Five Nights at Freddys
Released in theaters on October 27, 2023
Stream on Peacock
Runtime: 1 Hour 49 Minutes
Rated PG-13
Based on the best selling survival horror video game series comes a live adaptation of a Chuck E. Cheese nightmare. Mike and his little sister Abby have fallen on hard times since their mother died and their father left. To top it off this all took place after their brother was abducted. Mike is trying his best to hold down a job, but his traumatic past is making it difficult. Enter a opening for a graveyard shift security guard at the condemned Freddy’s Fazbear’s Pizzeria. The more nights he works the stranger things get and the weirder his dreams become. Then when he is forced to bring his little sister to work with him, things get really weird…….and deadly.
Themes:
Family, retro video games, pizza, animatronics, robotics, dreams, security, being fired, delinquency, siblings, sleep meds, child abduction, imaginary friends, art therapy, police, ghosts, children, play time, murder, hauntings, history, bad parents, evil, innocence, being controlled, sleeping on the job, and heroism.
Language:
I counted a-s two times , Hell three times, and sh-t once. There is also name calling such as jerk ad headcase. I was surprised by the lack of cursing for a horror movie.
Stuff to be aware of:
This is a horror movie, but at the same time it isn’t overly graphic or scary. A man chases down a father who he thinks is abducting a child and beats him up. There is a mask with spinning blades inside that is put on a person. You do not see what it does to the person. There is a dream sequence where a child gets abducted that plays multiple times throughout the movie. In one dream sequence a child is running away and when spun around they have no eyes and are bleeding fromthe sockets. The child then cuts a character on the arm. One dream sequence has a bunch of children running by and scratching a man making him bleed.
There are killer animatronics. What, you didn’t expect that? They chase people down and kill them. One has a hook for a hand. A mechanical cupcake with eyes eats a person’s face, but you only see the shadow. Later in the movie you see the man’s chewed up face, but it’s very dark so details are hard to make out. One man gets attacked in a closet and you see his bloody hand through the glass window sliding down. One girl gets bitten in half by a robot. You only see half her body hit the ground, but the scene is dark so details are not super clear.
You see three dead bodies in one scene. One person gets stabbed. There is some blood, but not a lot.
Overall:
I will start by saying I have never played this game series. However, I did some research and this movie seems to stay true to the story of the original game. I have seen many better horror movies, but this one did successfully make me want to try the game.
The movie suffers a bit from seeing the animatronics too much, but oddly at the same time you want to see them more? Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. The movie starts out in the horror genre, then moves to weird, comedic childhood friends vibe, than back to horror. The odd tonal shifts make it feel less like an adult horror movie and more like a gateway drug for scared people that want to start watching horror movies. Maybe I just feel that way because I haven’t played the game? Maybe it is a love letter the fans? My guess is that some of the tone and lack of getting to grpahic has to do with so many kids being obsessed with the game? I see kids carrying around the toys and plush from this series all the time.
The movie itself? It was good, but I likely won’t watch it again. I will say I had fun watching it. I would guess fans of the game series will really enjoy it.
I have watched scary movies for a long time. Basically, since I was a kid. I realize I may be a bit tough to scare now, but this one wasn’t scary at all. I will say the animatronic characters are super cool! The Jim Henson Company did a phenomenal job, as always! Also, I am glad to see Matthew Lillard back in a horror movie, even if his cameo is brief.