“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is an indie game series made by a game developer by the name of Scott Cawthon, it was popularized by many YouTubers, most notably Game Theory, Markiplier, CoryXKenshin, 8-Bit-Ryan and more. This movie was originally announced on April 7th, 2015; since it had been anticipated for five years, many people thought that it wasn’t going to be made at all, so it was quite a shock when Blumhouse announced that it’d finally be released on Oct. 27. The movie was fantastic, a well executed love letter to the FNAF franchise, and is definitely worth your attention,

“Five Nights At Freddy’s” follows Mike Schmidt played by Josh Hutcherson, a troubled young adult who can’t hold down a job. Mike has sole custody of his ten-year-old-sister Abby, played by Piper Rubio, a young girl who spends more time drawing than talking to her own brother. However, he is fighting against one of the main protagonists, Aunt Jane, played by Mary Stuart Masterson who also wants custody of Abby. Mike ends up taking a night guard position at Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria out of desperation. There, he tries to uncover the details behind the disappearance of his younger brother, Garrett, despite the warning from his police officer friend, Vanessa.. He discovers that five kids have gone missing at this mysterious pizzeria, but how is that connected to the disappearance of Garrett? And is it a problem that the Animatronics have taken such a liking to his younger sister, Abby?

Scott Cawthon himself was said to have worked on the movie, so I was pretty excited to see it from the very beginning. But, once the trailer was released, it received pretty heavy scrutiny for looking ‘not scary enough’ and many were incredibly disappointed that the age rating was PG-13. I was also annoyed at this at first, but since FNAF is technically a children’s game, it made sense. The movie already began to face backlash, an edited screenshot of a scene from the movie saying ‘Together, we are FNAF’ went viral and was turned into a meme, everyone (Including myself) already thinking the movie was going to be corny and badly made.

So how was the movie? Honestly, it was fantastic and definitely worth your time.

One thing I think the movie did brilliantly was showing how much the production team and director cared about the community instead of making the FNAF film just another lazily-made cash grab. Not only did they listen to what the community wanted out of the movie, but they actively wanted to include YouTubers who contributed to the fame of the movie. Multiple YouTubers were invited to appear in the movie: Matpat, Coryxkenshin, and others. I was so amazed and excited by this decision–seeing YouTubers who have done so much for this franchise be included in such a big project was mindblowing and such a genius decision. Everyone in the movie theater erupted into cheers when these YouTubers appeared on screen–including me.

But the movie isn’t free of criticism: one immensely disappointing fact was that the movie doesn’t follow the lore of the game exactly, but then again not many movie-game adaptations do. So while I was disappointed at first, this should’ve been expected. A lot of things were changed: instead of Elizabeth Afton, who died in the games, the child of William Afton, they made a creative decision to make William Afton’s child alive and named Vanessa. I was pretty frustrated by this decision, as it changes the entire lore of the game heavily. If Williams’s daughter didn’t die, what motivations did he have for killing children? Something else that angered me and many other fans was the lack of connection the movie had to the actual game. Not once did we get a scene of Mike Schmit trying to keep the animatronics away by closing doors and flashing lights as we see in the game, which is just unfortunate to many of the fans who wanted the very baseline of the game to appear in the movie. But, I think one good decision they made was to give Mike a motive to continue working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. While in the games. Little is known why Mike Schmidt would continue to work at a dead-end minimum wage job where possessed robots literally try to kill you, but in the movie, they make the good decision to explain why Mike continued to work here.

Its not only fans that are having problems with the movie, the popular franchise “Chuck E Cheese” has completely gotten rid of their animatronics, excluding the animatronic band in California, following the release of the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie. 

Despite this initial disappointment, it was quickly rectified for me by them showing how much they cared about the community liking the movie. By including inside jokes from the fandom, and by paying immense attention to detail. The diner in the movie was notably named ‘Sparkys’, which is the name of a myth animatronic that went around the community for a while. They also made a ‘Sparky’ suit that lay in the parts and service room, which is a super fun easter egg for the community. They also made Bonnie, Foxy, Freddy, and Chica actual real-life animatronics instead of just doing CGI! As a community that loves to dig deep into the lore and details of media, this is a fantastic movie because there are so many little easter eggs and homages to the community that fans can uncover.

The cast was also utterly amazing at their jobs; Josh Hutcherson was a brilliant choice to play Mike Schmidt. He truly embodied the character and provided a wonderful performance. I also think Kat Sterling, the actress who portrayed Max, delivered her performance brilliantly. 

This movie is perfect for ‘Five Nights At Freddy’s’ fans who want more FNAF content from Scott Cawthon, and for new people who want to get into the community. While disappointing to some degree to the community, this is a truly well-made love letter to the FNAF series, and I hope that the next movie in the triage is even better. If you want to see this movie, you can stream it on Peacock or see it in theatres until December 11th 2023.