On the night of Oct. 27, fans of the popular video game, Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF), came in swarms at their local theaters to watch the new movie recreation of the video game. Seeing the popular faces of FNAF, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy on the big screen is something to never forget for those part of the community since the first game’s release in August of 2014.
Over the years, fans of the FNAF franchise have made a number of theories regarding the lore of the games and other media regarding the timeline, characters and their origins that lead up to the game’s main events. Fans even watch big content creators such as American YouTuber MatPat, who was featured as a waiter in the movie. These content creators explain their thoughts, theories and what they believe the main story line is.
Since 2015, fans have heard rumors of the game coming to the big screen. Thanks to the film production company, Blumhouse, the FNAF movie became a reality. The news struck fans with controversial topics relating to the long-awaited movie.
The FNAF movie stars protagonist Mike (played by Josh Hutcherson) along with his ten year old sister Abby (played by Piper Rubio). Struggling with both financial and family issues, Mike faces challenges finding a job to make ends meet, while Aunt Jan (played by Mary Stuart Masterson) attempts to remove Abby from Mike’s custody.
Therefore, in hopes for a source of income and to appear a better man to the judge, Mike takes on a job at the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, an old abandoned children’s play place. Little does he know the Pizzeria is inhabited by killer animatronics possessed by the souls of dead children that fell victim to the pizzeria’s owner, serial killer and body of the Springtrap suit, William Afton.
After a number of people saw the FNAF movie, discussion began regarding various stances on whether the movie was worth the wait or not. On one side, fans say that the FNAF movie was worth the wait, opening up new views of the lore while having an enjoyable plot. On contrast, viewers believe it was underwhelming given the long wait, saying the film was too confusing to understand and did not explore the FNAF game lore enough.
Fans that believe the FNAF movie was satisfactory point out that the movie encapsulates the major events that happened in the games, such as the Springtrap scene. Moreover, all suits include a Springtrap mechanism that locks the suit in whenever someone wears it; Afton suffers the fate of the spring traps in one of the suits after it is broken. Scenes with ghost children that possess the other suits seen in Mike’s dreams is also a big plot point in the movie. Viewers believe that this take on the FNAF lore was accurate and even helpful with opening up new views that release new information to its fans.
However, the other side of the debate states that the take the movie took on had a franchise unworthy of being part of the main timeline, Simon Abrams, a movie critic states on RogerEbert a website providing commentary, criticism, and sense of community towards movies that the story felt “too fast and too slow to be either shocking or moving enough.” .
The scenes that cause these controversial arguments include a scene where Abby is seen playing with the animatronics by building a fort. The unsupportive side says that this was “cringe” and wasn’t necessary for the movie, as well as stating that it is replacing the necessary horror element of this movie with this childish scene.
On the other hand, fans believe scenes like this allow for there to be a balance of terror and enjoyment. According to SlashFilm, Director Emma Tammi says “There’s this element that Abby is connecting with that is not sinister and that is pretty pure,” She further explains that the moments of the animatronics caring for the child is supposed to catch the audience off-guard for the upcoming jumpscares, which adds to the horror genre of the film.
Furthermore, SlashFilms also mentions Abby playing with her “friends” changes the adults’ thoughts on the animatronics and makes it so that they have a change of heart, causing them to be on low alert for the upcoming horrors. The sight of seeing these giant and scary animatronics that are possessed by dead children doing things that kids do present a well-executed juxtaposition.
Even with the opposing side, fans supporting this movie declare that this movie was worth the wait, and was generally good for first time fans of the franchise. Whether or not fans enjoyed the film, hundreds of fans went out of their way on the very first day of its wide release to see the highly anticipated movie.
