On October 27th, the film adaptation of the indie video game, Five Nights at Freddy’s, was out in theaters, receiving mixed reviews. Five Nights at Freddy’s satisfied fans of the game, yet left horror movie enthusiasts unsatisfied.
The film scored very low on Rotten Tomatoes, receiving a 30% in the critic’s review. However, it scored an 87% in audience review. This contrast is very understandable as the movie was not made for the everyday mystery and thriller connoisseur. Five Nights at Freddy’s was a film solely made for fans of the game and there is no denying it. Even in advertising for the feature film, producer Jason Blum clarifies, “What became clear to us during the development process was that the only way to pull this off was to make the movie for fans of Five Nights at Freddy’s and, if anyone else came along, fine.” Even still, many viewers who are not fans of the franchise have criticized it heavily, but is any of the criticism valid?
If you are a lover of the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, you would most likely enjoy this film. It is filled with easter eggs, cameos of fan-favorite YouTube streamers, and astonishing animatronics to excite viewers. Not to mention, the jam-packed storyline that combined plot points from the different Five Nights at Freddy games. In a lot of ways, this film satisfied the expectations of fans because it felt as if their favorite game came to life. Also, because the plot of the movie combined the storylines from the different games, fans were able to pick up on certain references that regular viewers couldn’t. Although this film worked for the fans, it left regular viewers disappointed.
If you are going to this film intending to watch a true horror movie, don’t go. Since this film was not specifically made for any viewer to watch, many references will leave you confused and you will simply not get the same exciting experience from the movie as avid fans did. The combination of storylines took away from the horror aspect because producers focused on making the video game come to life, and did not develop classic horror troupes or psychologically thrilling scenes. This is why I believe critics gave the film such low ratings because they were expecting a true horror movie and not the adaptation that was catered for fans.
In the end, producer Jason Blum shut down this controversy and made it clear that this movie was solely made for fans and that he didn’t care about the casual viewer. Which makes commenting on the lack of horror and gore in the movie not a valid argument because the movie was not meant to meet those expectations. All in all, if you are looking to watch your favorite video come to life, I recommend Five Nights at Freddy’s. If you are expecting a horror film that will leave you terrified, this is not the movie for you as it was never intended to be that.