Five nights(?) at Freddy's

Emma Aviv '24

Associative Podcast Coordinator

The long-awaited “Five Nights at Freddy’s” (FNAF) movie is finally in theaters! Whether you’re a recent fan or have been watching videos about the backstory of the horror game for years, you most likely have been dying to see this movie.

Before watching FNAF, I was a little nervous as a long-time fan of the franchise, considering there are a lot of videos and memes on the internet joking about possible endings of the movie. I had seen jokes like “Maybe FNAF was the friends we made along the way” or “Let’s spring this trap” in reference to spring trap suits all over TikTok, making me a little hesitant regarding the quality of the movie.

However, this movie is genuinely a work of art. The entire theater was screaming and laughing from start to finish. The actors were phenomenal, as Josh Hutcherson was an amazing choice for the role of Mike Schmidt, the main character. For those in the FNAF fandom, make sure to watch out for some impeccable cameos.

I do have to say, there were parts in the movie that were notably “cringe,” or rather, really held up the “Maybe FNAF was the friends we made along the way” allegations. There was an entire fort building montage involving the animatronics we all know and love. The most well known animatronics, Foxy, Chica and, of course, Freddy Fazbear, were instrumental roles involving every little horror aspect of the movie. One slight qualm I have, however, is that Bonnie did not seem to get nearly as much screen time or attention as the other animatronics.

Many of the Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics.

Additionally, the movie is categorized as horror, but I felt that it was more of a thriller than anything else. If anything, it was suspenseful and intense, but not nearly scary enough to be considered horror (and this is coming from someone who does not typically enjoy horror movies).

The FNAF movie as a whole was pretty good. It was easy to look over the “camp” scenes when considering everything involving the lore (or lack thereof) and the plot twists. Again, I was worried at first whether or not the scenes would overpower everything else, and that the actual plot would not live up to the expectations of the fandom.

While I am more of a casual fan, I found that the cameos and references made the movie exponentially better. It’s really hard to say anything negative about this movie because it was incredibly captivating, somewhat honored the lore and was absolutely hilarious. I also felt that I had a great viewing experience, as the theater was full of fans heavily reacting, creating a comfortable and enthusiastic energy. It felt like a little bonding experience with everyone there.

I would 100 percent recommend this movie to anyone considering watching it, especially if you’re on the fence.