Five Nights at Freddy's

Five Nights at Freddy's
Starring Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Matthew Lillard
Directed by Emma Tammi

I remember when I was a child going to Chuck E. Cheese's for my birthday parties and seeing the big animatronic creatures on stage singing Happy Birthday with totally wrong lip-syncing and fake instrument playing. It was the time of my life, and obviously that nostalgia is what makes "Five Nights at Freddy's" so endearing to an older crowd. Starting out as a series of app games, the concept was simple - watch monitors and make sure you're always watching the animatronics, because if not they'll come alive and kill you with less-than-effective jump scares. I barely got through about ten minutes of playing before giving up out of sheer boredom, but obviously the game garnered a huge following, especially with the younger crowd: kids toys and even children's novels about the franchise sell like hotcakes, and it's a unique brand that catered to the older (who remember Chuck E. Cheese's), the teen crowd (with the app game implementing fun jump scares that teens love), and the young (with the toys and books) alike. So it was only a long-gestating amount of time before Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Mr. Cupcake hit the big screen, and though it could've been a bit overdue, they finally made their way - and personally I felt like they should've been kept as relics of an old bygone era.

Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) is trying to maintain a job while taking care of his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio) alone, but he can't keep down a job due to his violent tendencies which stem from him continually dreaming about the day when he was a child when his younger brother was abducted. Career counselor Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard) suggests a new job for Mike: a night security guard at the defunct Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a once-thriving entertainment center where children could play games and watch the state-of-the-art animatronics play on stage. The place shut down after a group of children went missing in the 80s, but the owners have kept the land and the animatronics for posterity.

Mike reluctantly agrees to the job and the first few nights are rather uneventful, except for the arrival of police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), who tells Mike of the building's tragic past. When a group of thugs break into the building they're attacked and killed by the animatronics, and not long after Mike brings Abby with him to work. Abby befriends the animatronics and call them her friends, but Mike feels that there's something more nefarious under the surface.


The Good:
Cinematographer Lyn Moncrief crafts an eerie atmosphere with the derelict Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, filled with lights that don't always work and glitch on and off, dark corridors, and an overall feel of continual dread - which is something unique in that this was once a place where children could come laugh and have fun, but now feels like a madman's playground.

In today's world where all non-humans are CGI, "Five Nights at Freddy's" went the old school method by involving Jim Henson's Creature Shop to actually create the animatronic creatures in real life. Thus it made for a more creepy feel as the actors were actually interacting with real things as opposed to reacting to something they can't see, or someone dressed entirely in green. They look perfect, completely like the games, and actually were a bit creepy at times with their red glowing eyes.

While a horror film, there's times the movie doesn't take itself too seriously. Not to get into spoilers, but there's a moment involving creating a fort that's downright silly, and logically doesn't make a lot of sense, but it adds to the enjoyment factor.

Typically I dislike kid actors especially in horror films because they're either whiny runts or they try too hard to be scary, so I was pleasantly surprised I didn't mind Piper Rubio's role as Abby. She didn't grate on my nerves, she was smart enough to know things were happening, and didn't really make too many mistakes in the movie unlike other child characters who make the most bone-headed moves for the sake of propelling the story forward.

By not taking itself too seriously, it opened the door for more people to enjoy the festivities. The theater was packed with families including children and they all seemed to be having a rip-roaring good time - maybe its my cold-hearted critic's heart, but it seems to be a film that audiences enjoy, so there's that.


The Bad:
The pacing of the film is incredibly off-kilter. Some moments propel the story forward at breakneck speed, then slows down to a snail's pace with repetitious moments that only exist to pad the runtime, otherwise it would've been a lean 90 minute film.

Speaking of padding the runtime, there's numerous side plots the story involves that never go anywhere. There's the evil aunt (played deliciously by veteran actress Mary Stuart Masterson) who wants custody of Abby for the child support checks who'll do anything (including murder if necessary) to get what she wants - and her hapless lawyer (also played deliciously by Michael P. Sullivan) just sits by often with a shocked expression and gives the biggest laughs in the film.

This story parallels with the hoodlums who break into Freddy's, as they're hired by the aunt to wreck up the place so Mike will get fired so he'll be seen as unfit to care for Abby (seriously, why is this plotline here at all?), and only serve to actually get some kills in this mother.

Then there's the cop, who's played by a frazzled Elizabeth Lail, who exists as merely the "foreboding voice" character who tiptoes around the narrative with cryptic sayings that really don't make sense until the film's denouement, to which she tells Mike that she tried to warn him. She didn't try to warn him about anything, she was just a living fortune cookie with every other word missing.

The animatronics themselves have an entirely convoluted backstory involving the ghosts of children who inhabit the animatronics and...well the story keeps going on from there but I don't want to spoil it.  Needless to say it really doesn't make sense, especially with how Josh Hutcherson's Mike handles it.

Josh Hutcherson's character is annoying to say the least, as he spends most of the movie in his dreams trying to figure out who took his brother when they were younger, because he somehow believes that he could reach into his memories and get an image of the man (again, seriously, why is this in this movie?). He makes the worst decisions possible from moment to moment and is just annoying.

Why would they cast the great Matthew Lillard in a thankless role? That's cinematic blasphemy.

The film isn't really scary, and too watered down to cater to the larger audience, which makes it just as entertaining as playing the actual app game in my opinion.


The Summary:
While enjoyable on some levels, "Five Nights at Freddy's" is bogged down by too many nonsensical plot variants that merely exist to pad the runtime instead of actually crafting a whole narrative around the lovable yet frightening animatronics that made the franchise so popular.


The Score: C