I ended up watching this film in 2 halves not for any other reason than the fact my ADHD freaked out and I lost my attention span after the first half so had to turn it off. When I went back to it three weeks later and finally finished it I was pleasantly surprised considering I'd blissfully ignored the fascination with the games for however many years.
It was Matthew Lillard who drew me to this movie. I was casually watching Killer Cakes while house sitting for a friend and was thrilled at the fact he was getting his rightfully deserved resurgence. So I Googled him and found that one of his latest credits happened to be this one and a second is coming out in December with him also and I thought 'yeah, go on Matthew'.
So here we are in my support-my-favourite-actors phase and it just so happens to be a soft horror film which is the sort of horror I live for. I need dark humour to thrive with horror nowadays, or severe gore. Any supernatural stuff which is overly serious can do one.
I genuinely haven't seen Josh Hutcherson in anything for years, but I was so pleased he was in this. He does tired guy so well and a horror movie was perfect to showcase his range. It was nice to see him post-Hunger Games fame, and interestingly I got the chance to watch the first of said movies 3 days after finishing this film.
Five Nights at Freddy's follows a man trying to get a job to keep custody of his younger sister as they both struggle with the aftermath of Mike's childhood trauma. Mike witnessed his younger brother being kidnapped but couldn't do anything about it, due to this he's lost his job as a mall security officer as he beat up what he thought was a kidnapper but was actually just a neglectful father.
Mike is given the opportunity to be a night security guard at an abandoned restaurant aimed at kids. Typically the ones with the animatronics and pizza which is all the rage in America but I dont think we ever had that sort of thing over here in the UK. The turn over for these security guards is high and so no one expects him to keep the job but as he's a no hoper he's hired.
Of course the true reason for the high turn around is because of the animatronics who come to life and kill people so the guards are either scared off or killed, usually the latter as we see on screen. Turns out the animatronics of Freddy and his kooky gang are all haunted by kids who were violently killed by a serial killer and their bodies were hidden in the mascots. While they are trapped they take their traumatic deaths out on the living and remain under the control of their killer.
Turns out the killer and kidnapper of Mike's brother is one and the same and he comes back to threaten the lives of both Mike and his sister Abby. With the help from the animatronics the siblings are in danger alongside Afton's (the killer) daughter who has befriended them. With help from Mike she manages to release the control her father has on the dead kids and they turn on him, dragging him away to a cruel slow death like they endured, or so we think.
The fact Lillard has signed on for 3 of these movies shows that all is not as it seems. He's either here for flashbacks in the second film, a spirit, or he doesn't die. We will have to wait and see.
The suspense that this film plays with is brilliant. The cupcake and the cherry are easily the most terrifying of the murderous characters aside from the Fox and obviously Freddy himself. What I want to know is if Garrett (Mike's brother) was one of these animatronics or if his body was hidden elsewhere? There was no closure of this mystery other than we know who did it and that Garrett is dead, we dont know what happened to him so maybe that'll be part of the sequel/s.
I liked the inherently creepy yet comical aspect of the characters. They were unsettling but considering the popularity among children of this game they are also quite charming? B&M markets these toys in the children's aisle when I would consider this not kid friendly at all, but equally this movie would have appealed to me as a youngster due to the bizarre gore and creepy characters which you knew werent real so you could sleep at night. When I was young the fascination was with the first Saw movie but the difference was it instilled a fear in ventriloquist dummies in my generation, but the gore was appealing and it was an exciting entry to horror movies we shouldn't have been watching. I remember going into the Saw Maze at Thorpe Park on a school trip at the age of 11. We screamed so much and should not have been in there, it was fun though.
I was really pleased with how this movie was both dark and gentle. Obviously the events in the plot were horrific, but they dealt with the subject matter with grace. The colours were subdued and it wasnt overly graphic when it came to the murder bit regarding the children. In this respect we looked at it from the grieving family members point of view and the absence of life and the trauma filling the gaps, not the brutality of the crime, that's left for the adults and those who deserve it (the killer).
Obviously animatronics coming to life to commit murder is an obscene and hilarious thing which is why this horror isn't taken too seriously, but that's what I love about it. I don't want to still be watching my back a week later for a non-existent supernatural threats, if I want to still be thinking about a movie a week later I want to be thinking about watching it again because of how good it was. Obviously I love being scared as is the point of a horror movie, but I dont love being traumatised by something which is meant to entertain me, this did the job of lightly scaring me but also somewhat soothing me. It was clever, no traumatic jump scares or checking the dark corners in my house for animatronic animals ready to rip my throat out, job well done.
As a lady who loves horror I really do draw the line at supernatural horrors. Naturally I believe in ghosts and while I'm happy to watch supernatural movies, some take it too far and I dont want to dabble in that. I hate being reduced to a childhood where I had to sleep with the light on because I stayed up and watched The Grudge without my parents knowledge and it freaked me out so bad I wouldnt sleep. Adults still get scared and as the movies become more realistic and weird things happen in real life, I dont wanna meddle. I like balance, Five Nights at Freddy's was the right balance for me.
I'm giving this movie a 7/10. Loved seeing one of my favourite actors revisiting his serial killer roots as Stu was always my favourite in Scream, it was the 'my mom and dad are gunna be so mad at me' sob that really sold me on his character. My only criticism of the movie was that it felt a little rushed, but I'm putting that down to the fact it's based on a video game so it's hard to flesh out a plot like that and keep the timing realistic. The events need to jump around to keep the fear consistent, it wasnt enough to ruin it for me, I guess I just wanted a little more character building as they got to know each other, not just 'this is max, max is dead, this is evil aunt what's her name, she's dead too, this is Vanessa she's not just a cop she's a serial killer's daughter, oh she's the serial killer-who-killed-your-brother-'s daughter'. I wanted longer that's all. Vanessa just seemed shady and while I liked that Mike cottoned on very quickly to the ghosts and that didn't phase him, she was just acting weird for no reason and we dont really know why she fears her dad despite the fact he killed kids, he never hurt her that we know of and she was even gifted Garrett's toy plane. Her involvement was just rushed but meh.
Comment on my socials your own thoughts on this movie, and if you have any memories of animatronic kids venues in the UK that I've blocked from memory!
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