After being in the works for six years, the new “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie has been released in theaters. The movie, directed by Emma Tammi, is based on the very popular video game also named Five Nights at Freddy’s, created by independent game developer, Scott Cawthon. The movie officially came to theaters this Oct. 27, 2023 with many fans flocking to the first screenings after having been promised a movie for years.
As the movie has been out for 4-5 weeks, it got its first rating on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ with a surprising 30% by critics but a 87% by audience.
Critics explained that their rating was so low because they felt that the movie was muddled and unscary. Contrast to this the audience said their rating was so high because it captured the spirit and lore of the game, especially with how the security guard is trying to survive against the animatronics. It’s understandable that the fans would rate the movie so high if they played the games and were in its fandom because the movie would make more sense to them compared to someone who doesn’t know anything about “Five Nights at Freddy’s”(FNAF) seeing the movie.
Surprisingly, the movie follows the plot and lore of the original game with even adding a few new characters that help the movie go together. A few of these characters include a man named Mike Schmidt (played by Josh Hutcherson), his little sister Abby Schmidt (played by Piper Rubio), and a police officer Vanessa Monroe (played by Elizabeth Lail). It was interesting that the movie decided to keep some familiar names to help the audience understand what roles these characters will have in the plot.
For example,Mike Schimdt is the nightguard in the movie and is the name of the nightguard in the game too. The movie made a decision to go further with the game lore in keeping the missing children characters that possess the robots or animatronics. Like any movie, if there are protagonists, there has to be an antagonist which is William Afton (played by Matthew Lillard). I personally feel that the movie was spot on about who they casted to play the original characters.
With reviews from fans and teens, it seems that the movie was a success to most. Many have said that the movie covered lots of the game’s lore like the animatronics being controlled by William Afton and not understanding that he is actually the bad guy. Many fans also said that they see no issue with the movie not having as much gore in it as the game does with the rating being Pg-13. Most believe that where the gore was supposed to be was easily made up for by seeing the animatronics given personalities. It was very obvious for me while watching this movie that a lot of work and effort were put into the project.
The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie will continue to get more critics and praise as it is out longer in theaters. For lots of fans that have seen the final product say that they can’t wait for the second movie and hope that Tammi and Cawthon will continue with this journey for FNAF. In my opinion I would love to see this series progress because it’s amazing to see something I watched on my old ipod when I was nine become popular again as a teenager. I’m excited for what’s to come for the future of this movie!
