“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is a movie based on a horror video game of the same name. Scott Cawthon created the game, in which the player is a night guard who has to check the security cameras to keep track of the animatronics and close the doors to the security office to defend against killer animatronics.
The game became popular because of YouTube channels like Markiplier, a well-known internet personality and “Let’s Play” creator, who has played the entirety of Five Nights, its sequel games and some fan games on his YouTube channel. MatPat from GameTheory, a theorist channel, covered the timeline of the game.
The “Five Nights At Freddy’s” movie follows the video game premise, with the opening scene depicting the implication the kids disappeared and were stuffed in animatronic suits. The plot follows Michael Schmidt, a man who is taking care of Abby, his sister, and can’t hold a job due to anger issues. After he gets fired as a mall security guard he reluctantly takes a job as a night security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
In the interim, his sister is not socializing with peers and her teacher is concerned. Their aunt is trying to gain custody of her and Schmidt is dealing with the weight of watching his brother Garett get kidnapped. After Schmidt gets the job at Freddy’s, his aunt gets a lawyer and then enlists Max, the girl who babysits Abby; Max’s brother and her lawyer to sabotage Schmidt’s latest job.
While at the diner fans got a cameo of MatPat as a waiter. Fans were hoping Markiplier and MatPat would get a cameo. According to The Gamer, Markiplier was going to make a cameo appearance but couldn’t due to a scheduling conflict with his own film “Iron Lung.”
The aunt’s plan backfires because Max, Max’s brother and his friend get killed by the animatronics. Schmidt meets Vanessa, someone who used to go to Freddy’s when she was a kid and knew a lot about it. Vanessa started going there whenever Schmidt was on duty. One night, Schmidt had to take Abby to work with him because he couldn’t get a hold of Max. He made her a fort and had her sleep on the floor.
He woke up to find Abby playing with Freddy, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy. He is horrified and confused, but 6 a.m. eventually comes and he takes his sister home.
Vanessa comes in during Schmidt’s shift while Abby is there as well. There are some surprisingly wholesome moments of the animatronics playing with Abby. At first, Vanessa seems like she’s happy and everything is fine. She even suggests building a fort. After Schmidt’s shift is over and Abby says goodbye to her new animatronic friends, Vanessa tells him, “If you ever bring Abby back here again, I will shoot you.”
Schmidt is still oblivious to the danger, but gets his aunt to babysit Abby. Abby has since been drawing pictures of her and the animatronics and claimed that the kids who possess the animatronics told her about a yellow bunny that abducted Garett. That night during Schmidt’s shift he makes a deal with the children that he will give them anything if they show him who took Garett. The children show him the same yellow bunny his sister has been drawing.
That same night Freddy goes to Mike and Abby’s house to bring Abby to the pizzeria. While Mike and Vanessa are there he realizes Abby is there too. He quickly realizes the mistake he made when he figures out Abby is the “anything” promised to the animatronic children. So Vanessa and Mike work together and manage to save Abby. But then William Afton shows up, and a plot twist reveals he is Vanessa’s father.
Vanessa and her father face off and he stabs her. Afton tells Schmidt he killed Garett and was planning to kill him. However, Afton is soon defeated after Abby draws a picture showing the possessed animatronics who were the true killers.
Afton seems to barely be alive in the rabbit suit, Vanessa ended up in a coma and the pizzeria was destroyed. Abby opens up at school,, and the movie ends with her asking Schmidt, “Can I see my friends again?” responds, “You never know what could happen.”
The film used elements from the first through the third game and those elements worked. According to Rotten Tomatoes, critics said, “Loaded with easter eggs, Five Nights at Freddy’s may be fun to watch for fans of the game, but most viewers of any other persuasion will find this adaptation muddled and decidedly unscary.” However, Rotten Tomatoes’ audience said the lore was captured perfectly and the movie stayed close to the source material.
It was PG-13 so there were no graphic kills or many jumpscares, but it was still a good movie. The movie was also easy to follow for anyone who doesn’t know the game it was derived from.
Final rating: 8/10
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