Review of FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDIE'S: Animatronics Alive!

November 1, 2023

Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) just lost his job as a mall guard. At first, he was reluctant to accept a new offer as night-shift security guard of the abandoned Freddy Fazbear;s Pizza restaurant and entertainment center, because he did not want to leave his much younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio) home alone at night. But when their aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson) wanted to took over custody of Abby, Mike took the job anyway.  

On his first night of duty, Mike had a dream of that fateful day in the woods when he witnessed his younger brother Garrett being abducted, and saw five other kids in the area who avoided him. On night two, Mike met police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), who introduced him to the old animatronic characters still in there. The next night, when the babysitter Max (Kat Conner Sterling) was unavailable, Mike had to bring Abby to work, as mysteries escalate. 

This latest Blumhouse movie was based on a video game series "Five Nights at Freddie's" (FNaF), created by Scott Cawthon, first released in 2014. The player assumed the character of a security guard watching over the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza store, and use available materials as weapons to survive the night of terror wreaked by murderous animatronic characters -- bear Freddy, bunny Bonnie, chicken Chica and fox Foxy. 

The animatronic characters of this live-action version of FNaF were actual puppets created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, instead of the easier way out, CGI. Their old-fashioned and bulky forms made them all the more sinister-looking.  Since fans of this video game were Gen Z or younger, Blumhouse decided to aim for a rating of PG-13. This meant that there would be no blatant gore spilling out or bloody spraying around to be seen here.

Admittedly, my knowledge of FNaF were limited to the stories about it that my sons were told me at the height of its popularity. I am glad that I went to watch this movie with actual fanboys, or else, everything would totally fallen flat. It was more fun to see my sons' excited reactions to the various side characters that show up, or YouTubers affiliated with FNaF who did cameos. If I watched this by myself, all these would have meant nothing.

My Rating: 4/10. My sons' rating: 7/10.