By: Aaron Quinones
Staff Writer
After six years of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” fans across the globe begging for a movie based on the video game franchise, it has finally happened. Scott Cawthon, the creator of the popular horror game franchise, teamed up with Jason Blum, the owner of Blumhouse productions to give fans a PG-13 rated film.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s” follows the main character Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) who is currently going through many obstacles in life. He is battling to keep a sustainable job, making sure to keep custody of his younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio) and is still dealing with the guilt of him being the reason his younger brother was kidnapped and eventually murdered. After being fired as a security guard at the mall, Mike was forced to find another job immediately. Reaching his lowest point, Mike accepts a mysterious gig as the sole night security guard at a pizza place called “Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.”
“Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza” has been abandoned for years, but still has active animatronic animals. The animatronics Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy are all possessed by four children who were brutally murdered in the establishment. The bodies of these little children were stuffed into the animatronics, causing their souls to remain in the animatronics.
Mike begins to start his shifts as the night guard and immediately falls into a deep hole working there. While sleeping on the job, Mike had dreams about what happened to his little brother while also dreaming about the four little kids who were brutally murdered at the pizzeria. He begins to start feeling closer to the kids who are haunting the place, but it eventually all turns bad when one night he has to bring his little sister to the night shift; earlier, the animatronics killed not only Abby’s babysitter but the rest of their family due to them trying to tarnish the establishment.
While Mike is sleeping, Abby is awoken by a child’s voice saying her name. Abby being the kid she is, follows her name being called and begins to dance and get close with the animatronics. Mike is not happy about this as he’s slowly starting to realize that the animatronics are possessed and not friendly. Since both Abby and the animatronics are attached to each other, Abby refuses to stop coming to Mike’s night shifts. One night, Abby is left with her Aunt who she doesn’t like, and one of the souls of the animatronics ends her Aunt’s life. Abby follows the animatronic into a taxi and is brought back to the pizzeria while her brother is on his night shift.
Things take a turn as this time, the animatronics are trying to kill Abby to make her one of them. Mike teams up with police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) to help take down the animatronics, as Vanessa has a deep connection with the place and knows about the history, hidden doors, etc.
The plot twist of this movie was very predictable. WIlliam Afton (Matthew Lillard) who hired Mike Schmidt was actually the murderer of the four kids who died at the establishment. Afton hired Mike after reading his application and seeing his last name, in which he realized that he was the one who murdered his little brother. It is also revealed that Vanessa is actually William Afton’s daughter whom he later also tries to kill.
In the end, Abby draws a picture revealing the truth to the animatronics. The animatronics were taught by William to kill, but soon realized he was the enemy the entire time. The animatronics surround him, looking to kill, but WIlliam hops into a spare animatronic suit; however, his plan backfires as the wires start to stab his body.
Overall, “Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Movie” was definitely an interesting adaptation to the popular video game franchise. The movie isn’t as accurate to the games, which is a bit disappointing because the storyline in the games are so much better. The animatronics (despite looking fantastic) didn’t feel as threatening as they seem to be in the games. The script almost felt confused on when to make them evil versus when to make them Abby’s friend. I did like how they included many internet stars who played/reviewed the games and gave them the spotlight they deserve like CoryxKenshin and MatPat. I’m hoping to see more movies come out in the near future as they have many storylines they can explore.
