Five Nights at Freddy's: Movie Review

Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Mary Stuart Masterson
Director: Emma Tammi

There are parts when Five Nights at Freddy's works.

A melange of atmosphere and a mix of portent and dread gift proceedings with the perfect mix of spooky location use, upsetting moments and some impressive jump scares.

But unfortunately those don't come until at least 90 minutes of the 110 minute run time.

Though doubtless if you're a fan of the video game franchise, you'll get a buzz from the build up - but for others not au fait with Scott Cawthorn's machinations, it's a bewildering exercise.

The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson plays Mike, a troubled security guard who begins working at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza amid a bitter family court battle. 

But on his first night on the job, things start to go somewhat awry as the 80s style pizza arcade arena comes to life....

Five Nights at Freddy's suffers from extremely long prolonged periods where little happens, except a devotion to Mike's troubled past and his continual dream-like state desire to revisit a traumatic moment in his life. In fact, as the film unspools, it becomes more like a psychological mystery movie, rather than an outright horror.

It's pertinent, because it's mainly bloodless, with the suggestions of slicing and dicing achieved through sound, jump scares and cutaways. Well-shot sequences of the animatronic machines, which play like Care Bears mixed with menacing Furbies, help greatly to portray a sense of dread in these 80s dancing and singing creatures.

From squinting eyes to glowing red eye moments, there's a real sense of unease throughout as the Westworld-like creatures threaten to go like Itchy and Scratchy land inhabitants at any one moment.

Yet halfway through this extended examination of the impact of trauma, there comes such a heavy dump of plot and exposition that it all threatens to fall over in its own absurdity and long sequences feel like they're ripped from a video game (explore Mike's past, get back into Freddy's without being seen, escape the bad guys) - it all plays like some kind of faithfully adapted quicktime event that has no real flair or point of difference.

Director Emma Tammi tries, with some parts genuinely flitting into the unsettling - but much like M3Gan did earlier this year, the bloodless edges of Five Nights at Freddy's feel like an unhinged truly demented film is out there somewhere, begging to be made.

It also suffers from a somewhat nondescript ending that's clearly baying for a sequel which is fine if a franchise commitment comes, but will leave most audiences with a distinctly unresolved feeling that's likely to cloud proceedings.

Spending Five Nights at Freddy's is somewhat more of a commitment - unless you're a fan - because based on this, even One Night at Freddy's is something of a tonally, muddled ask.