FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S (2023)
Tagline: Can you survive?
(Horror, Mystery, All My Friends Are Messed Up) [PG-13]
Have you met them yet?
Met…who?
In this one, Mike’s past trauma gets the best of him and causes him to lose his job. He then goes to a place that offers job assistance and they only have one job for him. It’s as an overnight security guard at Freddy’s Fazbear’s Pizza Place. It’s an old rundown pizza restaurant with an animatronic band. The owner just isn’t ready to give up on it. Things are weird, but get weirder when Mike is forced to bring his younger sister Abby to Freddy’s after her babysitter goes missing.
First off, I should be clear about this. I have never played the FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S video games and don’t know any of the lore behind everything in this film. What I do know is that it is not even remotely as bad as some of the reviews are saying it is. Unlike M3GAN, I am not sure this is a movie I would buy just yet, but then again, who knows.
When some people are saying this is a horror film without the horror, I interpret that as meaning “it’s a horror movie without the gore”. Some people just have to see tons of blood and guts to enjoy a horror flick. I am not one of those people. There is plenty of creepy “what the crap” stuff in this thing for most casual horror fans, especially if you approach this on a more “cerebral” level. What drives this film is the practical effects master of the people down at Jim Henson’s creature shop. I loved that these things looked as menacing as they did. Having said that, they do feel a little more “stiff” than the characters in WILLY’S WONDERLAND which is a better film.
Acting-wise Josh Hutcherson (RED DAWN) is outstanding as Mike. His performance in this film gives it a lot more depth than I would have expected. He almost could have carried this thing by himself. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to. We also get a fantastic performance from Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa who is best known for the TV show “You”. What a crappy name for a TV series. Anyway, then we have Piper Rubio who kills it as Abby. Then we have Matthew Lillard (SCREAM) who also crushes his role as Steve. To be honest, I really wanted him to break out his Shaggy voice, but that doesn’t happen. Then rounding out the main cast we get Mary Stuart Masterson (SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL) as Aunt Jane, but quite frankly, it seems like she mailed the role in on this one. I love her stuff, but man oh man. It appeared that she just didn’t even want to be there.
I didn’t mind the backstory and Mike’s chemistry with Vanessa was really good. Mike and Abby did seem like siblings in spite of the age difference so those things for me aren’t issues. If I have any complaints about this one, it’s really that there were just too many lulls. Mike has about 5 too many dreams about the same stuff in this which seems to take up about 20 minutes of run time they could have either cut out or spent on cooler stuff, like people running around and freaking out while getting chased by animatronic nightmares.
We do get a gloriously incredible score and the soundtrack definitely screamed 80’s nostalgia. I liked the fact that there are no cell phones in the movie, it helps give this thing a more isolation horror feel than films where it's really easy to reach out to anyone at a moment's notice. There are a few injections of humor which I always appreciate. The training video scene was well done. I liked the design work and the production level was superb. The spiritual elements were not heavy-handed, and the film never feels Godophobic or like it's trying to tip-toe around some social narrative. It’s just a good old-fashioned creep-fest with a few too many dream sequences that happen during the day.
Overall this one gets a 5 out of 7. There are just a few changes I would have made to beef this thing up. Having said that, if you are looking for animatronics coming after you, horror, I would watch WILLY’S WONDERLAND over this. I didn’t mind the deeper trauma elements, but you still have to throw a few more punches. 
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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