Five Nights at Freddy's is a movie based off a wildly popular video game series first released in 2014 created by Scott Cawthon. It's a survival horror game for young adults with a dedicated fan base. That is one thing this movie nails on the head. It is a horror film that really targets their focus audience.
Historically, PG-13 horror movies are painfully hit or miss, focusing on the fun and thrills of the horror genre as opposed to the splatter and kill count. spending much of their effort to create a moody atmosphere populated by interesting and fairly predictable characters. Saying all of that, none of it is a negative to me or apparently to the crowd of people I watched it with.
With a cast of thespians most of us get a kick out of watching on screen from Josh Hutcherson and Matt Lillard but also features an unusual appearance from Mary Stuart Masterson. All performances were exactly as expected with just the right amount of scenery chewing and lovable over the top goofiness so many of us adore.
The lighting, set design and creature design are a wonderful highlight of Freddy's, virtually every bit of the movie is done practically, with digital used mostly to clean and blend physical effects. It works, boy does it! it's so easy to get involved in the world because it all feels so real and tangible.
As a child of the '70s and '80s when Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz were the rage, dark gloomy arcades, fun animatronics great music and now looking back, an absolutely terrible combination and possibly a haven for predators. Weirdly this captures all of that, the fun, the excitement and the rest. It was effective to see a dystopian reflection of that in the film lending a strong sense of reality to those of us that were there and something new and scary for kids.
I'm going to get a bit meta with this aspect of my review. As someone who never played the game, hearing the audience that were very obviously fans of the games react told me almost everything I needed to know. There were actual pops of laughter, cheers and spontaneous yelling at the screen. The audience loved it. To me and my review that's what truly matters. The target audience adored it and had a ton of fun watching it.
Do I think it's a masterful horror movie? No, is it essentially a film that will create a whole new generation of horror films? Yes, I think in that aspect it will succeed and will help bring new life to a genre so many of us love. Get out and check it out. Take your kids. Wear your cosplay or watch at home. It's a fun ride and worth every minute of it.
-Trevor West