“Five Nights At Freddy’s” (FNAF) is on track to be the second-best debuting movie at the fall box office with around 78 million dollars after hitting the big screen on its opening weekend. 

For those of you who don’t know, the FNAF game allows you to play as Mike Schmidt (the security guard), the main character. Your job is to try to survive the night while completing your duties as  the animatronics try to attack you. There are five levels that increase in difficulty as you complete each level; however, different versions of the game have the opportunity to get to level 6. Within these games, there is lore of the FNAF storyline. This film did a great job of incorporating this which gave a sense of nostalgia for those who played the game. 

Though I am not a FNAF enthusiast, I was generally pleased with the portrayal of the characters in the film. I had little to no background knowledge of who any of the characters were and the film did an amazing job of telling the story of each character and the role they played in the storyline. In the film, there are multiple scenes that show the animatronics as nice robots which is not shown in the FNAF games series. However, it’s not too long after these scenes that we see the animatronics in their natural form and purpose. We are also introduced to Officer Vanessa Monroe who is not in the FNAF game series. We learn that she is the daughter of William Afton the creator of the animatronics and also the kidnapper of the security guards’ little brother. 

Throughout the film, we see Schmidt try to get answers to who kidnapped his little brother. The only way he can attempt to get answers is by sleeping. When he goes to sleep he is able to “relive” the moment his brother was kidnapped.  In the film, we see him take a specific type of medication in order to sleep which is thrown into a pond of water by Monroe after she finds out that someone had broken into Freddy’s assuming that he was asleep. Prior to this happening, we see his aunt conspiring against him in an effort to get custody of his little sister, who he takes care of. This was a great way of giving the movie some type of dramatic effect instead of the movie being solely based on the game. If the movie were solely based on the game, there wouldn’t be a storyline nor would there be a point of the movie because it would be just like the game. 

With the given storyline we are able to see the animatronics as their true selves for the first time, whereas in the game, we don’t really understand why they act the way they do unless you were to read the comic books, are caught up on lore, or have played multiple FNAF games. Overall, this film was a great introduction to the FNAF franchise for people who are not aware of the FNAF games or background story. 

This is the only film under the FNAF franchise, however, Matthew Lillard, one of the actors in the film, revealed in a YouTube interview with WeeklyMTG that “there are not one, but three Five Nights at Freddy’s movies planned by Blumhouse.”