Apparently when it comes to reviewing video game adaptations for The Legionnaire, I’ve become the go-to guy. Honestly, as a gamer, I don’t mind it too much. From Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) to Uncharted (2022) and, more recently, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, I covered a decent amount of them. I want to review more of them for The Legionnaire as it combines two things that I love: writing and video games. Fortunately, I have another opportunity to do that with the latest video game adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Full disclosure: Five Nights at Freddy’s is one video game franchise I haven’t played, but I have seen enough gameplay via YouTube to get the concept of it. For those who haven’t heard of it, let alone played the series, it’s a survival horror game about a security guard who has to spend several nights in a family pizzeria called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza (think Chuck-E-Cheese) with animal animatronics roaming the restaurant. From my perspective, it’s a simple but effective horror game that apparently, believe it or not, has thirteen games in the franchise. It also has a good amount of lore attached to it, which pretty much justifies a feature length film. Despite not playing the games beforehand, I was somewhat excited to see it because I was going to watch it with my friends/coworkers who have played the games and I was curious about their reactions. Is this not only a successful video game movie but also one that’ll have me start playing the games? As usual, let’s find out. 

In Five Nights at Freddy’s, we follow Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutchenson), a twenty-something who takes care of his much younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio), who has a bit of a problem interacting with kids her age and spends much of her time drawing pictures. Mike has a tragic past as he lost his younger brother at a young age from a kidnapper while his family was camping in Nebraska. Every night he dreams of that moment. He falls asleep to nature sounds hoping the familiar noises will trigger a memory within the dream to help find out where his brother went, but unfortunately, he wakes up before gaining any clues. One day while on the job as a security guard at a mall, he mistakenly beats up a man who he thought was a kidnapper and gets terminated from his job. Later, Mike visits a career counselor (Matthew Lillard), who offers Mike a job as a night security guard at a place called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mike is hesitant, but takes the counselor’s card in case he changes his mind. To make matters worse for Mike, his aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson) is threatening to take his sister away because of his inability to hold a job. As a last resort, Mike calls the counselor and takes the job. The counselor informs Mike that the pizza place has been shut down for years but the owner doesn’t want to give it up just yet for sentimental reasons. When Mike gets there, he turns own the main power and notices the five animatronics that the restaurant is known for: Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Mr. Cupcake. On his first night, Mike falls asleep and dreams again, only this time he sees a group of kids and asks them if they knew the location of his brother. But when approached, they fled the scene. On the second night, Mike dreams once more, and while he was able to get a hold of one of the kids, they attack him, causing him to immediately wake up. Afterwards, a police officer named Vanessa Shelly (Elizabeth Lail) checks on him and notices an unexpected wound on his arm. She patches him up and informs him about the restaurant’s history, including how five kids were murdered there and their bodies were never found.  After the second night, Mike’s aunt decides to hire a bunch of people, including Abby’s babysitter, to trash the restaurant in the hopes of getting Mike fired and having social services remand Abby to her. While wrecking the place, the delinquents are attacked by the animatronics, who have come alive to kill the intruders one by one. Unable to get a hold of Abby’s babysitter, Mike decides to bring her during his third night unknowingly putting them both in danger.

Like most video game adaptations I’ve seen over the years, Five Nights at Freddy’s has a good amount of fan service from the games. Despite me not being 100 percent familiar with the franchise, I was able to pick this up based on my friends reactions and comments after the film. I can tell they liked it more than me because I didn’t enjoy it given the use of fan service, glaring plot holes, and most disappointedly, how boring of a horror movie it was.

To use a quote that I’ve been saying to myself every year whenever my baseball team, the Tampa Bay Rays, get eliminated in the playoffs: I expect nothing and I’m still let down. That’s pretty much how I feel about Five Nights at Freddy’s in general. From an outsider’s perspective, I was hoping to see a video game adaptation where I can enjoy it without knowing too much of the franchise. Apparently, the filmmakers didn’t get the memo. Instead, they just relied on fan service to please audiences, which was really annoying. Now I know I’m the last one to complain about fan service because I’ve seen plenty of films doing the same thing. Take The Super Mario Bros. Movie as an example. It had plenty of Easter eggs while at the same time entertained those who aren’t familiar with the games. Having too much fan service in a film can be problematic because it can lead to problems. With Five Nights at Freddy’s, it was the plot holes and lack of horror that was the main problem. I won’t go into the plot holes because I don’t feel like spoiling it, but let’s just say the lack of forensic science had me asking questions. Even my friends tried to piece it together, though they tried to use the lore from the franchise to fill in the logic gaps. Judging from the movie itself, it was a confusing mess. This then led me from being kind of bored with some of the horror elements. This is underscored by the several jump scares, the cheapest form of scares. 

As I always do wherever I review any movie on The Legionnaire, I tried to look for anything positive in Five Nights at Freddy’s, and believe it or not, I was able to find some. For starters, I was impressed by the aesthetics of the film. Despite me not being a fan of the games, I was impressed by how the filmmakers were able to directly translate the look of certain characters and backgrounds from the game into the film. I know it sounds like a common form of praise, but I’ve seen filmmakers somehow not translate designs well when there’s literally an image to copy from. Secondly, I liked how they used the effects in the film. From what I looked up, they used practical effects for the animatronics with the help of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The result was impressive. As someone who is getting tired of the overuse of computer generated images (CGI) in films, seeing puppeteer animatronics in a major studio film was a breath of fresh air. The last positive thing I can say about this video game adaptation is how it tackles the subject of guilt. In general, guilt is usually viewed as a negative thing. However, as a Catholic, I view guilt as a positive because it allows us to realize that we may have sinned and with that sin we can be more open to ask for forgiveness. Throughout the film, Mike carries heavy guilt for failing to watch his brother while vacationing in Nebraska, and has recurring dreams about the tragic event. Not to give too much away, but Mike comes to terms with his actions and moves forward to protecting his little sister at all costs.

If there was one last positive about Five Nights at Freddy’s, it’s that I didn’t dislike it when compared to The Exorcist: Believer. That being said, I would not recommend Five Nights at Freddy’s, mostly because of how not-scary it is renowned for its terrifying elements. There’s plenty of horror films to watch this Halloween season if you are looking for a fright, such as the classic horror movie Halloween (1978) or one of my favorite of all time from that genre, Sinister (2012). Most importantly, just go to a vigil service for All Saints Day. As a gamer, this was truly disappointing because video game adaptations in Hollywood were finally progressing, but I feel like this film is a step backwards for the sub-genre. Then again, I shouldn’t be too surprised when it comes to how lackluster 2023 has been in general for movies. Oh well.