I never got into the Friday Night at Freddy’s video game, so therefore, I won’t be as disappointed as the numerous fans over the last decade who have been waiting to see it come to screen. I’m sure their disappointment was already expected when they heard it was going to be rated PG-13. Then, Universal Studios and Blumhouse Productions announced it would be streamed on Peacock the same day it’s released in theaters. It’s never really a good sign.
Even worse, this movie has already been made twice. FNaF as it’s known, has been in development Hell for years as one time Chris Columbus was being considered to make it. In the mean time, The Hug, a five-minute short movie about a malevolent animatronic panda at a pizza arcade place was released in 2018. Then you had The Banana Splits Movie released in 2019 which took a horror turn on the old kids TV show. Finally, Nicolas Cage made Willy’s Wonderland, which looks like an identical version of FNaF.
So, following years of development and the Covid-19 pandemic, it finally is released and fans should be setting themselves up for disappointment. While the movie can claim to use real animatronics courtesy of the Jim Henson Creature Shop, believe it or not, they are poorly underused. I’m all for tension and you don’t bring the shark out in the first reel of Jaws but at least build a great story around it.
You have five writers including FNaF creator Scott Cawthorn and director Emma Tammi trying in earnest to make something that can appeal to the fans and the general public. The problem is the malevolent animatronics take a back seat to the main plot. I mean, there’s no mystery that the animatronics of a run-down pizza arcade restaurant from the 1980s are alive and causing harm. But there could have been a good story built up around that to give it a B-movie style. I mean, there’s just something creepy about the animatronics that I’m sure Cawthorn and others were freaked out about when they were kids.
No, what we get is a Lifetime-style movie about a troubled young man, Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), who is still wrecked with guilt and grief over the kidnapping and presumed murder of his brother, Garrett (Lucas Grant), when he was a kid. His family was on a camping trip when his mother turned her back for a second to clean up a mess and told Mike to watch Garrett who was younger. Before he knew it, Garrett was abducted and he was never found.
Now, years later in 2000, Mike’s parents are gone and he is working as a lowly security guard taking care of his younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), who may be on the autism spectrum because she’s not too social and is always drawing. Mike’s weasely aunt, Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson), is wanting to gain custody of Abby because she wants to get the check from the state department for taking care of her.
What’s funny because this always occurs in movies is Mike loses his job as a mail security guard after attacking and pulverizing a man who he thought was snatching a young kid. But it was just the kid’s father. So, instead of him going to jail for assault and battery, which probably would happen, he’s sent to a career counselor, Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard), who says the only job he can get is night security at Freddy’s Fazbear Pizza, a pizza arcade restaurant in the style of Chuck E. Cheese and Show Pizza.
Mike reluctantly takes the job and nothing much happens. I mean, this might be the most boring movie with a great premise I’ve seen in a while since Super 8. Mike also has sleeping problems and is constantly falling asleep on the job where he has dreams of the abduction of Garrett but things start changing. Then. there’s a kindly police officer, Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), who Mike meets as she patrols the location on her shift. Of course, you know there’s something more to her character than just being a cop. And Lillard is featured so little in the role as a counselor, you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce he has a bigger role later.
Aside from one part where some delinquents break into Freddy’s, the movie is pretty tame on terror and thrills. Tammi directed The Wind, a 2018 supernatural movie set in the Western Frontier during the 1800s. It divided people because it focused more on tone and atmosphere than thrills. There’s not much here mainly because the entire concept of FNaF is so ludicrous you can’t take much seriously. It has a lighter tone than The Wind.
This movie is almost two hours long. It’s about an hour and 50 minutes with credits, but it needs to be about 20-25 minutes shorter. The whole thing with Aunt Jane is built up in the first half and tapers off in the second half. And I have to say I never really understand nor really bought how the animatronics were coming to life. It’s the type of thing a character says without much explanation that we’re supposed to take as the gospel because they say it.
The ending sets up a sequel, but so far the movie hasn’t received many good reviews and I’m not really recommending it either. I doubt the movie will make much at the box office. Why spend more money to see it in theaters when you can see it streaming? If they do make a sequel, I suggest they make it R-rated and ditch the Mike and Abby story.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 