Kaleidoscope Film Review presents its latest review of Blumhouse’s & Universal Pictures’ production of Five Nights at Freddy’s.  Directed by Emma Tammi, the film stars Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, & Matthew Lillard. Rated PG-13, it has a running time of 1 hour & 49 minutes. 

The exposition takes place at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, a once hugely successful family entertainment center (a direct reference to Showbiz Pizza Place &, lesser so, to Chuck E Cheese) that now sits abandoned.  A night security guard, working alone, frantically trying to escape the establishment, is caught, strapped to a chair, & has a torture implement lowered to his face which lacerates & kills him.  Transition to present day where we meet Mike Schmidt (Hutcherson) who has just been fired from his current job for assaulting a parent whom he thought was kidnapping a child—who turned out to be the parent’s own. Mike desperately needs a job so that he can keep custody of his younger sister, Abby (Rubio), because Mike’s aunt, Jane (Masterson), wants guardianship so that she can keep Abby’s state-issued custody payments. Mike goes to his job counselor, Steve Raglan (Lillard), who reluctantly offers Mike the night security position at Freddy’s. During Mike’s first night on the job, he falls asleep & dreams about a picnic he was on with his parents, Abby, & his younger brother Garrett. It is here that the film’s Macguffin is introduced: while young Mike is in charge of Garrett at the picnic, Garrett wanders off & is kidnapped. In the dream, Mike meets 5 children who witnessed the event but, when he confronts them, they run away, & Mike awakens. Mike soon meets a policewoman, Shelly (Lail), who comes to Freddy’s. Act I ends & segues into Act II. 

Director Tammi has fashioned a strange film that is a dichotomy: the half that everyone is expecting: a thriller, horror film and the half that I certainly was not expecting: a tale of woe, regret, and, ultimately, one of redemption. I was disappointed with the former & half-heartedly enjoyed the latter. The script by Scott Cawthon (the video game franchise creator), Seth Cuddeback, & director Tammi cannot seem to decide which half it wants to be; the mix of tones is jarring. In this critic’s opinion, that is a major drawback for the film. Perhaps this division works in the video games (of which I, admittedly, have never played), but it doesn’t here. In fact, it makes much of the narrative tedious & without tension. This is a serious pitfall for an advertised entry into the thriller/horror genre—although last weekend’s box office certainly belies that. Hutcherson is excellent, however, as a brother wracked by guilt. He has come a long way from Jess Arons in Bridge to Terabithia & Peeta Mellark of The Hunger Games franchise. Here he fulfills the promise of his Laser Allgood in The Kids Are All Right. Hutcherson gives a sensitive, nuanced performance as he attempts to reconcile the ‘sin’ of his childhood with the man he is today. Lail pretty much is stuck in a one-note role, & her performance never rises above that. Lillard has essentially been playing the same role he created in Wes Craven’s seminal 96 movie Scream for the past 27 years; his role here is no different. Masterson is appropriately evil as the evil aunt—enough said. Piper Rubio, however, in what I believe is only her 3rd film role, is outstanding as Abby. She naturally emotes love, tenderness, strength, & loyalty as the screenplay requires. I believe that she has a bright future. Lyn Moncrief’s cinematography is uniformly creepy throughout. Andrew Wesman’s & William Paley’s score is routine thriller material. 

I give Five Night’s at Freddy’s 7/10 nuggets. Perhaps, if the film’s creators could have decided which movie they wanted this to be, it would have been a better creation.