Five Guys At Fredbears.

The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie is finally here, after six years, multiple producers, several directors, and more scripts than you can shake a game theory at. Originally meant to be directed by Chris Columbus, the FNAF movie was directed by Emma Tammi who you may know from her work on 2018’s drama horror film The Wind starring Caitlin Gerard. Written by the creator of the game Scott Cawthon, Seth Cuddeback who wrote some shit and director Emma Tammi, this film has been a long time coming.

But after six years was it worth the wait? Sure. Why not.

FNAF stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, a down on his luck guy who doesn’t sleep good at night because of the constant dreams about his missing brother. Guardian to his little sister, Mike takes on an overnight security position at where else but Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. In this universe Fazbear’s pizza has been closed down since the 80s due to that whole mishigas with the kids going missing and all that fun stuff. If you know the games you’re already familiar with the basic plot here.

Elizabeth Lail plays Vanessa, a local police officer who shows up to give Mike some sound advice on staying awake during his shift. Matthew Lillard has a great role as Mike’s career counselor who helps him get the job at Freddy’s. Damn I love Mike Lillard. Mary Stuart Masterson is here as Jane, Mike and Abby’s aunt who wants to take Abby into her own guardianship. Mostly for the monthly check from the government. Also MatPat shows up at one point. Gross.

But the important part of this movie are the animatronics and their desire to murder people. And they do get their licks in a few times over the course of the movie, complete with the sound effects from the game. Foxy’s “dum de dum dum dum” is still unnerving. But the question is; can Mike survive five nights at Freddy’s, figure out the mystery to why the animatronics are going crazy, and keep his sister safe and in his care? Probably, this is a fiction movie after all.

Five Nights is a pretty solid movie. It feels foremost as a love letter to the fans of the series with a ton of references to the games that people can point to and say “I got that reference.” It’s rather lore heavy and focuses quite a bit on the five kids, albeit with nothing kids who played the games or more likely watched YouTubers play them wouldn’t already know. Given the movie is like the books, fitting into the major beats of the canon without being canonical or taking place in the same timeline, it doesn’t reveal anything that wasn’t already in the games.

The actors are all great, including of course Matthew Lillard who I am never upset to see in a film. Josh Hutcherson does a great job as Mike and Piper Rubio kinda steals the show as Abby. The animatronics themselves are also very well done both in design and execution. There’s some weirdness about the characters that isn’t really explained and they are all too eager to accept the idea that the animatronics are stuffed with children’s souls and their motives. But whatever, it’s a movie about haunted mascots, it’s better if you don’t fight the details.

Overall FNAF is a film that probably won’t entice people who aren’t already fans or well acquainted with the series. For the fans it’ll probably be one of the better movies you see all year. It’s shlocky and spooky and it seems like everyone had a fun time making it. And Matthew Lillard is here, did I mention that?

Rating: B