I don’t really play a lot of video games, so no, I have never played a game of Five Nights at Freddy’s. I know a bit about the game, and it’s not like robotic attackers that may or may not be possessed by the dead isn’t a thing right now between Nic Cage’s Willy’s Wonderland and the Banana Splits movie. Apparently, Five Nights at Freddy’s may have sort of inspired the other two. Regardless, I came into this movie more or less knowing little if nothing about the source material.
That said, I did watch it at home on Peacock because, well, it didn’t seem to be the sort of movie that made it worthwhile hitting the local multiplex. Seeing it at home seemed like a better option for a movie like this.
Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) is a down-on-his-luck guy, haunted by the kidnapping and disappearance of a kid brother when he was a child, but these days he is determined to make a home for his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio), especially since his greedy aunt (Mary Stuart Matterson) wants custody to collect the state assistance that comes with the girl. Mike ends up reluctantly taking a job as a security guard at a defunct Chuck E Cheese kind of place, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mike gets something of the lowdown from local cop Vanessa (Elizabeth Lial), but Freddy Fazbear’s has a secret: the falling apart animatronic mascots are possessed by the spirits of dead children.
One night, after Abby’s babysitter doesn’t show (for a very good reason), Mike basically has to take Abby with him. That leads to a development where the dead kids promise Mike they can help him find his missing brother’s kidnapper while Abby seems to befriend them. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the ghost kids will want something like Abby staying with them, but they’ve already killed a few people by this point. Can Mike get himself and Abby out of this situation alive?
So, as far as the not-quite-robots go, the movie does a good job with them. They move slowly (except in the shadows), and they have a weight to them that implies that they’re kinda heavy. There’s a great sequence when vandals break into Freddy’s and the robots take them out one by one. Matthew Lillard, in a small role, seems to be having a good time with his role. Despite what Rotten Tomatoes says, this isn’t a bad movie at all.
But I wouldn’t say it was a good one either. Mike, as a character, is a bland fellow, and nothing Hutcherson brings to the role really does much for me either. His performance is fine but unremarkable, and nothing in the script really helps there. I thought the movie began promisingly enough, but the longer it went, the less interested I was. A more interesting central character would have made this movie so much better since the only actor who seems to “get’ the material is Lillard, and he doesn’t really do much in the grand scheme of things given limited screentime. There were some decent moments, but a reoccurring bit with a clown toy that always freaks people out wasn’t all that funny to me. Really, this is the sort of movie you’d be better off streaming at home.
Grade: C+
0 Comments