Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) was a security guard in a quiet shopping center.
‘Was’ because he was fired shortly after for assaulting a man in front of his child after he mistook him for a kidnapper. A normal person would choose to confront rather than attack a person suspected of being an abductor or a criminal for many reasons. But Mike is livid.
A long time ago, someone kidnapped Mike's younger brother during a family picnic. He's been obsessed with this memory ever since. He’s so obsessed that he can lucidly dream about it and investigate it and talk to the five children who saw it.
Unemployment and past trauma are not his only problems; Mike also has to deal with his sleazy aunt (Mary Stuart Masterson). She has been hounding him for years to relinquish guardianship of his younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio). Mike knows that she only wants Abby’s monthly support money, and she's just waiting for him to mess up so she can have her. So he tries his best not to mess up.
With his stacking insubordination cases, he’s left with virtually no other choice but to accept a job as a night-shift security guard for a dilapidated and abandoned pizzeria from career counselor Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard). The pay isn't great, and the hours are worse, but all he has to do is keep trespassers away.
Unbeknownst to Mike, though, the place is not entirely abandoned. The dingy animatronics of the restaurant spring to life at night, and despite their cute and friendly appearance, they are extremely hostile to humans.
Five Nights at Freddy's dominated every corner of the internet during its release in 2014. People can't get enough of its simple and intense gameplay, as well as its rich and insane lore. Scott Cawthon created the game with just an idea and less than $10,000 in development funds. It's now a million-dollar game franchise with a devoted fan base.
Hence, it is kind of inevitable to eventually see it on the silver screen.
Kevin Lewis and Nicolas Cage loosely adapted FNAF first back in ‘21 with Willy’s Wonderland. It unsurprisingly flopped without the IP’s name, but it sure proves that mounting is possible.
Director Emma Tammi teams up with Scott Cawthon to develop the screenplay to expand the story. It is all for a good purpose, as they need to sprinkle some fan service and stretch the lore to establish the stake and maintain a prolonged sense of horror. However, it inadvertently turns it into a snoozefest mess.
The end product has an outrageous fixation on the soap-like drama about Mike’s troubled past and his inability to become a responsible adult because of it. In its attempt to not alienate viewers unfamiliar with the game, it becomes entirely something else. Somehow it is a disservice to the beloved IP when the complex drama matters more than the forthright scare.
It’s devoid of everything that makes FNAF great. We barely feel the isolation. We barely get a jumpscare. And we barely see Freddy Fazbear, Foxy, Bonnie, and Chica in action. The latter one is the most disappointing since Jim Henson’s Creature Shop handsomely made and animated the puppets for this film. They only have one scene where they truly shine, and that as a whole sequence is underwhelming. The film wants to say that these animatronics are not the villains of the story, so there’s no pronounced violence that will happen involving them. And that kind of sucked out all the thrill of it.
The film is taking itself so seriously. It’s disinterested in the silliness inherent in the game. It cares about the human side of the story like the notion of teens stepping into adulthood by facing their biggest regrets in life. It’s about being prudent. It’s about being sensible. These are all fine. But as far as I know, a film can be all of these and be fun at the same time.
1.5 Stars
