Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Peacock
If there’s one frightening thing about Five Nights at Freddy’s—and truly, there may only be one—it’s that a movie nearly a decade in the making could turn out this lifeless. Based on Scott Cawthon’s beloved video game franchise about a collection of murderous animatronics in a run-down pizzeria, Five Nights at Freddy’s (in theaters and streaming on Peacock Oct. 27) provides only a paltry amount of the scares that were present in the original games. Whether or not that’s due to the film being in development since 2015 and switching hands multiple times over is anyone’s guess. But it doesn’t seem to help Freddy’s case, given that the long-awaited film adaptation is a disjointed and toothless affair from the jump.
The film, which shares most of its narrative DNA with Cawthon’s first game, is an admirable effort considering that the franchise has expanded into a legitimate media empire. There are nine Five Nights at Freddy’s installments in the collection’s main lineup (plus a wealth of spinoffs and unofficial fan-made projects), novels, and every type of merchandise that you could possibly imagine—every generation needs their own tacky licensed gear to stock up on at Hot Topic. That’s a lot of ground to cover, and even more fans to please. Unfortunately for those diehards, the film is constantly burdened by the pressure of its fanbase’s massive expectations, settling for a garbled, conventional piece of horror slop that hits the games’ familiar beats without any of their mounting tension.
The movie stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike, a young man who can’t seem to hold even the most simple of jobs while stacked against the immensity of his trauma stemming from his younger brother’s abduction when they were kids. Mike still blames himself, but he believes there’s a way he can solve the mystery of his brother’s kidnapping, if he can only remember the murky details. After his parents’ deaths, Mike is charged with the care of his sister Abby (Piper Rubio), much to the chagrin of his greedy Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson), who wants custody of Abby simply for the monthly government check that comes with it.