“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is a movie about Mike, a man who can’t hold down the jobs he gets and struggles to retain custody over his little sister Abby. After getting a job as a security guard at a mall, he is fired from what he thinks is his final job. But just before Mike accepts that, he is offered one last job: a night security job for a run-down restaurant, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.

It is heavily speculated that Scott Cawthon, the man who originally created the games on which the movie was based, would make up the story for his games as he went along by going with whatever dedicated fans speculated and adding their theories to the game. Cawthon is also the producer and co-writer for the movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” 

With Cawthon’s lack of knowledge of writing cohesive stories, the film shifts in a different direction than the games. Major differences include making the animatronics friendlier and controlled by drawings, changing character relationships like making Vanessa and William Afton related and even removing Mike from the Afton family. Mike and Vanessa are the main characters of the movie, and they are played by Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Lail. Hutcherson and Lail both give mediocre performances. Some of their line deliveries sound monotone, and they seem like they need help to flourish in their roles. This could be caused by a lousy script that changes many  of the plot points from the games and subverts expectations.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is a huge series with many hardcore fans, possibly putting a lot of pressure on the producers of the movie, Blumhouse Productions, who seemed to have unintentionally leaned into a comedic tone. This wasn’t helped by the PG-13 rating, which forced the movie to shy away from the gore and horror that many were expecting.

The movie’s main villain, William Afton, is played by Matthew Lillard, who also played Shaggy in the live-action Scooby-doo movies. Lillard is one of the movie’s highlights, but he is only present for a few minutes at the start and finale. Near the end of the movie, Lillard delivers his character’s most notorious line when he gets defeated at the finale, saying, “I always come back.” However, the line sounds super forced, making it sound corny when he says it. Lillard is a good actor; he was just brought down by the script.

Blumhouse Productions and Scott Cawthon made the animatronics largely in collaboration with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, famous for working on puppets for Sesame Street and The Muppets. The animatronics are the mascots and the most recognizable part of the entire series; they are made very well and are highly accurate to the games, even though they are not scary.

Overall, the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie was funny but not good. I recommend it to people who do not mind watching the funnier aspects of the movie or to long-time fans of the series. 

Final Verdict: 2.5/5