First & foremost, I haven’t played a single Five Nights at Freddy’s game. I have seen clips, but playing horror video games has never suited me. What I can speak on though is understanding the excitement of an adaptation from a beloved video game that you hold dear. For example, some video game franchise’s that I am a big fan of are Hitman, Doom, and Max Payne. For the longest time, I would always justify their movie adaptations. It wasn’t until recent rewatches where I truly saw them for what they were: A clash of not knowing what to really make it. Do they focus more on the story or the gameplay? What’s going to be the most appealing to fans & the newcomers? There’s not a whole lot of confidence in how they get made and I can almost say the same for this film.

The things I really liked, I like as much as the things I didn’t like. Starting with the positives, Five Nights at Freddy’s is perhaps at its strongest with who they have cast, in its more intense sequences, and with the overall lore of the story. It’s nice to have Josh Hutcherson in a lead role again. His presence feels like the right choice as he has to play a character with a complex background. His morals appear to be in check between the longing of trying to find his missing brother, as well as taking care of his younger sister. However, this makes him a flawed character seen through beating up someone he believes to be abducting a kid. He truly embodies a character worth rooting for. There is also Matthew Lillard in a role that feels earned with everything that is given to him as an actor. Without giving anything away, his character almost seems to have the same characteristics at Hutcherson’s role, which makes him a character worth paying attention to.

While the film maintains a PG-13 level rating, the intense sequences where the horror at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria begins to occur is certainly one of the stronger elements of the film. Even though it’s not as much as I’d hope, whenever these scenes occur, I was glued in. You truly get the sense that everyone is in peril and anything could happen. It’s one element I hope we get to see more of in more entries.

The lore of the story is extremely fascinating. For its rating, I was quite surprised by how dark it actually goes, and that’s something that I mean that would have worked better if they went for a stronger rating. The story does go into a specific direction that I had no idea was going to go into. It’s one of those things that can make anyone rewatch it with different eyes, even if it can still be predictable at times (more on that in a bit). Regardless of what didn’t work for me, the lore is intriguing enough to make me want to visit more inevitable entries.

As for the negatives, there are one too many characters that only service the plot, the overall focus of the story can make it predictable at times, lack of scares, and moments important to the plot completely forgotten about until the films resolution. Characters literally come & go just to tell other characters integral to the story something important, and then they are never mentioned again. Cutting them out of the story could have done wonders to the runtime by adding more of the horror aspect that was to be expected.

Then, there’s the film’s focus on its set up. There is a LOT of build up. Without any spoilers, there is a particular focus on one plot point that saw coming. Technically two if you count how the film also adds these weird little moments that are only placed to let the audience that it is going to be important later on. Instead, when this happens, it results in characters resulting in unrealistic ways. With a film so heavily focused on the background of the main character and with the story, it can result in unrealistic situations not fitting to a real person.

The lack of scares has to be the film’s most disappointing aspect. From what I have seen from the gameplay itself, this could have been improved. Even from a horror standpoint, it struggles to maintain that specific genre. An R-rating could have helped this to feel more of that intensity. Instead, it comes off as Saw, but for the family.

Lastly, there is one thing I do want to mention. I was warned beforehand of a plot point involving dreams. It was something that seemed silly, and it’s still one that I don’t agree with the film doing. I am not sure if it is something that happens in the game, but here, it feels out of place. I won’t say anything more about what happens. It just felt out of place and made more of what comes predictable.

Overall, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a mixed bag of strengths & weaknesses with gimmicks taken from other video game adaptations. A stronger rating could have done this film more justice, and maybe, serviced more of what came before a lot better. I do think upon a rewatch of this, I may feel stronger in whether its a like or dislike, but at the moment I feel pretty neutral.

VERDICT: Okay