There are nine core Freddy’s games, which could easily be subtitled ‘jump-scares: the video game’, along with spinoffs, novels, comics, and finally the long gestating film adaptation. This film has been in development hell for almost a decade, with a revolving door of directors and studios before finally landing and the results being.. meh. While waiting for this film to finally be developed, there have been multiple knock-offs (Willies Wonderland and the Banana Splits) that certainly delivered the FNAF experience, and seemingly more in the playful spirit of the games. This movie and the actors play everything surprisingly straight and emotional, despite being in a film about possessed murderous animatronics, with the exception of Mathew Lillard, who knows exactly what movie he’s in. The chances you will enjoy this film is entirely dependent on whether you enjoyed the games and how thrilled you might be to see the characters rendered in live-action. And to be fair, they look great. This is a movie that absolutely revels in fan-service and callouts. However, for a series so utterly devoted to jump scares and increasing tension, this movie has neither. Rather than focus on the danger and threat of the foes, they instead focus heavily on the lore and backstory behind the series, which gets pretty thick, but again with nonexistent scares. This could be a nice ‘intro’ horror movie geared towards younger audiences, and there are some remarkably cute and very fun scenes, but there is not much here that will do much beyond raise the eyebrows of genre enthusiasts. This movie is geared entirely towards fanservice first, family fare second, and horror somewhere near the end of the credits teasing a sequel that hopefully might actually deliver scares.
Five Nights At Freddy's (2023)