadly!
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Game movies, hey? We’ve had a few really good ones lately - such as Sonic and Super Mario, and yes they are both good films - and a few mixed bags, such as that Mortal Kombat reboot which was good, but Cole? Seriously?
Anyway, I’ve never played this game and all I know is that its about some abandoned store where animatronic puppets come to life and terrorize people, right?
So, if I have never played the game, am I qualified to talk about this movie? Well, I like horror movies, so I guess so. And that also hasn’t stopped the 100+ other reviews of this movie appearing online either!
What I know about Five Nights at Freddy’s, hereforth known as FNAF, is two words: preteen horror. And I am cool with that, because horror doesn’t need to be excessively gory or full-on scary to be creepy. As long as the movie is self aware of what it’s doing, then there is fun to be had.
And this movie is very much self-aware, in a subtle way.
PLOT
A man who has trouble holding down a stable job due to some childhood trauma reluctantly accepts a position as a nightguard in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place. Long abandoned by the owner, hisrole essentially is to ensure no one breaks into the store in the evening.
The man lives with his younger sister, and one evening he takes her to work. On a trip to the toilet, she interacts with the animatronic characters of the pizza store who spring to life in a chorus of song and dance.
But there is more to these characters than meets the eye. The ghosts of kidnapped children are buried within them, and they’re desperate for a new play friend.
ABOUT THE FILM
Honestly, as far as plots go, this isn’t too bad. And unless you are a real horror snob or some kind of edge lord movie reviewer who hates everything to be cool, there actually is a bit of fun to be had with this film.
I watch a lot of Asian horror movies, so I know what makes a crappy, uninteresting film. And this movie is far from that.
Like most modern films, especially horror, the movie starts off with a quick kill to get your interest and then slows right down as it sets the pace and introduces the concepts, the character trauma and the buildup to the ending. There are no surprises here, everything is telegraphed if you are paying enough attention, and without any knowledge of the game, I am not sure how accurate it is for someone with a deep background into the game’s lore.
And while this is just a fun but average film, there is something I really loved - the puppets. And the setting. So that’s two things. Instead of the filmmakers using CGI for the animatronic characters, they’ve actually created puppets instead which adds a more authentic 80’s feel, which was the other aspect of the film I loved.
As a final note, seeing Matthew Lillard as a middle-aged man and not the goofy half of the Scream duo that I knew him as was a sobering reminder of how old I am.
What are my overall thoughts?
A fun, if slightly too long, horror game to movie adaptation that could stand on its own two feet without the gaming IP attached to it, such is the novelty of the concept. A “horror-lite” movie would be a great description of this one. What it lacks in scares, it makes up for in style.
This would be an enjoyable early Saturday evening watch before a main event film.
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Genre Horror-lite
Director Emma Tammi
Starring Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Matthew Lillard
Original Title Five Nights at Freddy’s
Country of Origin USA
Release Date 27 October 2023
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