FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S – Review

With only a couple more months left in 2023, will it be the movie year of the toy? Considering the BARBIE box office bonanza…probably. That’s especially true if you throw video games into that category. We’ve seen those Super Mario Brothers, a nifty true-life thriller on the making of TETRIS, another non-fiction sports flick involving the motor-racing world of GRAN TURISMO. And now we go from brightly colored pixel ‘shrooms to whirring-blade-fueled horror. Really, a game that elicits fear as you rack up the points? Oh yeah, this one is so popular there has already been at least one cinema rip-off (using those Saturday morning funsters THE BANANA SPLITS which this official fan club member did not appreciate). It’s kinda’ how THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER beat Conan to the multiplex by a few weeks in 1982. Well, now here comes the “real deal”, based on the gaming smash, and its follow-ups, from 2014. So, can moviegoers handle FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S? Grab a slice and collect those tokens!

It all begins with an unlucky security guard making his final late-night “rounds” in the food and fun emporium. After the main title we meet the main hero, Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson). as he loses another job, this one’s security at a mall. It seems an incident triggered a childhood memory in which he saw his kid brother Garrett vanish forever from a family picnic. Now, the only family he has (the parents are long gone) is his kid sister Abby (Piper Rubio) whose behavior has her grade school teacher concerned. She’s retreated into her drawings and talking to her invisible friends. Mike’s gotta get a new job, otherwise, haughty Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson) will swoop in and grab custody (along with the government moola). His only chance is an odd supervisor at an employment service, Mr. Raglan (Matthew Lillard). He thinks Mike is perfect for an all-night security slot at a long-shuttered kiddie franchise, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. After getting a neighbor teen girl, Max (Kat Conner Sterling) to watch Abby, Mike takes the job. The joint is creepy with its old arcade games and empty pizza boxes, but nothing is more unnerving than the life-sized animatronic figures in Freddy’s band. Naturally, Mike drifts off to sleep, but something new has been added to his abduction nightmare. Five mute children appear to block his way. He jolts awake and gets the feeling that something is watching him. Meanwhile, Max picks up a “side hustle” with Aunt Jane. She and her pals will break in at Freddy’s, trash the place, and cause Mike to get fired. So will this plan work? And what will happen to Mike and Abby during those remaining nights at Freddy’s?

Hutcherson excels at giving Mike a constant vibe of sweaty desperation. He’s haunted by his past and full of dread about the future, Can he take care of lil’ sis? Or hold down any sort of job. His nocturnal childhood “cage” may have just found a “key” through Freddy’s place. But this release may just endanger the one person he strives to protect. As that person, Rubio as Abby has more energy than most “spooky” kiddies in other flicks. She conveys a dark sense of humor while standing up to her often too possessive “big bro”. Masterson is superbly “hissable” as the prime villainess here, a wicked aunt rather than a wicked stepmother, who’s even more snarky has she :plays nice” with Mike and Abby. Also, there’s a nice turn by Elizabeth Lail as a sympathetic policewoman whose beat just happens to include Freddy’s. There’s a bit of a romantic spark between her and Mike, but Officer Vanessa’s main mission is to put him on the “straight and narrow” while providing the proper “tools” for his deep dive into the old place’s mythos. And it’s great to see Lillard out of the “Scoobyverse” as the off-putting “red herring” (or is he), Raglan.

To quote uber-producer of modern horror, while with Seth Myers, Jason Blum, “We made this for the fans”. And so, for newbies (guilty) you may be perplexed, and more than a bit bored. as those same fan(atics) squeal and scream with delight with every game reference or cameo. This makes it difficult to compare, but the end cinematic results come off as another rather toothless (of course it’s rated ‘”PG-13″) time waster. It’s stunning how all the big “kills” (including major characters) are done “off-screen” with the discovered carnage hidden away from view. Director Emma Tammi does her best work in the scary pre-dawn moments at the “fun place”, but can’t hold our attention during the talky daytime set-ups, since many of the principals are one-note despite the team of screenwriters which includes her and the game’s creator Scott Cawthon. The biggest problem is that the game’s main focus, Freddy and his crew, don’t get a lot to do. This is a shame since the producers eschewed CGI for some nifty puppetry from the talented artists at Jim Henson’s creature shop (they made a menacing cupcake). The pre-teen crowd should have a blast yelling at the screen during Halloween group outings or slumber parties but horror “hounds” may be dreading (howling perhaps) a sixth day after FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S.

1.5 Out of 4

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S is now playing in theatres everywhere and streams exclusively on Peacock