Can You Survive the Five Nights?

A review of the new Blumhouse production Five Nights at Freddy’s  

Image c/o Universal Pictures

By Val Hill 
Visiting Entertainment Columnist

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In August of 2014, a man by the name of Scott Cawthon released a game called Five Nights at Freddy’s. This game was produced by ScottGames Clickteam Illumix, and was quickly picked up by YouTubers like Markiplier and MatPat. These YouTubers were a key aspect of most of the success of the franchise, and there was talk of a movie since around April 2015 with the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s 4. But it was taking too long for most fans, so some took matters into their own hands to make their own fan movies. So when horror production company Blumhouse announced that they would be producing the movie, fans had high expectations. Blumhouse is responsible for producing other films like Split and The First Purge, so fans were ready for a blood and gore-worthy movie. A film that was worthy of a rated R, and definitely not kid-friendly. However, the movie was going to be released as a PG-13 and this is what started the downfall of the movie. 

The movie was marketed as a horror movie, but it was anything but horror. The movie took more of its inspiration from the book “The Silver Eyes” rather than the video games. This confused fans for a majority of the movie, since it seemed to be marketed as if it was based on the first game. Since this franchise is heavily lore-based, it was assumed that the lore would be pulling from the established canon and would fit within the game’s established timeline. But once again this was not the case, but nonetheless, a Five Nights At Freddy’s movie is better than none at all. 

The movie follows a guy named Mike (Josh Hutcherson)  who is having a difficult time trying to keep a stable job in order to take care of his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio). She is very distant and almost cruel to her brother, even after all the sacrifices he made to try and keep her aunt from taking her away. Meanwhile, Mike finds it difficult to keep a job following the kidnapping of his younger brother Garrett. So after being fired from another job, Mike finds his way as a night-time security guard for a place called “Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza”, a family-friendly arcade game pizzeria. Mike is offered this job by an all-too-eager guidance counselor played by Matthew Lillard. There are four remaining animatronics left in the place: Freddy, Bonnie, Foxy and Chica along with her Cupcake. But unknown to Mike, these animatronics are possessed by the spirits of four children who disappeared in the ‘80s. Over the course of the movie, Mike tries to figure out what the spirits want along with a female police officer named Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail). Who gives off the aura that she knows more than she is letting on, and over the movie you wonder if Abby somehow fits into the plans of the animatronics. 

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