Five Nights At Freddy's review: dazzling animatronics held back by some glaring glitches

Spoiler-free review

Last night I sat down to watch Five Nights At Freddy's, the film adaptation of the video game series that went viral for its horror, mysteries and near-endless lore.

Going in, I was curious how the film would adapt the timeline from the games, which can give The Legend Of Zelda a run for its money with just how convoluted it is. I'm happy to say I quite enjoyed it, though it's by no means a perfect film, and it's honestly passable as a horror.

Check out the trailer for Five Nights at Freddy's below

Starting off with the story, it takes the game's plot of a security guard locked inside a pizzeria with homicidal robots, and expands it with fully-realised characters and motivations.

The film follows Mike (Josh Hutcherson), your standard run-of-the-mill horror protagonist who's down on his luck and haunted by a traumatic memory from his childhood. He's joined by his little sister Abby (Piper Rubio), who he cares for as her legal guardian, but their relationship is difficult, as he struggles to take care of her and she regularly ignores him in favour of sketching drawings.

After losing another job, there's a real threat of him losing Abby, but luckily his career counsellor (Matthew Lillard) has an opening, working the night shift at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria.

What follows is several nights at Freddy's, where he gets to know Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy, as well as the grizzly history of the establishment through a local police officer, Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail).

While the story was very basic, I think it actually did a decent job of tying in some of the key lore and characters fans will be familiar with, and viewers who aren't familiar will be able to follow the story as well. I spotted plenty of references to content from the first three games, including plenty of fun Easter eggs for those with good eyes.

I will say it significantly falls down in the final act, with all the build-up from the beginning and middle of the film not quite landing in the finale. It felt a bit rushed, so I wasn't 100% satisfied with where the story concluded, however it does leave things open for a sequel, as expected.

On to the stars of the show though, and my favourite part of the film, the animatronic characters. Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy all looked spectacular, and I was blown away by how close they looked to their game counterparts.

I won't lie, it was odd to see them on their feet and moving around, mainly because they're always motionless in the games until one attacks you, but I think it added to their unsettling demeanour. I also loved how they all behaved like they do in the games, with the best example being Foxy, who had several scenes in the hallway where he'd charge you during gameplay.

I'll also add the set design was brilliant too, with the pizzeria housing several locations that'll be familiar to those who've played the first game and remember all the security camera images. They absolutely nailed the overall aesthetic, and it complemented the animatronics beautifully.

However, while I was blown away by their stunning appearance, they very rarely felt like the unstoppable threat seen in the games. Many fans might be disappointed to learn the kill-count for Five Nights At Freddy's is surprisingly low, and most of the kills that do take place are almost always off-screen or obscured by something. This is obviously due to it being PG-13, but when your film is about homicidal animatronics, all of which have sickeningly dark backstories, I think you could justify a bit more gore.

This leads me into my main critique, it just wasn't very scary. There were rarely moments when I was scared for the characters on-screen, and most of the spooks featured in the film were done through the classic tactic of silent build-up, loud jumpscare. Those who've played the games, or regularly watch horror films, will likely be unphased by most of the film's attempts to make you jump out of your skin.

Overall, I'd call Five Nights At Freddy's an entertaining flick, and it's well worth a watch if you're a longtime fan, or as an entry point to the series. It's inoffensive and doesn't always succeed with its intention, but there were some great ideas here, and I can definitely see it becoming a film series.

I think the most powerful thing it has going for it is just how long it took to get here. The first Five Nights At Freddy's game released in 2014, and cascaded into several sequels, fan projects and novels. Those of us who were young when the series first came about have now grown up alongside it, and seen what was originally intended to be a simple point-and-click horror game become a global sensation that's now found its way onto the big screen. Spend two hours at Freddy's, you'll have fun.

Five Nights At Freddy's arrives in UK cinemas today, 25 October.

Topics: TV And Film