Did the film do the franchise justice? Maybe
Spoiler-Free Overview
As the Faculty of Law’s self-proclaimed Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) connoisseur, it was, of course, my solemn duty to watch and review the highly anticipated FNAF movie—a film based on the video game series of the same name—on behalf of the student body. Having played every game in the franchise since its first release in 2014 (yes, even Help Wanted and Security Breach), I was beyond excited when I found out that a movie was finally going to be made about the FNAF universe. Rumours about a potential movie being in the works have been floating around for years now, but I had my reservations as to whether it would actually happen. But it did! And after watching the movie, I can honestly say that I enjoyed the experience, even if it didn’t fully live up to my expectations.
The movie follows the protagonist Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), a down-on-his-luck young man who was recently fired from his position as a mall security guard. Still recovering from the disappearance of his younger brother, Garrett Schmidt, Mike is now desperately trying to retain custody over his younger sister, Abby Schmidt, by proving to his aunt that he can hold down a job and take care of his sister’s needs. This is what led him to his position at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria as their new night guard. During the first few nights, however, Mike uncovers five further disappearances of children—all of whom were linked to the pizzeria—and begins to realize that the murderous animatronics that plague his nightly shifts may somehow be related to these cases.
The film clearly excelled in some major aspects: it was obvious that this movie was intended to be a love letter to the FNAF franchise and the fandom that has supported its success over the years. It was rife with easter eggs, cameos, and character reveals that mirrored some of the most pivotal moments of the games. The casting was also very well done, and it was fantastic to see Josh Hutcherson in another significant role after so long. This movie was even more impressive when I learned that there was actually very little CGI used; most of the set and the massive animal animatronics were actually fully built out and looked incredibly well-made on the screen. Ever since production wrapped, these animatronics have been on display at Universal Studios Hollywood for visitors to see!
With that said though, the overall story fell flat and felt a little slow. It seemed like this movie was primarily made for existing fans of the franchise and not for newcomers. To me, the only thing that really stood out were those easter egg and cameo moments. There was no real intricacy to the plotline itself: it’s a straightforward kidnapping/murder mystery with a very predictable antagonist reveal. The custody battle between Mike and his aunt in particular felt entirely unnecessary (and this certainly wasn’t in the games), and it seemed like this entire plot point was inserted simply to be a vehicle for a couple of lukewarm jokes. In doing so, the film seemed to oddly teeter between being a gory slasher film and a family-friendly comedy. The overall pacing also felt disjointed, veering between either having nothing happen for 20 minutes at a time, or having everything happen all at once. While I think anyone will still find the movie to be decently entertaining, I can see how a newcomer to the franchise will not be able to get nearly as much enjoyment out of it as someone who is already familiar with the fandom would. Overall though, I’d still say that it’s worth a watch, if you’re at all curious about it!
Review (with spoilers); or, Christine’s gripes with the FNAF lore
While the movie stayed fairly faithful to the idea of the franchise, it was clear that the movie had changed several integral points of the franchise’s lore. It’s likely that this was done to make the story much more simplified and self-contained, especially considering there are now 8 main games that all build upon the FNAF world. Although these changes made the film more digestible for an audience unfamiliar with FNAF, they confused me at times.
To start, our protagonist is Mike Schmidt—a name and character that carries significant lore within the franchise. Based on the paycheque given at the end of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s game, we learn that Mike Schmidt is the name of the player character. And with the information revealed in the following few games, Mike Schmidt is considered by the FNAF community to be an alias assumed by Michael Afton—William Afton’s eldest son. So you can perhaps imagine my eyebrow raising when I saw that we were also following a character named Mike Schmidt in the movie, but one that is now entirely disconnected from William Afton. In fact, William Afton was revealed to have been Mike Schmidt’s career counsellor, for some strange reason. Is this intended to reflect a formal change to the FNAF universe? Or does this run parallel to the story of the games? If it’s intended to be a separate story, doesn’t the change of Mike and William’s relationship to something as basic as a counsellor and his client seem to just make the story…less interesting?
A second big change to the FNAF universe was the early introduction of the character Vanessa. Here, one of the biggest reveals of the movie is that Vanessa, the police officer who befriends Mike and Abby, is actually William Afton’s daughter. Vanny, as those who’ve played Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach know her, is not William Afton’s daughter (as far as we know). She was an employee first introduced in Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted who became possessed by Glitchtrap, the digital manifestation of William Afton after his death (don’t ask, it’s complicated), and then became one of his subordinates in Security Breach. This change is even more odd given the fandom’s fairly-certain conclusion that William only had three children, all of whom are named, and none of whom are Vanessa. This change essentially merged two games at two very different points in time together, and for (seemingly) no real reason. William Afton’s reveal in the film could have been just as impactful if Vanessa wasn’t introduced, and Mike had to come to terms with the fact that his father was the one who killed Garrett all those years ago.
Also, there were rumours that Markiplier, the King of Five Nights at Freddy’s, was supposed to be featured in the movie. He was not, unfortunately. However, it certainly was a lovely surprise to see MatPat from The Game Theorists make a cameo and to hear him say his iconic “it’s just a theory” line on the big screen. This cameo, and the choice to use the “Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 Song” by The Living Tombstone as the ending credits were the best choices that the producers could have made in a movie about FNAF.
Overall conclusion? While I probably wouldn’t watch it again, I’d certainly be happy to see a sequel!
