Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

So I was aware of the video game which I have played probably once but found it be fun and scary but that was several years ago so it was a worry that the film took so long to be made. The plot is that the film follows Mike who is given a job as a security guard at an abandoned family restaurant where the animatronics come alive. From what I can remember, the plot to the video game is quite simple so the film has to pad things out to get the film to running time and they do that by introducing a subplot where Mike’s brother was kidnapped when he was a kid and uses music to get into a sleeping state where he goes back to the day it happened to try and see if any clues can help locate his brother. 

I did enjoy this film, I thought that the film didn't really suffer from any pacing issues and the performances were quite good. I thought Josh Hutcherson was good as Mike who was trying to do his best in raising his sister but suffering from the guilt of what happened to his brother. Piper Rubio was very likeable as Abby and the ‘friendship’ she had with the animatronics was lovely to see and gave Mike a reason not go just destroy the animatronics.

There were things that didn't quite work for me such as Vanessa hanging around to the point where it was obviously quite early on that she knows more about what is happening or has happened at Freddy’s. Also the idea that Matthew Lillard’s character was behind everything at the restaurant seemed to be a little bit silly. Also I would have liked it to be a bit bloodier. I’m not the biggest fan of gore but I think that a little bit of blood can go a long way. I also thought the sub-sub plot with the evil aunt wanting the girl just so she could have the benefits seemed only to serve the fact that the film needed to kill some people and there was a limited number of characters.

It’s clear that there are going to be more films as this will have made its money back as Blumhouse is a dab hand at making things cheap and then making a big profit. Normally Blumhouse films aren't the best in terms of quality but I have to admit that I was surprised at how good the film was despite being from the same studio that gave us the most recent Exorcist movie. Not being a die-hard fan of the game, I cant say whether it honours the game but as a horror film it does what it needs to do even if it isnt successful in all areas.