SPOOPYWEEN DAY 27 FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S!!!!

Day 27

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Well, this was a long time coming wasn’t it.

The film adaptation of Five Nights has been in production hell for….a long, long ass time.

So long in fact that of all things to happen. A Nic Cage starring film beat them to the bunch with a possessed murderous Chucky Cheese like movie. Which was pretty goddamn awful. It had potential. But still, yeah. Awful.

I’ll admit I’ve not beaten all the Five Night games. I’ve gotten through most the earlier ones. I just didn’t have the patience to go through most, and when the game gets down to just insane timing well. I don’t do that, that well. But I loved the hell out of Security Breach, Sister location, and the introduction of using sound to track the animatronics. It was a nice twist.

Otherwise I mostly didn’t play the series because it was an ear raping jump scare game. Which just isn’t my bag. I like survival horror, I like the idea of having to be mindful/watchful of your surroundings. But not really a fan of ‘the scare’ being an unholy blasting of an electronic scream in your headphones. That’s more annoying than it is scary, and I felt people needed to learn that difference.

That being said. It’s still fun to mess around with, especially for me the later additions.

So here we go. Multiple games, dozens of books, and entire channels devoted to lore and solving every goddamn mystery imaginable in the series. All leading up adding a feature film to the resume.

There’s a lot of hope, and hype for this. But I am cautiously optimistic. Mostly because, unfortunately. The idea isn’t that fresh anymore. And we’ve had several films do the killer animatronics thing now. So the film may not hit as hard as it would’ve. But it hopefully will please some fans.

I don’t for see this breaking any box office records. But I am hoping for something better than Willys Wonderland, and the Banana splits murder movie. So let’s see, shall we?

The Film

Beginning your film with a security guard meeting an untimely end at the hands of a rogue animatronic scatting as he hunts you down, before strapping them into a chair and grinding their face off with the animatronics inner mechanics. Is definitely a choice. As is not showing you the result of said face grinding. This is another PG13 horror film so. Let’s see where this goes.

At least we know now why there is an opening at Freddy’s!

Which leads us to the introduction of our protagonist. Mike, Well. Michael…something. They want to keep that a secret. Because it’s Five Nights at Freddy’s. So we’ll call him Mike Hunt for now. Mike Hunt is a security man. Or at least he was. He was formerly employed at the local mall, until he mistook an angry father to be a kidnapper and instead of simply detaining him when he tried taking his son somewhere. He just straight up bulldogs the guy into a fountain and beats him like he saw something beautiful and wanted to destroy it. Which yes, that does get you fired. In films and in real life. Something to keep in mind.

But this does leave him open now for the possibility of working as a night time security officer for the Fazbear entertainment group. But he isn’t really a night time person, and the pay sucks. Which in the game, believe me it really does sucks. His 1 week of pay equaled two of mine as a dishwasher when I was 22. God that’s depressing.

Even more depressing is this poor saps life.

He has a kid sister he takes care of named Abby. Abby is pretty cool, likes to draw, talk to invisible animals. But this does make her hard to talk to one on one. But she does like her big bro, even if he seems himself as a complete utter failure. Which he kind of is. I mean this guy is not really fit to be a parent anymore than I would be. But he’s trying. Just not enough to work nights at a place with shit pay and high turn over. Apparently.

And Mike has a huge painful thorn up his ass named Aunt Jane, Jane wants to take custody of Abby away from Mike. She also believes Abby is a mental head case, BECAUSE she talks to invisible animals. So why would she want custody of a kid she doesn’t think that highly of? For the same reason some parents adopt kids they should never have. Money.

Is Abby and her imaginary animal friends truly an issue? Well if the trailers didn’t give it away. They might be. They just. Might be.

So if Mike wants to keep custody of his little sister. He needs to get a job, show he’s not a failure, and then maybe. Maybe. He’ll get to play big bro to lil sis. And tell Aunt Jane to sit and spin.

So of course he takes the security job at Freddy Fazbears.

Which is fun for those who are fans of the game really. As he accepts the job he’s given the same run down that you get more or less in each of the first few games. Courtesy of a man on the phone. Explaining how the place used to be a popular pizza place in the 80’s but had to close down for….reasons. The owner doesn’t want it bulldozed so just watch over it and keep people out. Should anything happen? There’s a circuit breaker in the office labeled on and off. There are several monitors to flip between and watch for each part of the establishment. He just had to keep things quiet and make it through 6 hours, easy enough.

Everything is straight from the game, which is both fun to see, but also a bit silly. I mean the simplified work desk and buttons made sense in the game. But I’m not gonna hate. Just enjoying seeing it.

Thankfully the film won’t be taking place the entire time inside the security room. Which really is one of the better things I looked forward to here. I might be hearing Game Theory in my head screaming about THE LOOOOOORE. But it is cool seeing this place realized and the attention to detail throughout. Not just the animatronics. Which genuinely look great. But seeing the Pizzeria, the prize counter, some of the old games. It’s little details I really liked when playing through the other games when you’d get to explore the same bits.

I’m not like fangasming or anything by any means. I’m just digging the vibe. But what of the animatronics?! Well don’t expect anything yet. After all for those familiar with the game, nothing generally happens on the first night. It’s usually. Usually. The easier of the nights.

What we get instead of flipping through monitors, and Mike exploring. Is what my daily activity consist of on days off and after work. Sleeping. Yes. Our protagonist is, sleeping. At work.

It’s not a crime, especially when you are your own boss. It’s just more an active perk.

So what we get is a dream sequence. Which he seems to replay a lot in his head movies. See Mike lost his brother at a very early age. His family was at a park enjoying a nice outing, and while he was tasked with watching his little brother. He got distracted and the next thing he knows. He sees a car speeding off with his little brother inside.

Which explains his immediate response to tackle and go full Batman rage mode on the dad he thought was kidnapping his own kid in the mall.

We see this dream twice in the first few minutes of the film. Only instead of the dream ending with Mike as a grown up, no longer a kid chasing the car. He still chases the bar, but this time he hears twigs snapping behind him and, there behind him are several kids. Whom if you look closely enough. You can identify with, you guessed it. A bit of the game lore. Also its not really that subtle. BUT IF YOU MISSED IT.

The number of kids, equal the number of animatronics. One of the children has bunny ears on his head, another is wearing a crown, There’s a girl with a yellow jacket and white top. There are five kids, each is wearing something that ties them to one of the animatronics. We have Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxie and…well we’ll leave that one secret for now. Why not. I can do it.

Gonna let that one just spring up on you.

Anywhooo

He see’s these kids, they see him, they scatter and he tries finding out who they are in his dream but, unfortunately he falls in his dream, waking his ass up in the real world…because he fell on the floor at work. Ouch. But hey he survived the night! Good on you man. Go home, and get some more sleep.

WHICH HE DOES!!

But first he checks on his sister, and the baby sitter whom he hasn’t paid to ever baby sit, and she basically just hangs out on his couch, watching movies all day. And night. While he sleeps.

Also she goes through his shit.

NOT because she’s a creeper and gets off smelling his used socks and underwear. But because she is an INFILTRATOR!!!!

Yes. Thanks to a scene later. We see the baby sitter at a diner with Aunt June, and her lawyer. They are working together! Auntie was promising to pay her $200 to search through his home and find anything criminal she could that would help her to gain custody of Abby. Unfortunately she failed in doing this. Because he’s actually a nice guy who’s just down on his luck. And she also gets off sniffing his socks and jocks.

MAYBE.

Now…There are going to be a lot of weird cameos on this film. Which we are getting one of note I sighed then laughed at. Because of course he would appear in the damn movie. The waiter, serving Auntie and her troubled lawyer is none other than the crazy Game Theorist himself. Matpat. The man who has dedicated far too much of his time, sanity, and mind to diving into the ever fast and always expanding cave that is FNAF lore and theory. BUT, he does do other stuff too damnit. The guy has a theory for everything, and THAT’S THE LINE HE GETS TO USE. His signature catchphrase. As he is trying to convince these people to order some good and how people say this meal is one of the most important of the day “But that’s just a theory”

Triggering in some of us, the instant wait for him to shout the follow up A GAME THEORY.

Never change you shiny diamond.

Well Aunty is upset because she wants the brat Abby and that sweet state money. So she needs a new plan to help her to do so. With Mike having a new job, the idea comes up. He needs this job to look good in court. So if his job is to keep the place in one piece and people out. Why not hire people to break into the place and fuck it up? Thus getting him fired, and landing lil sister Abby into the greedy palms of Auntie.

The plot she thickens, like rice and beans.

Maybe I dunno.

Well at any rate its time for Mike to ready for night 2. But this time he wont be alone. He’s getting a visit from a police officer. Officer Vanessa. AKA Vanny.

Those familiar with the game, may have giggled a little at her introduction. Is she here to give him a pep talk? Well sort of. If by pep talk you mean giving him a list of reasons he’s going to quit and she’s just chomping at the moment he’s going to do so. It’s weird right? Well Vanessa is, also weird. For other reasons.

A LOT, of reasons.

Well much like the first night, Mike falls asleep, has a repeat of the same dream the night before. Complete with the children all watching him silently. Again they all take off running and he decides to chase after one of them. A kid in an orange wool sweater, with a plastic pirate hook in his hand.

When Mike catches up to him, demanding answers, assuming these kids might know who took his brother or saw what happened. He grabs at the kids shoulder. The little boy swings around and. Apparently his toy hook hand came from the 80’s because that bitch cut Mikes arm pretty deep in the dream. Which wakes Mike up again. Thankfully he is not falling to the floor smacking his face on concrete. But he is waking up screaming and bleeding out of his arm. The monitors are going haywire, flashing code and oddly colored screens, and in the background we spot Foxxy, the fox pirate standing in the doorway. Mike seeing the chaos all around him of the monitors and flights going freaky remembers the circuit breaker switch. He flips it. We hear the familiar sound of the door shutting and locking. Lighs go out then flip back on. Door opens and. Foxxy is gone. BUT the blood on his arm is still there and that gash is super nasty.

Which Vanessa comments on as she came by for a random check up visit. In the rain. During a storm…

She happens to also be a certified EMT. So she bandages up his arm, and Mike is good to continue sleeping the rest of his shift. Only he won’t be able to as Vanessa is sticking around and teasing him about knowing he’s going to quit, that. All security guards here never last. Which is an odd thing to say. It’s also odd to randomly tell him she knows this place super well and loved it growing up. And she decides to power the place up and show off the animatronics. Which she believes are the most amazing thing in the entire world. She also casually mentions how the place closed back in the 80’s when 5 children were reported missing there and never found. But who cares about that. She wants to dance with Mike!

Only the animatronics short circuit and shut down. Vanessa may have just done Aunties job for her, by being weird and turning on ancient 80’s technology for 5 minutes. Thanks Vanny, you glitchy fuck.

Thankfully. Mike is not going to let slide the whole mention of you know FIVE KIDS MISSING. So she boredly confirms for him, yes some kids were reported missing at the pizzeria so they had to close it down. But ain’t no big thing. She tells him that despite her knowing every reason he could have for quitting when he does quit, or dies by night 4. She tells him to hang in there and just do his job. Waves goodbye and skips off to her patrol car. If you see a flashing light? It’s not from her patrol car. It’s the flashing light of red flags.

Unless you think it’s normal for someone not to question how you ended up with a huge gash on your arm, casually tell you kids went missing and then ask you to dance immediately after. Geeking out about the place you work in acting like they know every square inch of this place better than you.

FOR SOME REASON.

We’ll just put a pin in Vanessa for now. Because much like the previous day. Morning has come, and it’s time for Mike to head home and sleep some more. Which means. Time for Operation smashy bashy.

Yup. The babysitter and her friends are all at the Pizzeria, ready for crimes. They managed to find a way into the place and it’s go time!

I also feel, thanks to my own intuition, and not at all from the trailers showing us this break in and what happens. But I FEEL, that yes. This will not go well, and these vandals might be getting into a bit more trouble than they bargained for.

Of course they will! COME ON!

So yes, the group go through the pizzeria, bashing machines, breaking into change machines as well. Which oddly still contain a shot load of quarters. Which doesn’t seem right. And all while this is happening. Bonnie the animatronic is missing, and now on the move. Followed shortly after by Chica.

Not that the trailer gave away the first kill we get to see of the film or anything. Aside the security guard at the beginning. But the trailer totally does give this away.

Yes we see a curly haired kid enter the kitchen and witness the large refrigeration unit rattling. Yes he opens it to find a giant cupcake animatronic. Of course Chica appears behind him. Holding the cupcake, and yes it leaps out and mauls the kids face right off.

Sometimes it’s better when trailers don’t blow their load all over us.

So this starts off the day of terror. Which I still appreciate even if it doesn’t play much into the inside of the pizzeria. But knowing these murders are taking place during daylight hours? Nice touch.

So we get one kill by cupcake thanks to Chica.

Next we get Bonnie bone bashing a full crown crying bearded man. Not myself.

And our groups leader meets one of my favorite encounters from the game. Well. Two of the games. First he finds himself in the security booth. On the monitor we spot Bonnie and Chica chilling out, and Chica sends her cupcake friend into the vents. Headed right for his ass. One of the new mechanics in the later games was having two vents on your left and right sides to worry about. The cupcake, or Balloon boy would skitter around and you had to secure it before they got your ass. So it was nice chuckling at that little egg. But the real fun, and the poor mans death doesn’t come from another cupcake attack. Thankfully. It comes from a fun loving pirate.Foxy. Which is done much like the game. Foxy comes at you fast and vicious. Which absolutely happens to this criminal scum. Foxy rushes the guy chomping away and the man is dead as can be. Off screen of course.

Well, not hearing back from her friends, the baby sitter goes wondering into the pizza plex and we get a new kill type with her. Because she’s bad. She’s gotta die. Her death thankfully. Is fun, and refreshing. She spots a kid, of all things. Who tells her to come follow him. Which she does because. Who wouldn’t follow some strange kid inside an abandoned pizzeria telling you to follow them. Like I said. Kids are evil little bastards.

So she follows them, leading her to find good ol’ Freddy Fazbear. Who it seems a voice is calling out to her from within to come closer. A sane person. A sober person. Very sober. Person. Would consider not doing so. Not listening to the weird child like voice. Coming from the belly of a huge animatronic, when that voice tells you “Come closer”, normally. Youd run. Or should. Run. Well she doesn’t. She walks right up to its huge ass mouth, and from it’s throat a childs hand reaches out, and pulls her torso inside Freddy’s mouth. Immediately Freddy ‘bites’ down and we see the girls waist and legs drop to the floor. She was bitten cleanly in half.

Credit where credit is do. For a pg13 film, that was a decent kill so, kudos to them. Sloppy setup yeah. But fun effect and well shot. Good on you movie.

Honestly it is a nice kill and for a pg13 film, I’ll take it.

Well this is the time where most of us watching can stop comparing it to Willy’s Wonderland.

You might ask yourself. So, did the animatronics kill these bad guys, and then clean the place up?

In Willy’s Wonderland that was sort of the joke with Nic Cage. He’d brutally kill an animatronic, and then immediately clean up and repair the damage. Which he was paid to clean the place up as part of the plot. In similar films the monster baddies end up cleaning the mess to give the appearance all is well, and nothing happened.

Not so much here. Thankfully.

In fact Vanessa pays Mike a visit that morning, later in the day and informs him there was a break in at Freddie’s. The place got really messed up in fact. NO MENTION OF THE BODIES! But otherwise her happy childhood play spot is broken down and not doing well.

Does she assume he did it? Does she ask him about the dead people NOT THERE?

No. Instead all she does is ask him about his bottle of sleeping pills. Because him sleeping on the job is criminal negligence and a serious offense, if he was out of it and forgot to lock the doors on his way out. Instead of telling her no he did lock up, or ask about the state of the place. He instead gives her a heaping of backstory. Explaining that ever since his baby bro went missing when he was 12. He’s been trying to revisit those events in his head. He always dreams about it, and does his best to recreate that day in his dream world. Going so far as the sleeping pills. Forest posters he can stare at, and listening to forest sound cd’s to put him back in that moment. Hoping each time he see’s it, he might uncover a new part of the puzzle and help discover who took his bro.

Well that’s sweet and enough for Vanessa to forget about filing a report on the break in. the dead bodies, and anything else that could end up getting him fired. Or thrown in prison.

Seriously where are the bodies. How is she gonna be cool with the place being trashed. And 4 missing people whom left their van parked outside the pizzeria. This is all very suspect!

Unless you know, she hid the van.

And the bodies.

MAYBE!!!

I actually kinda dig it. Because it gives a nice change from what you’d normally expect. Especially for night 3 at Freddy’s. As Mike can’t get ahold of the baby sitter Max, he has no choice but to take his little sister with him to work.

As she sleeps he busies himself working for once. He spends his first 3 hours of the shift cleaning the broken glass. Mopping up. Putting signs and post back in place. Organizing the kitchen and such. The man is earning that shitty check and it’s refreshing to find him doing something other than sleeping, again.

UNTIL HE IS SLEEPING

AGAIN!

Yes, of course he falls asleep. Repeating the same dream all over again. Only this time, there aren’t 5 children taking off running. Instead. There is just one kid hanging out, doodling in the dirt. The kid inside Freddy.

Mike recognizes now, that all these kids are the 5 kids who went missing. He doesn’t know how, or why they are in his head. He also doesn’t seem to care. Because he rather selfishly just ask the kid if he can help tell him who kidnapped his baby brother.

Honestly I get it. Its his characters Achilles heel. His obsession blinds him, and even though it makes no sense to know this now other than for closure. He’s not exactly going to find him alive somehow. Unfortunately. But he’s put so much into the belief that if he can uncover this mystery. He can find peace. So I get it. But man is the guy missing a lot.

But Freddy is curious by this request, and the kid breaks his silence for a change, asking Mike ‘If we do this for you, what will you give us?”

Without hesitation or careful consideration. Mike immediately says a blank check is being offered, and butt stuff is definitely on the table as a possibility. Not with the ghost. But with Freddy the animatronic. Sickos.

Well his dream comes to an end as he hears Abby screaming out in his dream, and when waking up. Hears it again for real. He rushes out looking for her, fearing he’s about to lose another sibling, and knowing Vanessa will judge him SO BADLY, for falling asleep on the job again.

When he runs out to the main floor of the pizzeria, he discovers the animatronics all surrounding Abby. But Abby is okay. She tells Mike they were all tickling her, and she was playing with all of them. Making pictures for them.

It’s amazingly a fun little tense moment. Mike is holding a chair ready to bash Freddy in. Freddy narrows his eyes at him, but backs off the moment Abby says who he is. But all the while. As Abby is introducing the animatronics by name, and showing how cool they are with her, and interacting. Freddy is absolutely keeping his eyes on Mike, you pick up the uneased tension in the room. Both waiting for the other to do something. But both manage to keep their cool and eventually back off.

It's also cute because Abby thanks them all for playing with her, She gets a hug from Freddy, which is really cute. And she draws a heart for Bonnie.

It’s cute damnit! I’m not dead inside.

But don’t worry. This isn’t going to turn into a silly movie where the animatronics are all Abby’s friends and want to protect her and her brother now. It’s not that kinda thing.

So night 4 arrives. Mike is bringing Abby back with him, and there is a dance montage, a party, and the animatronics help Abby to build a cool fort. Okay so the film did turn into the animatronics now being super cool and Abby’s friends. Ghost friends.

JUST…not in the way it might seem. At least for these eyes. Also you know. You kinda see where this is going.

But the duo are not alone in their fun with the animatronics. Vanessa is also there. Uninvited. She just showed up out of the blue before Mike arrived, so she could stare painfully at the wall of children’s drawings and focus on a traumatic past.

But once Abby and Mike arrive she’s the first one to help with building a fort and being a cool friend to Abby.

Mike is cool with this. But not really. He wants answers about his bro. And if Freddy has them. He wants them. The only thing is, he knows they don’t like him much. But they like Abby. So he’ll have her ask them about it.

The man is letting his quest blind him to everything else, and the very real possibility that these animatronics may want his sister to be their forever friend.

Again I like the stories dynamic and attitude of the characters. Mike is not forgetting these animatronics are powered by ghost kids, and that they attacked him once in his dream, and nearly did again when he came looking for Abby the other night.

So he turns to Vanessa. The only other adult he knows that might be able to help him. Which not gonna lie. That is not the source you should go to for calm and understanding. Which she thankfully proves.

Yes she is aware the animatronics are all powered by the souls of the missing five children. Yes she also knows how they got there, but she won’t say. Yes she even knows how the suits work, she knows to stay away from the spring lock system tracks, and she knows where all the supplies in the place are.

Mike reasonably, and politely ask her for a moderately priced explanation for just what the hell is going on here and how she knows all this.

She isn’t going to tell him anything. All he needs to know? Is he needs to drop this search for his taken Brother, and he needs to never bring Abby back there.

He would press her more about this. But the fact Abby confirms for Mike that the animatronics all really like Vanessa, because she keeps them safe…and is really nice. Well that kind of intel keeps Mike in check, and he doesn’t turn the heat up on his attempted interrogation of Vanessa. Wise move man.

However. As happy as Vanessa was with Abby and Mike. She is…Super. Ultra. Mega. Pissed off now.

Because she knows someth-….she knows a lot of things he doesn’t know. And his bringing Abby there, while she wont upset Abby or the animatronics. She knows that was the wrong thing to do. And his obsession with his brother is going to be his downfall. She gives him a stern warning not to bring Abby there ever again. Period. She glares at him as she drives off and Abby like the rest of us. Can’t help but point out that every single adult Mike runs into. All look at him with pure hate.

It's part of his charm.

Which the man desperately needs.

Because this guy is just a walking void of misery. The man also needs to really work on his communication skills.

So far every encounter with Vanessa, is her asking him a question, and them him giving her entire backstory lore about his past. When all she did was ask a very simple question, that warrants a simple answer. Maybe this would also explain his poor dating life. When a woman ask you if you enjoy movies, during a date. You answer yes and tell them the type of movies you tend to enjoy. You don’t go into a full on backstory “It was a dark night, like tonight, only it was cold. So very cold” and go off about how long you waited in line for tickets to see The Fellowship of The Ring and pissed yourself standing in line, explaining why you always wear a diaper now.

It just doesn’t work in your favor. Like. Ever.

Again you can piece together where this is all headed, and without saying anything, you know Vanessa knows where this all is, or could be headed as well. She’s just not going to tell him yet.

Well this film isn’t very long unfortunately. So we gotta rush ourselves into night 5. Which technically? Is where the games tend to end. Until you unlock nights 6 and 7. Which all get insanely crazy and stupid hard.

But before we can go off to that final night at Freddy’s. We gotta set up our final stand.

Which means Abby waking up, ready to follow her brother to work again. Only to discover her Aunt downstairs with big bro. Sitting at the dinner table. Immediately Abby assumes  he brought her there because he’s going to give her away to them.

Is he?!

He won’t say.

Well…is he just going to have her babysit Abby? Since her baby sitter is dead? He won’t say.

All the things this man could say. He doesn’t. Instead He lets Abby run the table conversation and determines he is getting rid of her. There for she hates him. He is a betrayer, a sack of wild animal feces, and the only job he’d be good at is being a mint urinal cake. Since he enjoys taking the piss out of everything.

Does he attempt to correct her or comfort her? To go back to her room where she ran off to? Of course not. Instead he tells the aunt to watch Abby until he gets back. So she totes agrees, and off Mike goes. For one last night at Freddy’s. Taking his drugs, listening to his forest sounds cd he got from Walmart.

Of course he replays the same dream he had every other night. Only this time it’s…different.

This time his brother isn’t going missing. He’s at the camp site table with mom and dad. They all look to Mike and ask him to come join them. With that the 5 ghost kids appear and promise Mike this is what they can give him. They can give him what he wanted. To undo the whole missing brother Garret deal.

Mike thankfully, has questions about this. But the kids are all very adamant, as well as using perfectly legal wording that has some mighty fine print.

Some mighty fine print.

They let him know that, he can live forever in this memory. Happy with his family, no one going missing. Ever. Just him, his mom and dad, and baby brother. All happy. For all eternity. All they ask in return. Is for Abby.

Mike knows this is not right. He also tries convincing them they are wrong. That he wants to find who did this. Not fix it. But they know what’s really in his heart, Even Vanessa could see it. So they offer him this in exchange for his sister.

This deserves either careful well thought consideration. Or, to be struck down immediately.

Mike immediately says yes without any hesitation. Fuck his little sister, fuck his Aunt. He’ll take the deal.

No seriously. Mike just straight up says okay sure. Have Abby I’ll stay forever locked in this memory and with my baby bro. Super happy. Every minute of every day.

Buuuuut, then he realizes. Oh wait. This isn’t real. This is all just fake, and I probably should ask more about this, and not give up my sister. The only living family I have left. So he quickly tells the kids no, they can’t have her. He doesn’t want their deal.

Well too damn late man! Ya done goofed.

The kids take off. We see Abby being greeted by what appears to be her brother back home waking her from her sleep. And Mike is. Where we saw the security guard at the start of this film. Which was him all along. He’s now bound, in a chair. About to have Freddy’s face mask collapse down around his head, and tare his face to pieces.

Well isn’t that special.

Only Mike of course escapes this trap. Only NOW of course discovering, he fucked around, and is about to find out. Much like we saw at the start of the film He makes it to an exit door which initially doesn’t open, we hear Foxy happily beatboxing his favorite tune. Only before he can be killed. The door opens and he seems safe. Well. Safe-ish.

As for Abby? She’s happy. Because her bestest friend in the whole wide world of everything is there with her. Not her good brother. But Freddy. Well not Freddy.

As we learn the golden haired boy isn’t Freddy. He’s a certain unnamed as of yet 5th animatronic. The yellow bunny in all the pictures that every kid who went missing just happened to encounter. The only one in some of the drawings who had a scary face.

If you need it finally said yes. It’s Springtrap.

Well Springtrap is here to escort Abby back to the Pizzeria, so she can play with all her friends. Forever and ever.  Just you know. Nevermind Aunty dead on the floor, she just slipped and fell. And apparently Springtrap called for a Taxi. Because there’s one waiting outside for them. Which NOW finally, the scene in the trailer makes sense. When we see Abby enter the cab and suddenly the whole cab sinks to the right. Because the Animatronic is inside the car now. The driver freaks out, and then never minds it, assuming this is just some weird ass late night cosplay. He doesn’t ask questions. He just wants to get paid.

And with that, and Mike now waking up. Not dead, but on a hospital gurney. We are ready for the final few minutes of our film.

Seeing as he is now stitched up, and well tended to. Of course it’s Vanessa who found him. Coincidentally. She’s taken him to a place to stitch him up and help him get better. But she also is trying to comfort him while. You know. The machines tried to kill him. Which she knew they would do. But she was going to let them do.

Vanessa is the kind of crazy you want to either admire from a far, safe distance. Or if you decide to….hold her hand. You damn well better never let it go, and know you are entering a while new world of crazy, that you may not walk away from without a lot of……………permanent memories.

Well Mike decides to shock us all. And he actually tells Vanessa what is going on. That he promised the machines his sister. Well, it IS the near end of the film so I GUESS that means he can change. But it also means Vanessa can change too. As she too decides to open up about how she knows everything. About the animatronics, the dead kids inside the machines. What will happen to his sister. Everything!

Which if you needed to know well. Vanessa is Willaim Afton’s daughter. William Afton is Springtrap.

Now in the games, the lore….without stepping on toes of angry lore nuts.

Basically Afton would put on an animatronic suit. His suits were made so that people could wear them. Like Vanessa mentioned earlier. So he would use his yellow bunny suit to hide himself in, and lure children away. Where he’d take them to his animatronic workshop and kill them by trapping them inside the springtrap loaded suits. Crushing them, and trapping their souls inside the animatronics. 

Now I don’t know if the film will go into it. I doubt it given the amount of time we have left but. Again according to lore setup by the game in Mini games and cut scenes. The ghost of the kids were after Afton. They remembered what he did to them and they all were coming for him. So he decided to hide himself in his animatronic suit. Only when he did this time. The springtrap mechanism malfunctioned and crushed him to death. Trapping his soul forever in that animatronic.

Where he now influences the minds of the other children in the suits, to do his bidding. Killing others, and bringing him more victims for his suits.

The suits play a big part in the games as well, as you are told this is how you die basically in the game. That if the animatronics find you. They will try to push you inside their suits. Which will crush you inside them. Which is incredibly horrifying to imagine. And also what people dig about the game. Sure it’s an audible jump scare game. But its got some fun back story.

Well Mike is determined to stop the animatronics from turning his sister into one of them. So he’s ready to go to war for her, even if he admits to Vanessa he totally gave into their deal without hesitation. Which if he survives the night with Abby, I would love to see him explain that one to her. Sure she’d love hearing it.

Vanessa will not go with him. She assures him she wouldn’t be any help to him if Afton is there. Which is also its own layer of lore we shant go into.

Instead of going with him. She tells him how to temporarily screw with Freddy and his crew. Electricity. Just give them a good ol zap from a taser and they’ll just leave you right the fuck alone.

So with that, and the keys to the Vanny mobile. Mike is off to play hero and make up for selling his sister out for an illusion.

Meanwhile Springtrap remains unseen, While the other animatronics entertain their new friend Abby. Until Chica summons the girl to follow her behind the stage. Mike arrives, armed with every electrical device he could find short of a malfunctioning dildo.

He takes out Bonny and Freddy. Which is a little sad. But the film has 10 minutes left so we gotta hurry up.

Next on the list is Chica. Who is scaring little Abby with taking her into a dark room. Especially a dark room with an open odd looking female animatronic with a painted face and colorful pigtails. Sitting in a chair, spring mechanism sat open, ready to crush her body. Those with a keen knowing eye will identify the suit she was about to be put into as Baby. Which, I believe shows up in Sister Location.

Well Mike isn’t going to let his baby sister get smooshed into that suit. So he tases Chica too. Despite her bawking out ‘Don’t tase me bro!”

The movie, despite trying to be serious. Can’t help but make me laugh. Like a lot. Because Mike promises to get her out of their alive. He tells her how she’s the most important thing in the world to him, that he’s done trying to fix the past. He doesn’t care about undoing it and saving his brother. She’s the most important thing in the whole wide world to him.

Now. She’s the most important thing in the whole wide world to him, now. Is what he meant to say.

I mean come on man. This dude sold her out without a second of hesitation. Then when he realized oh wait. This would only be a memory in my head movies. Not the really real world. He decided he done made a bad choice. It’s just funny.

Well of course their escape isn’t going to be so simple. Mike gets attacked by the cupcake, which is nomming on his leg. Abby runs for the hills, only to run into Foxy. Who is actively looking for her now.

By the way. Why are the animatronics after her now? Well like Vanessa said. Afton manipulates their minds to control them. We are shown this effect early in the film at different points. Whenever Afton is in control of the animatronics? Their eyes glow red. When it’s the kids controlling them. Their eyes are clear and white. So yes basic movie stuff. Red is bad, white light good.

Mike could barely handle the cupcake. Which I don’t blame him the thing was a little pissy bitch cake in the games. But he managed to cattle prod the thing and escape its wrath. Only to find himself now toe to toe, with Springtrap. Which admittedly, it’s really cool seeing him finally, and in the film. I know cosplayers have all done his outfit in all its stages of decay. Shockingly well. But its still just cool seeing it here.

Not so cool however for poor Mike. Who is royally getting a beat down from Springtrap. Who relentlessly taunts him about how awesome it’s going to be having come full circle. Having killed his baby brother, and now he gets to kill him. Classic Afton enjoying the little things in life.

Meanwhile Abby is playing the roughest game of hide and seek with Foxy. Which sucks for her because these were her friends, and now they’re trying to hurt her. So she’s a bit conflicted about all this. But you know who isn’t conflicted? Jesus.

But also Vanessa. Who shows up after all! Yes. She’s had a change of heart and decided to show up anyway. Tasing poor Foxy in front of Abby, leaving the poor kid to ask yet again why. Why do this to my friends. It’s cute she’s concerned about their well being. But damnit kid these things want to crush your body from the outside in. Read the room kid.

Well. The final showdown has begun. Springtrap has beaten poor Mike to the point he’s pissed himself and is nearly unconscious. Well okay nearly unconscious, pants dry. For now.

But thankfully Vanessa and Abby have arrived. Well sort of thankfully. Because now. Well shit.

Seems I may have spoiled the end of the movie before the end of the movie could happen.

If you couldn’t guess by the fact Springtrack was articulating his words super well for being an animatronic. There’s a reason for that. William Afton is still very much alive, and wearing the suit to control the others.

WHICH. Is also a gimmick from I want to say part 2…or it was 3. Where you could put on an animatronic head for a short time and it’d confuse the animatronics into thinking you were one of them, so they’d leave you alone.

So yes. Afton is still very much alive, and not in a good mood. He’s been killing security guards nightly because he lust for murder, and he still continues to work on his mechanical hobbies. All while his daughter turned a blind eye out of loyalty to her fucked up dad. At least until now. Afton does the dumb thing of questioning his daughter who tells him to stop all the killing, he shouts back “What’re ya gonna do? Shoot me?!” and she shoots him. Just not a killing shot. Just more of a Brooklyn “Yeah I’m gonna shoot you ya stupid jerk!”

Afton tells his robot friends to kill Mike for him, and he heads off to deal with his disloyal daughter. Whom he unfortunately stabs. With a huge knife he made for himself in the suit. Guy is committed to his roleplay.

Mike seeing this moment where nothing at the moment is rushing at him. But the animatronics are indeed turned back on and slowly making way to him. He decides this would be a good call back moment to tell his sister “Hey uh. So you see that yellow bunny man? Well. He hurt your friends, like super bad. He murdered them inside spring lock suits that crushed their bodies and dragged their organs like a meat grinder throughout the suit. The smell is horrific and their souls are tormented forever in anguished unstoppable rage that never sleeps. So. Maybe you know. Go tell them that before they kill me?”

Abby understands the assignment, but she can’t simply tell her friends this. She has to show them. Through the power of art.

Yes. She draws a picture of yellow bunny man, with a bloody knife. Killing all of them. She puts the picture up on the picture wall, replacing the one of Springtrap being surrounded and hugging the kids. With him killing the kids.

Basically imagine Abby as Kirsty in Hellraiser 2, and she’s just delivered to Pinhead a photo oh himself in human form, waking all the cenobites to their past lives.

Naturally, this upsets Freddy and the gang a great deal. So its time for vengeance.

Which happens, almost how I explained it was show happening in the game. Only he’s already in his suit, and thanks to an attack in the ribs by Cupcake. The spring traps are activating, crushing and burying into his body. But before he can die. Afton growls out “I ALWAYS COME BACK!”, and with that he slips his signature mask back on, and dies as he lived. A furry.

The animatronics recreate the scene in Batman Returns where the Penguins dragged the dead body of Oswald Cobblepot off, and we find Vanessa, Mike and Abby all escaping the pizzeria.

A year later, all seems to be well. Abby is doing better in school. She’s no longer only talking to animal friends. She’s active, popular and Mike is looking clean, well rested, and off the medication. Which is good. It’s also funny that Abby’s teacher is telling him what an improvement Abby has made and how great he’s doing now.

But.

No one is mentioning or talking about how Aunt Jane is dead. How the babysitter who sat for Abby is also missing, and dead. That 3 others are also dead.

In fact no one is talking about any of this at all. By all points here, Mike should be heavily under investigation and mid trial for their murders. I mean he knew all of them. He had a court battle with the aunt. This all adds up people. At least it should.

But alas no. They get the good ending. As for Vanessa? She is in a coma in the hospital. Mike visits her and checks on her. Giving her daily updates on his life, Abby. Reading Chinese delivery menus to her. The usual.

But the film is not over yet. We get one last shot. In the pizzeria. As We see the ghost of the children, watching as William Aften suffers in his animatronic grave. Now trapped himself in, and as Springtrap.

Also the taxi driver gets a jumpscare visit from Balloon boy. Who kept appearing at random moments in the movie for silly scares of ‘OH what is that? Oh it’s a silly toy statue’. So if course it had to happen once more. Balloon boy for those who don’t know. Also was a bag of dicks in the games. Still is.

Is there a hidden scene at the end of the film? No surprisingly. Good show of restraint.

Instead we get another familiar trick from the game. A speak and spell toy spelling out C O M E F I N D M E.

Sequel bate bitches!!

The End

Okay so that, wasn’t bad. It was decent.

It wasn’t the set the world on fire Five Nights that people might have wanted or dreamed of. It did what most video game movies all do. It followed a semi safe retelling of the first game and source material. While dropping easter eggs throughout. But didn’t do anything terribly crazy or out there.

For those who played the games and spent days off listening to hours of Game Theory videos or Markiplier giving his own playthrough commentary and theories. You got where this was going and sort of knew what to expect. But it was still entertaining.

Was it better than Willys Wonderland?

Yes. But also no.

Again I mention it because it’s inevitable. And it did beat FNAF to the punch release wise.

Yes Willy’s is a silly dumb movie. It was over the top, Nic Cage was pretty useless in it, and it was absolutely a rip off of Five Nights At Freddy’s.

BUT.

It did deliver something this movie did not.

No it’s not tits.

But animatronic fights.

The big draw in the games were that you had to survive the animatronics finding you. And escaping them. Hollywood being Hollywood. You know they wanted to have robot fights. But they didn’t. Instead they did the Hellraiser 2 good guy turn. They were only bad because Afton. Not because they were and are tormented spirits. Did you get to fight them in the game? No not hand to hand or using chainsaws. But you had to use traps. Clever ways to do damage to them. And run like hell from them. You could use that and make it exciting. Here the animatronics were slow moving, aside from Foxy, but still lethal. We just didn’t really get to see much of that because of the rating. But they still did what they could.

Now seeing Nic Cage go hand to hand with animatronic gorillas, crocodiles, and a fairy. Is bug nuts insane. Absolutely. But it was the main draw for that film. The promise of Nic Cage fighting these things, and absolutely destroying them. While pounding energy drinks and cleaning the place up.

But it made the film fun, it gave them a way to deal with the animatronics.

This film didn’t do that, because it stayed true to its game mechanics. Which is good on them for doing, and with the creator Scott Cawthorn writing and producing it. It made sense. But they just didn’t give any action against or with the animatronics. That made you feel they were a real threat. Outside of appearing suddenly, and people screaming. Yes we saw Freddy Chomp the baby sitter in half. Which I appreciated immensely. But past that. It was very reserved.

Honestly I was really surprised. Like completely surprised that the film didn’t use jumpscares.

I really expected them to have those given its what the game was noted for and set it up as the scariest game ever at the time.

Not gonna lie I actually thought at the end of the film after the credits, we’d end it with one of the signature game scares where out of the blackness we suddenly get loud screaming audio and an animatronic mouth open attacking. It would’ve been great.

But they showed a little too much restraint.

Which Willy’s Wonderland did not.

Because they recognized with a movie like that. You gotta go a little insane. Even here. If your gonna have a cupcake chew someones face off. You should be willing to go a bit over the top.

This might not make sense to those who never read them. But I think I can make it work.

This movie felt more like a story from the Five Nights At Freddy’s book series, versus the games itself.

Which is not a bad thing.

The stories are all(Well for the most part) stand alone stories. Each a unique horror story involving some kind of animatronic in someway or another. And the character of Mike deeply felt like a character from one of those stories. A character who is so lost in their one note drive. That they are blind to everything else around them, and the true consequences of what their choices mean for them until its too late.

I really felt if this were a FNAF story. It would’ve gone that way. That it would end with Mike having accepted the deal offered to him, to live in that memory forever with his brother and family, perfect as they were before he went missing. He would accept it, then suddenly realize the cost of it, realize what he had done and how selfish it was. Then try to correct it. Only to find. He was too late. That his sister was taken from him, She was now the animatronic called Baby, and he did this to her. Finding himself now trapped in the Pizzeria. Her first victim.

It's the kind of thing that would pop up in those books, and has a legitimate feel that this would absolutely fit as one of those stories. But as a main story for the original animatronics? I mean….it works? But it could’ve, and perhaps should have. Reached further.

Sometimes playing it safe is the right thing. You might worry about over reaching, and god knows with as much deep lore, countless characters, and backstory as this entire insane franchise has now. You absolutely could get lost in the reeds with this one, and end up putting out too much.

I feel the film will divide fans. Some will find it perfectly acceptable. Where others will feel it was ‘just okay’ because they didn’t want the Afton origin story. They wanted a new story. They wanted other animatronics. Shit there are people upset they didn’t make this a Security Breach movie. Because everyone loves Glamrock Freddy, and Roxy.

But the thing is, that most people forget, and studios I feel tend to remind dreamers and filmmakers. You gotta do the setup first. Then you can branch out. Which this really feels like.

You setup Afton, Introduce Vanessa. Tease a few other elements, and when you get to the sequel. You can go a little more crazy. More kills, more animatronics. Different locations, more game call backs, etc.

But there in lies the gamble. Will your movie make enough to warrant a sequel, allowing you to do the things you’d like to do?

I have no doubt that if Scott had his way, he’d absolutely enjoy more sequels, and using the films to debunk or god help us all ADD to the lore out there. Further proving he lives to drive people like Matpat insane.

Where this movie out performs Willy’s though? Is in every other regard.

It had a simple story, a man trying to do his best to raise his sister, get his life together, and deal with past trauma. Throw in a criminal Aunt, an insane boss, and a lady that knows more than she’s letting on. And you got a story.

Versus Nic Cage being picked as a random person to feed the evil animatronics at Willy’s, on the same night a girl and her friends decide its time to burn that place to the ground.

Is this movie better than the Banana Splits movie?

I think it’s a butt hair above it.

Okay no. It is better. WAY better.

That movie was a little too silly, more focused on the idea of adding gore to a familiar known brand. Which they pinned elements of a story onto. But the thing knew what it was, and it was silly.

This was, I feel as good a Five Nights film as we could hope for. Until a sequel comes out. If one does at all.

It wasn’t insanely good, it also wasn’t boring and terrible. I’d gladly watch this again and buy it, versus ever watch Skinamarink ever again. Or Willy’s Wonderland.

You gotta get through Star Trek the Motion Picture, before you get to Wrath of Khan. You can enjoy SUPERMAN and love SUPERMAN 2. You can laugh and feel okay with Raimi’s Spiderman, and absolutely cheer to the heavens forever about the awesome that was Spiderman 2 with Doc Ock.

And you can’t get to the battle of Hoth without first getting through the Tantive 5, Whinny luke, and the trench run.

Yes I went there. But you know this to be true.

I still can wish this had been better. That it had more suspense. More scares and surprises. More…well. Horror.

It was a very softcore film which safely told its story, established for those outside the game what it was about. The core original characters and what’s going on. It’s something your date whos a fan will explain and geek out over and fill in the blanks. Or you and your partner can geek out over together. There’s definitely something in it for everyone. But it absolutely could have been better, and maybe it should have been better. I don’t want to say deserves to be better, because I mean shit. It’s Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Which originally people laughed at the idea of a movie. What are you gonna do? Film a 2 hour movie about a guy watching monitors locking and opening doors watching his power meter?

They did good. Honestly they did. It could’ve been a lot worse. A lot.

I really hope it does well, and the fact they allowed it on streaming as well on its release day? I really dig that. It’s nice to do and feels like fans will be happy with that one. I’m glad for it.

I am sure when I rewatch this, I’ll find little easter eggs and things I missed. In fact I am pretty damn sure I absolutely will.

Hell even now I am sure I saw what looked like a screen shot from one of the 8-bit mini games during a moment in the videotape Mike watched for new hires when it started glitching. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.

Actually there were a few times I wondered if I saw something while watching the movie, and am still pretty sure I did. But I’m not going to dig into that. I value my sanity. Even if I force myself to watch and immediately review films one after the other without reviewing them.

Can you believe as I write this, only on Day 27, and I’m hitting 250k words? Over 400 pages of just ranting watching a movie a day, sometimes 2 so I could catch up. THAT is crazy.

But making hour long videos discussing background drawings in a video game? That’s just FNAF man.

Absolutely check it out. Support it in the theater, watch it on Peacock. Give it some love. It was a fun ride, It was exactly what it needed to be. It could’ve been better, it works as a stand alone story from the novels, sure. But it’s still a great fun little Halloween movie.

So that being said. We are nearing the end of the month. I’m excited, and the last few films should be…well better than the movie I shall no longer name. So until tomorrow. If you take a job as a security guard watching over an old Pizzeria? Don’t. Just grab the basket of exotic butters, go home and enjoy being alive. GOODNIGHT!