Five Nights at Freddy’s was released on Oct. 27 as a horror movie by up-and-coming director Emma Tammi, best known for her films “The Wind” and “Delivered”.
The film was produced by Jason Blum of the eponymous production company Blumhouse Productions. The film is loosely based on the video game series of the same name which is centered around the idea of a night-time security guard that must defend a pizza restaurant from its horrifying animatronic characters that come to life at night.
Many viewers went into this film with generally high expectations because of all previous Blumhouse produced films. Some of Blum’s most popular films include The Purge, Insidious, and Split.
This film features a relatively noteworthy cast ranging from Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard and Elizabeth Lail. Josh Hutcherson was tasked with playing Mike, a brooding security guard who is forced to face his childhood trauma head-on while battling other traumatic events that suddenly begin occurring in his life.
Hutcherson was a questionable choice in his ability to fulfill this role considering he hasn’t been in any noteworthy film since 2015 with his portrayal as Peeta Mellark in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2.” However, as the film progressed, viewers truly began to feel every emotion that he portrayed when attempting to unearth every grueling layer of trauma that his character experienced.
There were many positives to this film overall. The main positive was the palatable blending of the old school with the new school. The film cultivated an ambiance of retro with modern. For instance, although the film used somewhat new technology, like modernized cell phones, it still maintained a nostalgic feel.
Additionally, another retro take that the film employed was the use of popular 90s horror film actors. The main one is Matthew Lillard most known for his role in the 1996 horror film “Scream.” In Scream, Lillard took the role of a background character, so it was refreshing to see him command a role as one of the main characters. FNAF pulled a lot of inspiration from other classic horror films such as “SAW.” The way that each animatronic character took out each of their enemies was through the creative utilization of tools already present in the environment.
Another novel idea that FNAF employed was their bold take on the term “horror.” Unlike horror films of today, FNAF took a more jovial and carefree approach with the term. They did not rely heavily on the use of strong scenes of gore or even jump scares. The film utilized jump scares only when they were truly necessary. Additionally, to maintain their relatively family-friendly theme the film did not employ the use of a lot of graphic killing scenes. Also, the film even included a few jokes which were very necessary to cut down the “scary” context of the film. This was invigorating to see because most of the current horror films of today utilize as much blood and terror as they can simply to get a rise out of the audience.
The only negative with this film was that the primary twist of the movie was a bit predictable. However, the culmination of every other crucial detail and turning point was unexpected and left up to the imagination of the viewer to make for a more enjoyable experience. This film was a true diamond in the rough and I am excited to see what the next two sequel films will entail.
