Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

<<

Gearing Up

>>

Jump to "Now Playing" Review for 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' (Coming Soon!)

Once again, given my inexperience with the 'Five Nights at Freddy's' games, I had to watch it objectively, treating it more as a horror movie than a video game adaptation. The bonus there is that I'm not necessarily looking for all of the flaws in the adaptation. But that also doesn't mean they're not there for game fans who rightfully should demand more than just a name slapped onto something to make some cash. 'Five Nights' here strikes me as such a movie where I'm not entirely sure they knew what they were doing.

From what I understand, almost half of this movie actually unfolds reasonably well. The opening sequence is nice and creepy, giving 'Saw' vibes to the viewer, but without showing any real gore. This will definitely be complained about, but I'm generally of the mind that often less is more. No blood is fine as long as your imagination can fill in the blanks with something even more potentially gruesome. That's something this film did well, and, upon doing some homework, I've read that the games forego blood and gore in favour of atmosphere. You get this treatment throughout the film, so if you're here for gore, this isn't for you.

We meet mall security guard Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), who one day ends up beating some kid's father half to death in the middle of the day and out in the open. Needless to say, he's fired. However, he does have to take care of his little sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), whom social services is threatening to hand over to someone who might as well be her over-the-top Disney-style evil aunt, Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson), due to dwindling custody payments. As a result, Mike, willing to do anything, takes a security job at the now-abandoned "Freddy Fazbears," a "Chuck E. Cheese"-style pizza restaurant that kids still often vandalize.

Mike often falls asleep on the job and has bad dreams about his little brother, Garrett (Lucas Grant), who was kidnapped when they were young. Without spoiling too much, this has a deeper connection to the overall story. But at one point, Jane sends some goons to rough up "Fazbears," and this, as far as I'm concerned, is the best part of the movie. The animatronic characters come to life and protect their restaurant in some pretty badass, brutal ways. Again, there is no blood, but the effect is creepy, and I wondered, while watching, why so many people came out of it hating it. If the whole movie was gonna be like that, I was in for the ride.

Mike eventually meets Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), a cop who seems to do routine checks at the restaurant, who gives him a tour of the place and its dark history. One night, Mike brings his little sister there. She befriends these animatronic terrors, and for some reason, the movie almost goes into "fun mode." As soon as it hits that point, you wonder what the hell happened. The film explains things much more clearly, but the viewer is still left wondering why it goes so cliché. It takes you out of the horror the movie should be pushing, and it just didn't need to go there.

With something like this, one could just as easily have made these animatronics the vengeful spirits they're apparently supposed to be, turned it into a slasher flick, and made it about Mike having to survive the night while these things go amok, but aren't necessarily seen by Mike. Victims could be anything from criminals to risk-taking teenagers. While probably still not the best, it could have been a good "body count" horror movie that worked its creepy factor to the max. If the movie had taken the scene I described with the vandals and run with the formula, it still would have been cliché, but might have been more effective.

It's my understanding that when it comes to this film, however, it's meant to be a good toe-dip for younger audiences into the horror genre. To this, I can't honestly say I disagree, and it IS about time another one of these came along. However, there's a heavy kidnapping plot to this that would probably have traumatized me as a kid, and it's hard to know if it really knows what it wants to be. The right age for this is basically "puberty," I suppose. But this film couldn't quite pick a lane, and it is one of the more significant dips in video game adaptation quality in recent history (debatable, yes, but it's just my opinion).

2/5

---