Film Review - Five Nights at Freddys (2023)

Five Nights at Freddys is based off of the video game series and stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike a security guard with a troubled past who takes on a night shift job at an abandoned pizza parlour called Freddy Fazbear’s but there is more to this Pizzeria than old tables and old days of children and their families enjoying themselves.

There is a good movie in Five Nights at Freddys but it is not this movie sadly but before I delve more into that I want to talk about what I do like and firstly I liked the fact that this movie scaled back on its horror kills and left as much as possible to the imagination, I know that isn’t really the norm these days but more often than not the more gruesome kills don’t work as well for me as you don’t feel scared watching them or you don’t really feel that inner sense of bloodlust and letting the blood flow (the blood is the life after all) being satisfied.

Also the films animatronic work with the Pizzeria creatures is really good and again a welcome change from the digital creatures you might see in these types of films or someone in make up or prosthetics that don’t really work as well plus the films cast is solid, Hutcherson is fine as Mike but the whole time I kept thinking “Peeta is in trouble again, this is the last time I take him anywhere” or “Where’s Katniss when I need her?”

I also liked Piper Rubio as Abby, Mike’s younger sister and Elisabeth Lail as Vanessa a local cop who gets caught up in the night time events at Freddys.

But this movie sadly gets too dragged down into this boring family drama about whether Mike can raise his sister properly or whether his aunt is going to win custody or the events in Mikes past that feel very similar to the opening of IT from 2017 that I just lost all interest in this movie and that’s mainly because I would’ve just rathered a fun horror story about this guy who takes a job and gets stuck in the abandoned pizzeria as the animatronic creatures stalk him and Vanessa.

And so that was Five Nights at Freddys and there’s a fun horror movie in here but its stuck in a boring family drama, 2 out of 5.