"FNAF" Photo courtesy of Elsie Dickerson
Five Nights at Freddy’s is the story of troubled animatronics and an innocent nightguard turned into reality.
This movie was an unexpected, yet amazing storytelling experience of the ‘FNAF’ story. Although much was left out, as expected, because of the many games and different branches of ‘lore’, this movie has already captured millions of hearts.
The movie starts out portraying the story of a troubled adult Mike Schmidt, who has gone through a number of different jobs trying to hold his custody over his younger sister, Abby. The two siblings don’t have a close relationship at the beginning of the film and often argue or disagree. Mike is seen to have the same dream throughout the film, telling the story of the kidnapping of the younger brother of the two siblings, Garrett.
Mike is seen to have had problems holding down a job, as shown through the dramatic scene of him assuming a child had been kidnapped (he wasn’t) and brutally beating up the child’s father in front of him, in a public mall. This leads to the introduction of Steve Raglan, the career counselor who places Mike in the position of Freddy’s night guard after an altercation over the job’s hours. His first night working at the pizzeria is interesting already.
Coincidently the movie takes place over 5 nights, each night progressing into something more dangerous and nerve-racking than the first. The first night Mike is there, and he doesn’t do much besides look around and “meet” the animitronics. Over the course of the night, Mike eventually falls asleep on the job (purposely) and appears back in his dream with his younger brother. After sleeping at Freddy’s pizzeria, new guests appear in the dream, at first not wanting to talk to Mike and running away.
Mike’s dreams persist while he sleeps on the job, at the same time putting him in danger. Mike never knew the full story of Freddy’s Pizzaria and eventually gave in to Abby’s begging and brought her to work with him. She seems completely comfortable around the animatronics, and walks up to them, playing with them and giggling. This is the first time Mike sees the animatronics “come alive”.
The movie becomes even more captivating and interesting after this rising action with Abby and the animatronics. Sharp turns are taken after this, and looking away while watching becomes impossible. The movie follows the FNAF lore for the most part, following it closely but also adding, and dropping things.
Liking FNAF doesn’t have to be present to watch this movie, as either way it is entertaining and completely interesting. Every time the movie is watched again, new things are noticed, and the puzzle keeps getting pieced together. This movie is an excellent watch, as it’s easy to follow and understand, not jumping around the plot and becoming confusing.
FNAF deserves 4.5 out of 5 stars, as it could have added more to the plot, and been longer. Overall, the movie did not disappoint, using amazing actors and real-life animatronics to play as the beloved characters.
