‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ review: Surprising depth amid frightening fun
Know only its premise and that it’s based on a video game series, and you may get the wrong idea about “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”
Well, the wrong idea … kinda.
More treat than trick, the PG-13-rated Halloween season offering from Universal Pictures and BlumHouse Productions debuts this week in theaters and on Peacock.
It does have an irresistible hook, the horror tale taking place largely inside a mostly abandoned theme restaurant akin to a Chuck E. Cheese. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria was an establishment where kids enjoyed pizza and games in the company of colorful animatronic characters.
You’d be forgiven for expecting a zany, over-the-top romp in which heroes battle the increasingly creepy cartoon animal-like robots as they fight to stay alive, but it isn’t that. Well, OK, it’s … kinda that … eventually.
Largely, though, this tale — co-written by the creator of the video game franchise, Scott Cawthon, and skillfully held together by director and co-writer Emma Tammi — is one of loss and grief, its protagonist, Mike (Josh Hutcherson), haunted by the abduction of his brother years ago when they were kids.
Mike’s working as a mall security guard while struggling to raise his younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio). After getting fired, deservedly, he is offered a sketchy-sounding security gig by his smug career counselor, Steve (Matthew Lillard of “Scream”).
“And the pay?” Mike asks.
“Not great,” Steve responds, “but the hours are worse.”
Mike now faces spending his evenings at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, long since closed but not demolished because, at least as Steve suggests, its owner is the sentimental type.
The fact that Mike now has a night job doesn’t deter him from his main nighttime activity: pill-induced sleep to dream about the day of his brother’s abduction, believing he saw the man who took him and that he can get another look at him.
Sleeping on the job at Freddy’s has its downsides, including angering a local cop, Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), who spent a lot of time at the joint as a child and has a soft spot for it.
Meanwhile, Mike and Abby’s aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson, “Fried Green Tomatoes”) is scheming to gain custody of the girl, only, as Mike says, to get a monthly check from the state. And he’s not exactly crushing it when it comes to being a pseudo-parent to his sister, giving in to her out of frustration when she refuses to eat and bringing her to Freddy’s for a night when the babysitter goes missing in action.
Mike, Abby and Vanessa all bond at the restaurant, and we find Abby has a special connection with the place’s aforementioned stage characters — Freddy, Foxy the Pirate and others — that is explained soon enough. That odd friendship initially seems harmless enough, but by this point, the viewer has seen what these things can do when they don’t like somebody, and Vanessa forbids Mike to bring Abby back to Freddy’s.
Mike’s emotional pain and overwhelming desire to somehow right the wrong that befell his brother together serve as the emotional backbone of the movie, giving it surprising depth given all its other story elements.
Don’t get it twisted — it ain’t “Ordinary People.”
Despite its serious overtones, “Freddy’s” manages to have some frightful fun, with characters meeting unfortunate but creative ends and Tammi (“The Wind”) getting a great deal of mileage from shots of the various animatronic characters’ eyes.
Plus, having the characters’ stage show set to The Romantics’ “Talking in Your Sleep” is a really nice touch.
Giving off a tortured Aaron Paul-in-”Breaking Bad” vibe, Hutcherson (“The Hunger Games” franchise) is enjoyable in the lead role, and Lail (“You”) is appealing, as well. We’d welcome seeing more of them in a sequel.
We also want to see more from Rubio (“Holly & Ivy”), who blends wide-eyed innocence with a touch of mischievousness in her portrayal of the seemingly troubled Abby.
By its final act, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is silly and predictable in the way so many movies in this genre are.
Rumors persisted online that the runtime of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” would be around three hours, and that definitely would have been too much of a relatively good thing. Even with the movie doing so many things reasonably well, we don’t need to spend what actually would feel like five nights with Freddy’s.
‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’
Where: Theaters and Peacock.
When: Oct. 27.
Rated: PG-13 for strong violent content, bloody images and language.
Runtime: 1 hour, 50 minutes.
Stars (of four): 2.5.