Five Nights at Freddie's (2023)

I actually know quite a bit about the lore when it comes to Five Nights at Freddie's. It has always been a game that I've known about and had friends deep in the trenches and theories but I myself never joined in until these movies were announced. I figured I would watch the let's play’s and watch theory videos to give myself a good understanding when it came to the films but that never happened. Plans fell through etcetera etcetera and I never actually went to see them so now that the second is coming out I feel it is overdue for me to watch these damn films. The one worry I had is that the film will either not do the games justice or the games will have been too vague that the story has not been transferred. What I mean by that is I have been burned by film adaptations before, Until Dawn for example sucked ass! It completely got rid of the storyline and turned it into a glorified ground hog day with the name Until Dawn to draw in the gaming nerds who would have wanted to see the game be adapted.

Not just that, but the games themselves became so large that the lore seemed to have to reflect that. Meaning many pieces were introduced as if they were meant to amount to this big reveal but most of it is speculation. Although there does seem to be a core story revolving around a pizza shop and the murder of children, a lot of other elements were never truly confirmed as far as I know. Because of this there are a lot of discussions within the fandom itself on what each character represents or what message was trying to be put across which creates a lot of confusion. In terms of an online game I can understand why it is fun to leave things open ended because it allows the fandom you have created to skepticize everything you have created, keeping it forever popular as there was no real answer. Because of this anyone can be right which in terms of player satisfaction is great, everyone is happy. When it comes to making a film on this however it begs the question how are you going to definitively showcase a narrative that does not exist. That's not to mention the number of spin off books that I haven't been told much about besides there is some confusion on which ones are canon to the main games as well as some overlapping events that do not make sense. Overall it creates a lot of uncertainty for me as I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to go into.

To start with, the actual animatronics impressed me. I shouldn't be surprised considering it is the 21st century and yet part of me was expecting them to look clunky and awful and move in an unrealistic way. Or at least as unrealistic as a possessed robot can move. But they ended up looking very clean and believable which I was glad for so props to the creative team behind them. One thing I would say threw me off with the animatronics is Foxy’s ability to talk. As I said I do have quite a bit of knowledge on the fnaf games but if I mention anything throughout this that is incorrect or that I may have overlooked please let me know. One such moment was discovering that in the film Foxy sings. It really confused me and drew me out of the film every time it happened and it wasn't helped when every time Foxy appeared he was made to seem intimidating and powerful like the final boss. But it would zoom in on his shadow only for him to start scatting and I really don't understand the reason. If there is some lore where he was the only one to talk I missed it because I was under the impression his focus was on having better eye sight and that's why the mask in the second game doesn't work on him. Not just that but even if Foxy did have some lore where he was the only one to talk it still took away from the tense moment and instead made it something laughable.

Aside from that I also enjoyed the opening credits scene and how they used the 32-bit animations from the fourth game. I thought it was quite cool to include the cut scenes in this way however I fear it revealed too much information all at once. Because we see all the children being taken by the rabbit we already know within the first couple minutes of the movie that someone was at least kidnapping children. Whereas I think the mystery should have been held out a little longer by instead having the opening credits alongside animations of how popular the pizza place was in the same style. That way we are able to see how many people would visit and enjoy birthdays at this establishment but then having it so that over time less people were coming and crowds got smaller, perhaps a small child crying here and there before there is no one in the pizza place and it starts to get abandoned. That way we are in the same narrative place as the main character. We are aware of this pizza place and how popular it used to be but something mysterious happened that eventually stopped others from entering. Then when it is revealed people went missing and thought to be dead we again know that it was linked to something in this place but we weren't sure on who, drawing out the suspense even longer.

Of course all of this comes from the point of view of someone who knows the lore and whose questions are already answered. In terms of a movie standing independently from the games it does a fine job at pushing across a certain narrative, one much better than Until Dawn. However because it is such a famous, long standing game series it is highly likely that most of the viewers for this film are expecting it to be quite similar to the story structure of the game. That doesn't exactly happen. For starters all of the characters exist in the first film rather than how the games revealed them piece by piece. This in itself isn't a bad idea, if anything I enjoyed having a baseline understanding of all animatronics being made as it allowed a new understanding of where in the story this film would take place without losing track of characters. But the problem with this is that it means multiple storylines were supposed to have happened all before this took place that it didn't seem to follow. Before I get too deep into drawing on differences or improvement in relation to the games I instead want to talk about the games as a stand alone element.

As I said, the film as a stand alone was not bad. It was not ground breaking in the realm of scary movies however if I had gone into it blindly I would have come away satisfied. The only element I struggled with were the two main characters (Mike and Abby) special powers. Firstly, Abby. Children are always made to appear spooky and supernaturally linked, especially those in difficult situations. Abby being a character who had lost their parents, was being raised by her brother, her aunt was trying to take her away and she had no friends at school all point to a very obvious narrative which was her ability to talk to ghosts. And then they made her able to draw and I knew she was going to be the main gateway into the spirits of the children. It was also an element I didn't mind. Now I am not saying it is original. The story of an outcast child talking to ghosts has been done countless times but I liked the specific element that she would draw different scenes as it reminded me of that one episode in Supernatural where the boy would draw visions of the ghost. I also liked how it was never done in a creepy way. Usually there would be a scene of the child drawing furiously as they get visions of someone dying framed with dark tense lighting but that never happened. Instead Abby was very aware of her contacting ghosts and saw the children possessing the animatronics as general knowledge because ‘how else would they move’. It was a refreshing element to see them talking to ghosts in a more neutral/ positive light than a deep dark ritual.

Similarly, Mike having the ability to communicate with the children in his dreams was a creative idea. It makes sense they would target him after what happened with his brother but having them appear in his dreams while he is in a trance was something I believed was quite cool. The only issue came when it was two of these characters having overlapping powers. It felt very heavy in terms of the supernatural element and I think it would have done better if they had just chosen one character to focus on having powers. Again I understand why each one needed their own moments but it made it feel overwhelming. In my mind, it would have been cooler having Mike being able to suddenly see other children in his memory of his brother that he hadn't before. This then makes him think he is accessing the part of his brain that was hiding the identity of his brother's kidnapper and sending him a little crazed as he attempts over and over again to find him. This could have then made him do something or forget about his sister briefly and she got in trouble or hurt which went against him in the case of his sister but he was determined to get to his brother so he tried to question these new kids instead and get their answers which is when he learns himself about elements of them going missing and how it links to the pizza place. To me it would have also been received slightly better because he is an adult and an adult being the one to contact ghosts is unusual but for his brother he makes the sacrifice no matter what until he learns to regret it.

Moving onto the relation to video game lore, I found a lot of it very confusing. The baseline of a pizza place owner killing the children that visit it remains the core concept of the film however because so much is made known at once it confuses the overall situation. To begin with, the characters and their place in the show came with some uncertainty. As a very brief overview the lore I have followed is that William Afton originally combined his pizza business with business partner Henry Emily and together they improved the animatronics at their pizza place to draw in customers. It was during this business venture that a prank went wrong between Afton's two sons in which the oldest attempted to scare the youngest by putting his head in the mouth of the Freddy bear only for the spring lock mechanism to malfunction and crush his skull. That son then died and a few years later Afton attempted to make another animatronic inspired by and to protect his daughter. Yet again, after a tragic event she too ended up being killed by that same animatronic and years later his only remaining son changed his name to Mike Schmitt and joined as a security guard to investigate his father's work. All of this is knowledge that does not happen in the film or at least not in the same way.

For starters, the main character of the film is called Michael Schmitt. Based on what I said of the game that was supposed to be the hidden identity of his son and yet they have no correlation besides Afton employing him as a security guard. The first game is taken from the view of a security guard but that in itself holds discrepancies because the ‘phone guy’ is believed to be the words of the last employer yet here they come from William. Not just that but Afton's daughter Elizabeth is still alive under a different name, a piece of lore which means one of the animatronics would not have an occupant. But it also does no justice to hint that the story could still have the same ending just in a different approach because the film ends with Afton stabbing and possibly killing his own daughter rather than his creation. It is symbolic for both of his children to be killed by his machines as it gives him guilt that it was his fault which later leads to his motivation of killing children.

It was after losing both his children that William got interested in learning how to live forever which is why he was killing children in an attempt to absorb their life essence. However in the film he stabs his daughter willingly almost as if she is an annoying obstacle and nothing more. This series of events also raises a larger issue which is why the children were killed in the first place. If in the movie his children were still alive then there is no motivation to kill the children in which case why or how did he begin this journey in the first place. Similarly there is no mention of a business partner at all. It could be possible that a lot of the game created too wide of a narrative so to condense it they made William Afton the sole owner of Freddy's Pizzeria. I have no issue with that other than it cancels out the marionette character. Henry Emily is said to have gotten suspicious of Afton so to protect his daughter he made an animatronic marionette puppet to keep her safe however Afton trapped it and killed her anyway so she went on to possess that puppet. Once again there is not necessarily a need for this character if they have removed Henry Emily as a character but I did enjoy the marionette and I will be looking out for it in the next film. That being said, as much as the structure may have been out of place I was at least happy the children were the ones to eventually kill William, there was a moment that I was worried it may end up being Vanessa/ Elizabeth or Michael so I was glad they kept at least that accurate to the original.

Some other elements that were conflicting was the bite. There are multiple infamous ‘bites’ that happen and I think the one that happens in the film is supposed to reflect the bite that happens against the security guard. Again this does make sense in terms of the film because of course they're not gonna kill off Josh Hutcherson but part of me did hope it was going to be someone a touch more critical to the plot. It was a character that affected the course of the film but someone more key like Vanessa would have been interesting but even then I wanted her to become baby. We saw Baby's suit sitting in storage and she seemed aware of its functions so part of me is holding out that she will make an appearance because she is my number one I need her in the second! But since in the game it is Afton's daughter that possessed her if it doesn't end up being Vanessa I'm not sure who it would be. In fact now that I think of it they may even try and make Vanessa's character somehow become the marionette considering how she was trying to protect everyone and sacrificed herself. And finally in terms of characters who are the possessed children.

It was confirmed that Afton killed Mike's brother so I think it is safe to assume he too became an animatronic. Considering how often he appeared and what the end credits scene was I think it is safe to assume he became Balloon boy and that his story will become more prominent in the second film which I am excited to see. Since there are not a lot of specifics around which children possess what animatronics besides only a couple I am interested in seeing how they expand upon those characters or even if they will. Especially the core four. When in the forest we see the core four and what animatronic they are linked to which is something I thought was so cool. I liked how foxy has a pirates hook as if they were playing pirates when they were taken and the same can be applied to chika as they were wearing a child's chicken sort of costume. I do wish Freddy and his hat and Bonnie and her ears were done in a more creative way but mostly I was focusing on the leader. The leader made it appear that they were Freddy despite another boy having the same hat which is why I think the main speaker was actually golden Freddy. The question with that though is I thought golden Freddy was Afton's son so again it leaves me wondering who possessed what animatronic and I am interested to see where they lead in

In conclusion, I think this may be my longest post yet. As a film it did really well but the pre-existing knowledge I had of the Five Nights at Freddie's games only added further confusion. I have learnt that perhaps to continue it would be best treating them as an entirely different media in its own right which when you're targeted as a game adaptation does take away from the point of an adaptation. However I have reason to believe the next film is the toy versions which are my favourites so I have to watch it and I am hoping with everything they won't mess it up more than they already partly have. Overall it has been an enjoyable watch and I did enjoy the mystery plus using fan made songs in the end credits is beyond iconic!