Annoyingly, Disney+ doesn't work here in Armenia. For some reason it did in Turkey, however. So, I have been limited to Prime Video and pretty much haven't had any time anyway to watch things. I love travelling, but having still been settling in, I wake up and get home far too late to feel any energy that could keep me up to enjoy the shows and films I usually would. Though, with this, recently I went to the cinema for the first time in a long, long time. With someone that wasn't native in English, and with my Armenian being terrible and my Russian only slightly better, we chose to celebrate their birthday with an English film; one of the few that was actually being displayed in English. This person told me we were to watch a horror, though it turned out to be Five Nights at Freddy's. I remember when the game came out, and the sheer success it had due to YouTube. I never did play the game as I never cared much for the horror genre of games, but I am quite surprised that all these years later, even after the interest has died down, someone decided to fund a film feature.
Recently, it appears the video game film is something that has really kickstarted into popularity. A surprise given the current state of the film industry, and more surprising that many of these films actually seem to be doing well both in the eyes of critics and audiences. Perhaps now we may begin to see an influx of similar attempts in pursuit of a piece of that pie. With films and series being another cash burn that contributes ultimately to marketing. Five Nights at Freddy's is an interesting case though, a film that launched with huge interest, and with that interest, sizzling out and dying off soon after. Its film release a surprise, more so due to the fact that the prior audience of the game have now grown up. The question of who this is for came to mind. But from the film's credits, it seems the main person this is for, is ultimately the game's creator. Though, somehow, not being a fan of the game, I still found this to be a fun film. And a unique experience.
This post will contain spoilers, so keep that in mind if you read beyond this point!
Five Nights at Freddy's
As mentioned before, it is a surprise to see that this film even exists. Coming far later than its main interest did. Scott Cawthon, creator of the game, seems to have used all the leverage he could get in order to have majority creative control over the film. The director being Emma Tammi, a smaller director that I'm sure you have never heard of. I hadn't heard of her, either. As the credits rolled in, I sort of saw the endless credits to Cawthon as a red flag. A very lucky video game developer now trying his hand at filmmaking, taking up a few jobs that he certainly wouldn't have the experience to handle. This happens a lot in the film industry, and often results in the failure of a film. But at the same time, few people are better off at telling the story of Five Nights at Freddy's than its creator, with the original vision in mind that perhaps the game wasn't capable of capturing.
For the most part, I feel the story wasn't actually that bad. I expected far worse from it. Though it did have a weaker second half that seemed as if the film just didn't know where it wanted to go. Perhaps a result of creative differences as Cawthon had his own vision, and the studio had other ideas in pursuit of profitability and gaining a wider audience. The story is a pretty simple one, almost a little lazy in its approach. A struggling older brother, looking after his struggling younger sister, finds it difficult to maintain a job as a result of his past trauma over the sudden kidnapping and loss of his brother. Working in security, this naturally makes him a bit of a soft trigger. In order to maintain custody of his younger sister, he has to accept any work he can get. This results in a security job offer at the odd location of Freddy's. A former restaurant that children loved, a family place, though with a coincidental dark history of children going missing.
Despite the very weak story which seems a bit too convenient for everything to line up this way, what initially stood out to me with the film was that it was actually directed very well. I very quickly noticed the cinematography, the beauty of the angles and the very aesthetic lighting it offered. Sometimes, it looked a bit filmic in its colour grading and colour choices in regards to location and costume design. For a film like this, it was surprising to see the camera movements and perspectives really go out of their way to do something a bit more creative and unique. It definitely added some extra soul to the film which was necessary, making it appear a bit more than just an adaptation of a video game. Though, again, some of this was lost as the story progressed and it sort of quickly attempted to find where it was heading next.
Though the time went by quite quickly. Much of this due to the constant returning to certain scenes that displayed the past, the trauma of our protagonist. And the ways in which it unfolded the narrative and played a broader picture in it all. This was a decent attempt at lengthening the story a bit. But also a way to give us more character development as we see the inner struggles of this main character. Of which was played by Josh Hutcherson. He did a great job, definitely leading the film. And these performances were certainly nothing terrible. Just perhaps a little poorly written. Certain characters seemed too fake, a bit too cliche to be considered real people. But the cast was small, and each character still seemed they had a part in it all even if they were a bit too hard to follow sometimes.
It is hard to try to think of who this film is for. The audience has certainly grown up. And it sits between partial thriller and horror. Moments of it are quite gory, or at least rather implied. There are attempts at jump scares. I'd say it slightly leans on a darker tone, but it's odd again how quickly it sort of loses it all. Starting off quite inspired and prepared to do and say something big, but falling flat when it really matters. Still, for a film of this sort of genre, it really wasn't that bad. Perhaps a fun thing to watch late at night when you just want to relax and sort of half pay attention to things. For a cinema experience? Well, perhaps not really warranted in this case. You don't really gain anything by watching it on the big screen.
Still, it was nice to finally return to the cinema. An unplanned visit and certainly a sudden choice of film to watch. But I'm glad I saw it. I likely would not have seen it otherwise. Perhaps that's the gain of going to the cinema sometimes! Just pick something and turn up.
