If you were a tween in the 2010s, you are no doubt excited to see this beloved horror franchise leap from your PC to the big screen as the latest nostalgia film eager to cynically part you from your money. Traditionally, translating video games into movies is not an easy task. It requires immense love, creativity and time from someone who truly understands and respects the source material. You, as a fan of this franchise are hoping that due care was taken to craft a faithful experience worthy of your nostalgia dollars. I would love to say that's exactly what this film is, that it brings to life all those memories from your childhood with the nurturing warmth they deserve. I wish I could say this is a new horror icon. Unfortunately I can not.
Far from the care necessary to produce a coherent rendition of the jump scare laden franchise, this is a film unsure of what it wants to be, what it is about or how it should get there. The writing is careless to the point of becoming disrespectful to the very nostalgia they used to draw you in. What we get is a film that is hard to justify as a Five Nights at Freddy's film devoid of any jump scares, instead manicly switching between genres and themes in some kind of existential identity crisis. It's sometimes a family drama about a child custody battle, before it switches into a sci-fi dreamscape nior about a lost brother, a gritty romance, a coming of age story and even a heist movie. Sometimes it happens to be set in Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, but that is only for a third or less of the film. It does contain Freddy and his band of ghoulish friends, but they mostly just stand around like easter eggs in the background of another movie.
Little in Five Nights at Freddy's makes sense, starting with its title, since lead character Mike only spends three nights in the building. The events which take place have no consequences, in the films universe as if they were in a 90s sitcom that resets after every episode. Crimes are committed, but nobody cares or remembers. Conversations are had, that are immediately forgotten. The characters have unrealistic and unconvincing conversations that betray the film's low-quality writing. Nobody does their job and it does not matter. Five Nights at Freddy's is a movie adaptation disaster lacking in even the most basic of stakes or reason for the audience to care.
What about fun, you may ask. Surely, Five Nights at Freddy's compensates for its lack of coherence with some humorous and self-referential fun. Well, you are out of luck there too. The film wastes so much time switching between its multiple identities that the characters end up doing nothing but talking in disconnected monologues passed each other or sleeping for most of the film. When a horror franchise devotes more time to watching a character sleep than to anything resembling action, you know you have wasted your money.
As Scott Cawthon, the creator of this franchise, I would feel outraged by the way writer/director Emma Tammi has ruined this IP. It is not hard to envision legal action coming soon, the film is just that terrible. Five Nights at Freddy's reminds us after a decade of Marvel comic film adoptions, that if you want something done properly you have to do it yourself.
Far from the care necessary to produce a coherent rendition of the jump scare laden franchise, this is a film unsure of what it wants to be, what it is about or how it should get there. The writing is careless to the point of becoming disrespectful to the very nostalgia they used to draw you in. What we get is a film that is hard to justify as a Five Nights at Freddy's film devoid of any jump scares, instead manicly switching between genres and themes in some kind of existential identity crisis. It's sometimes a family drama about a child custody battle, before it switches into a sci-fi dreamscape nior about a lost brother, a gritty romance, a coming of age story and even a heist movie. Sometimes it happens to be set in Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, but that is only for a third or less of the film. It does contain Freddy and his band of ghoulish friends, but they mostly just stand around like easter eggs in the background of another movie.
Little in Five Nights at Freddy's makes sense, starting with its title, since lead character Mike only spends three nights in the building. The events which take place have no consequences, in the films universe as if they were in a 90s sitcom that resets after every episode. Crimes are committed, but nobody cares or remembers. Conversations are had, that are immediately forgotten. The characters have unrealistic and unconvincing conversations that betray the film's low-quality writing. Nobody does their job and it does not matter. Five Nights at Freddy's is a movie adaptation disaster lacking in even the most basic of stakes or reason for the audience to care.
What about fun, you may ask. Surely, Five Nights at Freddy's compensates for its lack of coherence with some humorous and self-referential fun. Well, you are out of luck there too. The film wastes so much time switching between its multiple identities that the characters end up doing nothing but talking in disconnected monologues passed each other or sleeping for most of the film. When a horror franchise devotes more time to watching a character sleep than to anything resembling action, you know you have wasted your money.
As Scott Cawthon, the creator of this franchise, I would feel outraged by the way writer/director Emma Tammi has ruined this IP. It is not hard to envision legal action coming soon, the film is just that terrible. Five Nights at Freddy's reminds us after a decade of Marvel comic film adoptions, that if you want something done properly you have to do it yourself.