Five Nights At Freddy´s

If there is something we have learned from the past is that it is not always a good idea making movies based on a video game or a video game franchise. A handful of directors such as German film producer and director Uwe Boll have definetely proved that. We could go back almost 30 years to get a proof of that as well into the year of 1994 and watch the video game adaptation of Double Dragon. I remember when this film came out on VHS back in the day and since i was a fan of the Double Dragon video games, i was hoping that this film would be a fun watch. This is honestly one of the worst video games adaptations ever made into a full feature film and there are so many problems. First of all the action scenes looks incredibly bad, the acting is beyond terrible and let´s not forget that knowing that this is suppposed to be like the video games of Double Dragon they failed completely to capture anyting related to the games. I understand it may be difficult making a film based on a video game franchise, but you have to at least try to show respect to the fans of these games. Double Dragon doesn´t capture anything from the video games i used to play in the 80´s and 90´s, it feels more like a cheap martial art action rip off trying to look cool but ends looking like a disaster. Luckily that same year we actually got a fun action movie based on the very popular video game called Street Fighter with lead actor Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead role as Colonel Guile. Even if this film is terrible in some ways it is still much more enjoyable than Double Dragon and have some fun martial art scenes. Of course we even hahve legendary actor Raul Julia playing the dictator General M. Bison what would be his last acting performance unfortunately before he passed away in stomach cancer. Director Steven E. de Souza proved that you can make a fun film based on a video game, as long as you don´t take yourself too seriously. Speaking of video games some of you gamers worldwide may have heard of a video game known as Five Nights At Freddy´s. First released in 2014 the game became a internet sensation. Since then this game have had plenty of sequels and i have actually never tried any of the games at all. So when we got the news that a film based on this video game franchise was coming out i was a little bit curious what they would do with this material and turn it into a film. I finally sat down and watch this film on blu ray so the question is, did they make a great film based on a video game or is it just as bad as the Double Dragon movie really is?

Mall security guard Mike Schmidt ( Josh Hutcherson ) is fired from his job after assaulting an innocent father after thinking he was trying to kidnap a child. Mike´s career counselor, Steve Raglan ( Matthew Lillard ), is prepared to give his a second chance and offer him a night job at a closed down Freddy Facebear´s Pizza as a security guard. At first Mike doesn´t really want the job because of it is night shift, but after social services threaten to take custody of his younger sister Abby ( Piper Rubio ) he have no other option but to accept the job offer. At first it seems like an ordinary security job, but everything is about to change.

Since i have never played any of the Five Night At Freddy´s video games i can not tell you if this film did a good job capturing the feeling of the video games. All i can give is my personal opinion about the film itself, so all of you true fans of the video game know how i approach this film. Considering how much i enjoyed the 2021 horror action film Willy´s Wonderland with Nicolas Cage i was hoping that Five Nights At Freddy´s would be just as enjoyable or perhaps surprise me even more. Unfortunately this film is way too nice to be called a horror film, and you don´t see any violence at all. That was especially what made Willy´s Wonderland so fun to watch, they came up with creative ways to kill each of the animatronic characters. In this film Five Nights At Freddy´s they barely show any violence at all, maybe becaue it is a PG-13 film and they are not allowed to show too much. In one way i can understand why they decided to make this film the way they did to make this film be approved for younger teenagers to watch in cinema. So let us talk about what i enjoy about Five Nights At Freddy´s and i have to begin with the animatronic characters, they actually look great. I think this really helped this film to make sure the audience feel connected to the background story of the game. It is actually nice to see actor Matthew Lillard ( who have been in several 90´s classics such as Serial Mom, Hackers and of course Scream ) as the caracter Steve Raglan. He may not have many scenes in this film but you can tell he still got a special screen presence. Actress Elizabeth Lail ( who you might recognize from TV series Once Upon A Time ) as local police officer Vanessa is actually my favourite character of this film. She just feels so natural in this role and it´s so easy to dive into her dialogue and feel a connection. Child actress Piper Rubio is also good in this film. Alright, that was the positive and now to the negative regarding this film. Lead actor Josh Hutcherson does not do a very good job at delivering a solid performance. He is pretty boring in this role and doesn´t really feel that engaged into his character. We have to talk about the horror scenes and honestly they are not scary at all. I know this is a PG-13 horror film but they could have at least tried to make an effort to make some kind of frightening scenarios. Even if the animatronic figures look cool they should have been used more effectively. Director Emma Tammi have made a good looking film with Five Nights At Freddy´s and i do like some details about this film. But with such a cool concept for a horror film and don´t really put any effort into making this film a fun horror film, leaves me with a sour taste. Not an awful film but nowhere near as fun as Willy´s Wonderland.

Rating: DD