The horror game genre was all big fights, big monsters and big developers. But from the vents of the internet, indie developers came out with a completely different game, a unique horror game that would change the genre forever. And now, this beloved game has reached the big screens.
Ever since the Five Nights at Freddy’s game was released in 2014 by Scott Cawthorn, fans have been obsessed. In FNAF you play as a security guard at a Chuck E. Cheese-inspired pizzeria. It’s a point-and-click game with minimal movement. Oh! There are terrifying animatronics that are trying to kill you, and the power runs out fast.
The game was immediately a smash hit with the second game releasing only a few months after the first, and a third only a few months later.
FNAF quickly gained a massive following and a dedicated fanbase. To date, FNAF has eight official games, five spin-off games, 10 books, 11 novellas, five graphic novels and five guides. Along with all of the official products, FNAF has inspired hundreds if not thousands of fan games, songs and stories. Its complicated lore leads people to theorize and try to piece together the broader story between the games.
The new movie is a love letter to the original games. Beautiful opening credits in the style of the game’s 8-bit mini-games and hundreds of Easter eggs for FNAF fans. I was delighted by the setup of the main character, Mike’s, security desk which is almost identical to the desk from the original game, complete with the iconic fan, phone and red-and-white-striped cup. Even the layout of the pizzeria was almost the same.
The movie also features cameos from two YouTubers big in the FNAF world: Cory aka CoryxKenshin and Mathew Patrick aka Game Theory.
The film goes above and beyond what the game had given its fans and focuses on the lore of the games that theorists have been piecing together ever since its release.
The animatronics are enjoyably faithful to the FNAF 1 designs. The movie fleshed out the story of William Afton, the main antagonist of both the movie and the games, and the story of the ghost children possessing the animatronics. The movie makes the complex and confusing story of the games into a digestible and easy-to-understand, but still entertaining, plot.
Since its release in theaters Oct. 27, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” has broken multiple records such as becoming the highest North American opening for a PG-13 horror movie since “The Mummy Returns” over two decades ago.
The “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie is a blast. It’s a pretty tame horror movie with minimal gore and fewer jump scares than expected. It’s perfect for people who have been invested in the games from the beginning, but it’s also an engaging and interesting story that would be fun to watch even if you’ve never heard of the games.
