R
eese Bennett, rb313@uakron.edu
On October 27th 2023, the Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) movie was released in theaters and on Peacock. This movie was technically in production for over seven years, so fans of the franchise were expectedly very thrilled with this. Despite this, many critics and some neutral fans were not impressed by the showing. Here we will break down what went well, and what went wrong with the FNAF movie.
In terms of movie production, there was a large agreement that there was a solid making of the movie behind the scenes. The movie was directed by Emma Tammi, Seth Cuddleback, and creator of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Scott Cawthon. The movie was made in Film Studio Blumhouse. As of three days after its release, the movie already doubled its $25 million budget. Considering that most movies need to earn 2.5 times their budget to break even, the movie will make lots of money and the creators are already considering a sequel.
There were many things that fans and those unfamiliar enjoyed. The established relationship between the protagonists and the antagonists was mixed, with there being a deceptive antagonist that drove the story to its climax. The story’s main antagonist; William Afton, was introduced under the guise of Steve Raglan. He lured the main protagonist, Michael Schmidt to Freddy Fazber’s Pizzeria. Fans enjoyed this foreshadowing, and the connection between Afton and Michael’s younger brother presents a good driving force during the movie. Michael’s actions in the movie make it clear that he goes through a change where he becomes more and more desperate to find out what happened in his past, but near the end, he learns that it is better to enjoy the present than to hold on to the past.
Despite all of these appreciated aspects of the movie, many people, especially critics were not thrilled with the movie and its choices. During a portion of the film, the antagonistic animatronics and the protagonists establish a childish and friendly relationship that slows down the pacing by a considerable amount. The connection established could have been made in a more passive way that didn’t leave people waiting for the movie to continue. There is also a subplot involving members of Mike’s family that could have worked well, but in reality ended up being used to divert from the plot and attempt to build relationships between the protagonists that could have been done without said subplots. The last and most largely disliked topic about the film was its rendition of gore. A large portion of the FNAF community is under the age of 18, meaning that the movie would lose lots of money if it did not include them in the target audience. Due to this, many did not see this movie as scary as a horror movie is typically seen. In fact, the plot of the movie would have made the movie more of a thriller than a horror movie. A horror movie uses fear and typically gore as the central piece of the movie. A thriller is a movie that uses large fear aspects, but also implements them into an action-based plot. While both false expectations and incorrect advertising can be to blame for this, it wouldn’t be exactly fair to judge a movie based on fear factor alone, especially considering that the major plot based on the games always had clear character motives and themes in mind.
Overall, the FNAF movie had many features that were well-received, as well as many that were poorly received. The majority of those who have seen the movie so far, be they avid franchise fans or not believed that the movie told a good enough story with a fair balance of elements. If the in-consideration sequel can base its time more on the main plot and convey character relationships in a more captivating way, then the next installment in the movie franchise should not disappoint.
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