Spoiler-free movie review: an eight-year wait
Anyone who is a big fan of books or video games knows that making a movie adaptation is always exciting news. On the evening of Oct. 28, I got to experience the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie. This is a movie that I and so many other fans of the franchise have been waiting for years to see.
I still remember when the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” game came out in 2014. I was 13 years old and everyone was talking about it. I would play the mobile version on the phone that I had at the time. Many others also remember this game and the ones that followed.
The second and third games came out not long after the first. The franchise started to take off to the point where, as of today, there are a total of nine games out and many books written by the original creator. The lore is very extensive, intricate and has a lot of different characters.
Since the first few games were made, there were talks in the industry of making a movie adaptation. In fact, the movie was first announced in 2015. However, the original creator of the games, Scott Cawthon, was very particular about what kind of story to tell.
As we have seen with some movie adaptations, the industry likes to take certain liberties in the way the story is told. This leads to deviations from the original source material.
Cawthon, understandably concerned about his game and wanting to make something that his fans would enjoy, worked closely with the movie makers to not only tell his story from the games, but also tell it in the right way.
This is why the movie has gone through many different scripts and directors over the years until now, nine years since the original game was released and eight years since the movie was announced, we finally have the movie adaptation.
I have been a fan of this franchise since its beginning, so I know a lot about the games and their lore. The movie did not disappoint in these departments. The casting was great, and everyone played their roles well. Matthew Lillard and Josh Hutcherson are both very talented actors.
The characters and atmosphere felt like the original games. The movie also has many references, or “easter eggs,” to the games, which I know many fans, including myself, really appreciated.
I mentioned earlier that the movie industry usually takes liberties in the story-telling when making movie adaptations. This movie is definitely not an exception.
It would be really hard to make a perfect movie adaptation of a video game. Therefore, there were some deviations in the lore and storytelling that did not match the games. This may have been necessary in order to get everything to fit into a movie format.
However, with that being said, Cawthon was still one of the writers for this movie, and he was on set working closely with the movie director to make sure that even if they strayed from the original story to make certain elements fit, changes were not too drastic and made sense within the universe of this movie.
Overall, I rate this movie very highly. The story is easy to follow, and there did not appear to be any major logical inconsistencies or contradictions. I think the story told in this movie could stand alone as a new universe in the franchise. Lastly, of course, there were plenty of scares. You cannot have a movie about the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” game without some jumpscares.
I am excited to see what is in store for future movies. I say this because – based on how the movie ended and what was implied during the credits – it is not out of the realm of possibility that more movies will be made to continue the story. They were definitely hinting at a potential sequel.
For me and so many other people, these games have been an important part of our childhood. Indeed, it is a horror franchise, and the lore has scary subject matter, and yet, there does seem to be something exciting and special about getting to experience something from your childhood on the big screen, especially after many years of waiting.
If you are a fan of this franchise, this movie is an absolute must-see. If you are not as familiar with this franchise and its lore, the movie is still very entertaining, especially if you are a fan of scary movies. You do not need to be an avid “Five Nights at Freddy’s” fan to understand this film. It did not disappoint and was well worth the wait.