As the sun sets, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria begins to close, and it’s not all fun and games when the curtains are drawn shut.
Fans finally get to see behind the curtain in the new movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s”, released in October both in theaters and streaming on Peacock. With all the love that comes with the “Five Nights of Freddy’s” (FNAF) franchise, there are high hopes for the first official big-screen adaptation. A talented cast composed of Matthew Lillard, previously seen in “Scream” (1996) and “Scooby-Doo” (2002), Josh Hutcherson in (“The Hunger Games”), Elizabeth Lail from “You” (2018) and the young Piper Rubio at the beginning of her acting career helps bring the world of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” to life unlike ever before.
With the extensive media library of titles, there were bound to be loads of easter eggs and foreshadowing in the movie. If you’re planning on watching the movie, let this preamble serve as your official spoiler alert.
The first attention-getting scene features Steve Raglan (Lillard) as a job recruiter telling main character Mike (Hutcherson) about the pizzeria. It becomes quickly clear where the story is going to go, even for those unfamiliar with the narrative or its iconic animatronic monsters.
As Mike settles into his new grim office, he comes across a VHS tape with his name printed on it. When put into the VCR, a training video from the 80s starts playing, then skips and cuts to static. There is a split second when we see the face of Freddy, which resembles a rare screen that can happen during the first FNAF game. Later during his shift, Mike falls asleep and dreams of the Five Nights at Freddy’s characters as children.
Meanwhile the babysitter Max and Aunt Jan are sitting in a coffee shop discussing how to combat Mike’s newly procured custody of his younger sister Abby, as Aunt Jane wants the checks from the state. Here, there is an amazing cameo from Matthew Patrick, also known as “Matpat” online, who gained fame on YouTube for his theories about the FNAF games.
Back to Mike, who falls out of his chair at a climactic moment in his dream, at which point the lights flicker and music blasts over the intercom. When the intercom goes off, the sound replicates the lighting sound in the first game when they go off. We then meet Vanessa Shelly, a police officer who used to go to Freddy’s Pizzeria in her youth. Vanessa introduces Mike to the animatronics from his dreams.
When Mike locks up and heads home, Max and her hooligan counterparts break into the pizzeria, wreaking havoc in the place and destroying everything that they can find in an attempt to make Mike look unfit to be Abby’s legal guardian. Chica kills one of the hooligans in the kitchen, as a reference to where Chica is known to go in the first game. Her cupcake sidekick is involved, which looks a lot like the nightmare cupcake from “FNAF 4.” Foxy is chasing a thug who tries to escape and in turn gets his iconic song (“Dum dum dum”) played as he chases the thug down the hallway.
The fifth night; the last night. We finally get to see the Golden Freddy animatronic, a much-anticipated version of the title character. Golden Freddy picks up Abby and they get into a taxi where yet another fan-favorite YouTuber CoryxKenshin drives them to the pizzeria. What follows is a climactic sequence that involves the main antagonist Springtrap from the original game as serial killer William Afton. After a few twists, the credits roll playing The Living Tombstone’s song “Five Nights At Freddy’s” (also from the original game).
“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is an extraordinary movie that is tailor-made for both beginner and older fans who are in love with the games and its characters. At the box office, the FNAF movie has surpassed many 2023 movies’ earnings, including Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” concert movie, which has made over $295 million and counting. Even though Taylor’s fans are more mainstream than FNAF fans are, the gamers and streamers came out in droves and showed their love and passion as a community for their beloved franchise.
