“Five Nights at Freddy’s”, A Quirky Animatronic Horror Story

The live action adaptation of the hit video game series “Five Nights at Freddy’s” directed by Emma Tammi is a pretty good watch. It’s definitely made for longtime fans, but is still fun for newcomers to the series.

The story follows Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) as he becomes the security guard for the now abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Quickly he learns that the animatronic can get a bit quirky at night. This danger from the Animatronics is heightened by the arrival of Mike’s younger sister (Piper Rubio) and a police officer named Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail). During all of this Mike is trying to unravel the mystery of who kidnapped his younger brother when he was a child. 

The story is good for what it is. It doesn’t break any new ground, but that isn’t necessarily bad. Although it is a very straightforward and telegraphed story for fans the air of mystery is still mostly there for newcomers and the characters are fun to follow, especially Mike, Vanessa, and Steve Raglan (Mathew Lillard).

The animatronic characters Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Bonnie, Foxy, and the Cupcake all look amazing throughout the movie. They are masterfully controlled by puppeteers from the Jim Henson Company. Since they aren’t CGI they always look realistic and move how you think animatronic would move. The animatronic characters are really the biggest plus this movie has.

The performances from the human actors and actresses are also pretty good. They’re campy, but in a way that helps the tone of the movie. Josh Hutcherson is great in the lead role and Piper Rubio as his younger sister puts in a good performance as well. Although the movie isn’t very scary the performances help it never feel like a drag to sit through during the 110 minute runtime

This is a movie that’s especially made for the fans. Although it isn’t a great entry point to the series it is still a lot of fun to go into blind. If sometime soon you want to watch a fun animatronic horror story you may want to find some time to spend “Five Nights at Freddy’s”.

Directed by Emma Tammi

Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Mathew Lillard, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Kat Conner Sterling, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kevin Foster, MatPat, CoryxKenshin

Rated PG-13

Runtime: 110 minutes

My Rating: ★★★★