Five Nights at Freddy’s Is Innovative, Nostalgic, and Divisive
Five Nights at Freddy’s Is Innovative, Nostalgic, and Divisive
Cinematic adaptations of video games are becoming more common, and this 2023 horror film is a worthy addition to the lineage
Through much of the history of video games, their plots could be summed up as barely more than: “get from point A to point B” or “defeat the bad guy.” And it’s true that there are certainly still those projects where simplicity reigns supreme. But increasingly common are those games where the story expands beyond what can be expected from entire seasons worth of hour-long shows. As a lifelong fan of these digital worlds, it’s been a continual source of confusion why so few of the stories behind these interactive experiences make their way to the big screen.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that series like The Last of Us, Halo, and The Witcher have been translated into TV adaptations when we consider the sprawling world of lore behind those best-selling games. But as the recent success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie has shown, characters don’t need to be deeply nuanced, nor their worlds enormous, in order for an adaptation to be warranted.
Five Nights at Freddy’s is the first horror movie that I’ve seen adapted from a video game, and stands for me as one of the most atmospheric and interesting horror movies in recent years. It also pushes the bounds of its PG-13 rating with a fear factor that rises to unnerving heights. It’s restrained on blood and gore, but it’s suggestive enough that viewers may struggle to realize that it’s not been reserved for audiences strictly 18 and up. Sparing an “Oh my goodness!” where far more serious expletives would have served, the cast effectively drives home the peril they face.
Among horror movies, the realm of animatronic-induced anxiety has been by and large unexplored. While there are scores of movies centered around zombies, vampires, ghosts, ghouls, poltergeists, dolls, and mysterious objects, many might be surprised to realize the innate horror of Chuck E. Cheese-style animatronics has been explored in a mere handful of movies.
Willy’s Wonderland, Escape From Tomorrow, The Banana Splits Movie, and the 2018 Hulu short film, The Hug, each capitalize on that natural aversion we have toward the not-quite-human in the form of lifelike, attacking animatronics. But the number of films that had explored this deep-seated, uncanny valley-rooted aversion could be counted on a single hand before the 2023 Five Nights at Freddy’s blockbuster that helped skyrocket the phobia to new heights.
The 2021, Nicolas Cage-starring Willy’s Wonderland — despite a perplexingly decent critical reception and adapting what’s more or less the same story we’d see make it to theaters two years later — is unlikely to fit the bill for those looking to squirm in their seats from terror. 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s sees a disgraced mall security guard, Mike Schmidt, played by Josh Hutcherson, getting hired to safeguard an arcade and pizzeria that’s been abandoned for decades. The setting strikes a perfect balance between warmth, nostalgia, and slow-rolling dread.
Supporting cast members include Elizabeth Lail as a police officer and burgeoning love interest, and Piper Rubio portrays the protagonist’s younger sister. Matthew Lillard is featured, too, and though his role is brief, it’s likely to come as a fun treat for more faithful fans of the horror genre.
The movie can be organized into five nights, as per the title, and in the brief intermissions between them, we get enough of a glimpse into Mike’s life for him to feel like a real person. Splitting the movie into five distinct nights achieves a natural and fluid way of breaking up the arc between action, paranoia, and fight sequences with blood-thirsty, mechanical mascots and the relenting interims between.
I also found a personal connection to the main character’s interest in lucid dreaming. Scarred by a traumatic past, he revisits memories within dreams in the hopes he can glean some new detail about the day that his long-lost brother went missing. The dreams are depicted with relatable surrealism and in a manner to which many lucid dreamers will identify. Though the ability is relatively uncommon and few viewers will connect to this facet of the movie, the director’s exploration of the concept is far from fantastical.
The movie has met a mixed reception among those who’ve played the games. Many were thankful to see the in-game universe brought to life and quick to forgive the liberties taken, but others weren’t quite so tolerant of the alterations to the core canon.
It’s been rightfully criticized for certain conveniences and omissions, and one side plot within the movie that met an inexplicable dead end. In moments, the exposition of certain details felt shoehorned. Some have also lamented that, for a security guard, he spent strikingly little time watching the eerie security monitors. In the game, that component is integral, and the omission felt like a missed opportunity to fans and this viewer alike. But the final movie that results is a compendious handling of a story that would have been a challenge to condense into a runtime under 2 hours.
It strikes a balance between appeal to those who’ve played the games, and those like myself who have not.
In the best cases, a story should be so enticing that it inspires us to explore its other formats. There are books that inspire us to watch movies and movies that inspire us to read the books on which they’re based. But the interplay between the world of cinema and video games is still relatively new and almost entirely untapped. On a few occasions, I’ve played a game and felt compelled to watch the shows and movies that have emerged from them.
But Five Nights at Freddy’s marks the first time that the direction has reversed. The story here was so captivating, and the theme so inherently creepy, that I’m feeling pulled to begin exploring these games.
As video games continue to broaden and the universes on which they’re built traffic in denser and denser stories, it’s exciting to watch this synergy between worlds take hold. There’s still a broad societal stigma around the electronic world that’s enthralled whole generations. Many fail to realize that games can be every bit as versatile as books and movies. They vary from simple to complex, and from adventure to puzzle to horror point-and-click. Some are mindless and some are cerebral and some are downright bizarre and hysterical.
As video games continue to permeate more and more of pop culture, these interactive experiences and the stories behind them are growing harder to escape. And all of the electronic tales that have meant so much to this subset of society for so long are finally beginning to see their overdue time in the limelight. Five Nights at Freddy’s is just one stellar — if slightly divisive — example.