4/12 ForReel Score | 1.5/5 Stars

Being an avid fan of the video game franchise, I was reasonably excited for a theatrical adaptation of the Five Nights at Freddy’s video games, which excel in their uses of built-up jumpscares and the uncanny valley. I have been playing the games since I was twelve years old, which is also when the production of this movie was announced. First acquired by Warner Bros. in 2015 and then picked up by Blumhouse in 2017, the film had been in development hell for the better half of a decade. Most video game films, save for the mildly underrated Sonic The Hedgehog film franchise helmed by Jeff Fowler, fall flat on their faces spectacularly, and Five Nights at Freddy’s is no exception. You’d think a film that spent nearly a decade in development would have some merit, but you would be sorely mistaken. Unfortunately, Five Nights at Freddy’s is one of the most boring horror films I have ever seen, leaning too heavily into sincerity for a concept revolving around murderous anthropomorphic robot animals.

The creature design and set pieces are great, but it is more or less just an unimaginative game-to-film adaptation from there. However, it is not the gameplay that is adapted, but rather the infamously ridiculous plotline of the Five Nights at Freddy’s games. A better and more simplistic game-to-film adaptation would have implemented the panic-inducing gameplay rather than just putting the game’s convoluted plot on the screen. The opening scene of the film does this exceptionally well, playing out like a ten-minute Saw-esque short film, save for Saw’s trademark intensity. Like Saw, the aspect ratio is kept open in such a cramped space, giving the director visual freedom to open up a tightly enclosed space.

Director Emma Tammi works well with what she is given, but not even the greatest director of all time could salvage such a dull script. After the opening scene frightfully sets the stage for what could have been an entertainingly tense chamber horror/thriller (like the games are), we are segued into the melodramatic life of Mike Schmidt, a hot-tempered and down-on-his-luck Nebraskan man who takes care of his younger sister, Abby. Mike, to quote his daughter, is “a jerk,” and their tense family dynamic is the core of the film. Mike gets most of the characterization in the film, whereas Abby feels more like a plot device who says “I hate you!” to Mike in the sad scenes, only to flip-flop and reconcile with him ten minutes later. The film feels like it’s missing whole chunks of character development, as if there were full scenes of character interaction that were, for whatever reason, scrapped in the editing room.

After a traumatic incident in his childhood, Schmidt carries the guilt of being unable to prevent it, which is executed quite well by leading man Josh Hutcherson. After playing the love interest, Peeta Mellark, in The Hunger Games series of films, Hutcherson returns to the silver screen as the film’s disheveled lead. This characterization is the first gripe I have with the film, as it makes the whole tone of Five Nights at Freddy’s take a nosedive into a character study of a traumatized protagonist. This horror cliche of exploring trauma has become eye-rollingly trite within the last few years, and the implementation of a darkly traumatic past makes the film much more grave than it needs to be, opting for weirdly paced dramatic subplots and family dynamics rather than leaning into what makes the Five Nights at Freddy’s games so great. Instead of being a straightforward horror film or even a horror comedy, the film takes such a bizarre dramatic turn to the point where it doesn’t even know what it wants to be. Is it a horror film? Is it a comedy? Is it a family drama? It is simultaneously all three and none of them because of how poorly these tones are blended into the screenplay.

A film about animatronic animals should not be so genuine. I went into the film expecting a horror comedy only to not laugh once - not because of bad humor, but because the film takes itself way too seriously. Inspired predecessors like The Banana Splits Show and Willy’s Wonderland recognize the ridiculous tone of the premise and capitalize on it to make memorable horror/comedy experiences. However, Five Nights at Freddy’s is neither funny nor scary. For a franchise that relies so heavily on jumpscares, the only jumpscares in the film are literal “in-your-face” easter eggs of a character from the second Five Nights at Freddy’s game, serving little-to-no relevancy to the film’s plot outside of setting up a sequel. The horror element is utterly absent from the film outside of a weirdly placed kill montage that is never referenced again.

Admittedly, the montage does have some cool kills, but what’s the point of having cool kills in a horror movie if you’re going to use all of them within ten minutes? The funniest the film gets is when the always-welcome Matthew Lillard is on screen, who brings his signature eccentricity to an otherwise tedious film. The unfortunate flipside is that Lillard is in the movie for roughly five minutes, leaving a head-scratching impression that makes me feel he is only in the film to set up a sequel as well. Being a fan of the games, I was expecting a jumpscare-heavy fright fest, only to be disappointed by the inanely meandering screenplay. By the third act of the film, all intrigue had fizzled out, and I was just waiting for the boredom to end. Similar to Josh Hutcherson’s character working the night shift, I was also struggling to stay awake.

While the visual style of Five Nights at Freddy’s is exciting, the entire film feels like it is a decade too late to the party. If Five Nights at Freddy’s had been released five years ago, it would’ve been a smash hit instead of the whimper it has currently released on, where longtime fans of the franchise (myself included) are incredibly divided on their opinions of the film. Suffering from bland writing, a strange sense of self-seriousness, a lack of scares, and the fervent need to set up a sequel entry, Five Nights at Freddy’s is one of the biggest disappointments of the decade thus far.

MOVIE REVIEW: "Five Night At Freddy's"; Yet Another Disappointing Video Game Adaptation