Five Nights at Freddy’s is a movie based on the popular video game Five Nights at Freddy’s. The game, made in 2014, is a survival horror game, and its story continues on to eight other games for a total of nine. The player assumes the role of a night-time employee, who must utilize tools such as security cameras, lights, doors, and vents to defend themselves against animatronic characters who inhabit the locations and become mobile and hostile at night.¹ The main characters, such as Mike, William, Vanessa, and the animatronics, Freddy, Bonnie, Foxy, and Chica, are seen in the movie as well.

The movie was released on October 27th, 2023 as a highly anticipated film. The movie has made $221 million worldwide and surpassed its budget by $200 million. Its official age rating was PG-13, but that didn’t stop people of all ages from going to see the movie. The movie casts Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, Mathew Lilliard as William Afton, and Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa Monroe.²


SPOILERS AHEAD!


In the movie, the main character Mike Schmidt, becomes a security guard at Freddy’s after having bad luck at his previous jobs. William Afton, the counselor Mike sees, offers Mike a job at Freddy’s with low pay and nightly hours. When Mike first gets there, he takes a look around and then falls asleep at the security office. He ends up having a dream with five young children in it, and Mike thinks it’s a sign of his dead/missing brother. After waking up, he meets Vanessa, another security guard, who tells him to take the job seriously. The next day, a group attacks the pizzeria, and the shop ends up in ruin. At his later shift, Mike ends up cleaning up the pizzeria while his sister, Abby, sleeps in the other room. Abby ends up meeting the animatronics, and she grows a friendship with them. As Mike, Vanessa, and Abby continue to discover the secrets of Freddy’s, they find out that the counselor, William Afton, is Springtrap, the older animatronic, and Vanessa’s father.

As a person who hasn’t played the game and knows absolutely nothing about the lore and story that comes with the actual game, the movie was exciting and had just the right amount of suspense and horror. While the movie had some great factors, I would only rate it as a seven-out-of-ten due to the fast pacing at the end and some of the scenes, such as the scene where Abby, Mike, Vanessa, and the animatronics build a fort in the main area of Freddy’s. Though the scene seemed cheesy, it does make sense when you factor in that the ‘souls’ of the animatronics are kids and that Abby helped them experience a glimpse of childhood. To touch on the fast pacing, I had an issue with how fast the main characters learned that the animatronics actually moved around. I felt as though the information was released too quickly and it lost some of the suspense.

Some things that I liked about the movie were the emotions displayed by the actors as well as the plot twist that was revealed at the end. Abby, Mike, and Vanessa did well in showing some of their fear, and through the audience, it helped us to realize the gravity of some of the situations, such as when William Afton shows up in the Springtrap suit or when Mike finds out that Vanessa’s father is William. This goes along with the plot twist at the end. Learning that Vanessa is actually William’s daughter and how horrible William treated the children was so interesting. It was definitely something unexpected. Another interesting part of the movie is how there was some foreshadowing. When going through the supply closet, Mike asks Vanessa about one of the old costumes which has a mechanic that locks you in. As seen later, William ends up close to dying because the mechanics failed. Especially after watching the movie, I like finding small parts of the beginning that end up being used in the end.

The movie was really good and I’m glad it was easy to understand even without prior knowledge of the official games. In the end, I only had a few questions that weren’t really answered in the movie, such as: Why does Vanessa wait to reveal her identity until the end? In the beginning, why did the group vandalize the restaurant? Does William Afton die or does he stay alive? Finally, why did the animatronics leave William to die? Why not finish him off? Even despite these questions, the movie was great and I would love to possibly see more sequels in the future.