The long awaited “Five Nights At Freddy’s” film has finally been released in theaters and on the streaming service “Peacock.” With many fans of the game series and movie goers in general excited and anticipating an awesome adaptation to the big screen. The film has now been released in theaters. Almost immediately after it was released, this film has almost completely divided viewers into two groups.
Almost all viewers either thought this movie was an amazing adaptation of the game franchise or people who think it didn’t make sense and was from bad to an okay movie. Most of the negative reviews are coming from none other than the critics of the film. Most critics score ratings for the film range from around a 30-50 percent rating. With reviewers like “Rotten Tomatoes” saying: “Loaded with Easter eggs, ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ may be fun to watch for fans of the game, but most viewers of any other persuasion will find this adaptation muddled and decidedly unscary.”
As a fan of the series, I understand what Rotten Tomatoes is trying to say but also I do think they are in the wrong quite a bit too. After watching the film myself, I understand that this was an absolute win for the FNAF community. It has everything we would want from a movie for the franchise, the lore is accurate and loyal with some new twists that make it its own thing too. The easter eggs and cameos just are the cherry on top for the fans of the series.
On the other hand, I see where Rotten Tomatoes is coming from. For someone who isn’t a fan of the series, it wouldn’t make sense for them. Most average moviegoers who expect a scary experience with aggressive animatronic characters chasing our main character down. But possibly let down with the lack of jumpscares and a super eerie setting.
Don’t get me wrong, the film does dive in and explains some of the lore for it to make sense for about 40 percent of the questions audiences may have. However, audiences may be left in the dust with an unexplained chunk of the lore which kind of ends up having some viewers do some homework before going to see the movie to understand it. This includes playing the games, watching videos, etc.
This movie also wasn’t considered or supposed to be a horror movie, but rather a thriller movie; where the story comes first before the horror aspect. This is another aspect a lot of viewers didn’t know or were confused about.
This is what holds the movie back from being the perfect FNAF movie it has the potential to be. Now is this a bad movie? No, not at all. Even with its setbacks, it doesn’t deserve the 30 percent rating it got. This isn’t the first time a video game movie gets bashed by the critics. Lots of video game movies that have a low critic score and a high audience score like “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Mortal Kombat,” “Detective Pikachu,” and a lot more.
Overall, should the film be given a watch? Yes. Were the critics wrong? That is for the viewer to decide. So far the film has made $113 million in the box office right now. The film’s producers Scott Cawthon and Blumhouse have recently confirmed a sequel to the film. The next question is, will the movie learn from its setbacks on the first movie and improve on the second?
