Film Review: Five Nights at Freddy’s

In a year that has seen horror take some weird and wild swings, it’s not surprising that a film like Five Nights at Freddy’s was slated to come along. The film which releases this weekend has all the material to join the likes of M3GAN and The Blackening in the foolish but incredibly fun horror race, but instead snuffs out its own light with a confusing plot and inability to let its freak flag really fly.

Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is a young man who is not really having a good time with life. Plagued by dreams of his brother’s abduction when he was young and recently fired from his security job after beating up a man he accidentally thought was kidnapping, he seeks help to find a job that will help him make a good case in his upcoming custody battle with his aunt over his sister. A career counselor points him towards a job of being the night shift guard of a now defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. He reluctantly takes the gig and finds himself dealing with a host of unnatural happenings over the course of five nights.

I’m torn on exactly explaining just what this movie is because now a day remove, I’m not quite sure I understand. Five Nights at Freddy’s is a hodgepodge of a horror movie. The script and direction throw nearly the kitchen sink at the audience, but nothing feels fully fleshed out. There’s murderous animatronics, but the PG-13 rating doesn’t let them truly revel in their glee and the movie’s explanation of just how they can do what they do is muddled at best. Director Emma Tammi shows some promise of setting and mood, but relies so much on jump scares and sound cues, it’s like she didn’t trust her own ability. Midway through the film the movie shifts into an entirely new mood and becomes altogether more silly and ridiculous, stretching the logic of its premise and characters to the limits.

This is to say nothing of the incredibly sloppy handling of child abduction and murder or how that will then intersect with the bigger issue that somehow people keep dying at this location and yet it hasn’t been torn down. It’s wild and not in a good way that the movie can’t decide whether it wants to be a horror movie with teeth and something real to say about the world, or a fun crazy ride where a cupcake eats a man’s face off.

Josh Hutcherson certainly gives it the old college try with his performance and gives the sketch of what could be a really fascinating character. Mike’s guilt and abuse of drugs, as well as his fraught family dynamic, is a fascinating sandbox for an actor to play in and if Five Nights at Freddy’s cared, it would have been potentially revelatory. Instead he has to just do his best. And it’s almost not worth getting into the weight poor Elizabeth Lail must bear as the plot shifts like quick sand around her.

About the only area where the movie does not falter is in the production design. From the house to the animatronics in the the pizzeria, the movie is a well lived in marvel. It is a shame that the scariest thing about this movie might be the decor.