It seems like video game movies have been on a roll with audiences in recent years, and the film adaptation of the popular horror series and media franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s is no underlying exception. First starting out as a small point and click survival game made by an independent developer hoping to make some extra money for his family, Five Nights at Freddy’s skyrocketed into popularity, seemingly overnight into a world wide internet sensation through the recognition and publicity of popular online creators trying out and enjoying the game. The creator of the game, Scott Cawthon, likely never envisioned from the start that his short and simple horror game would ever rise to the ranks of being offered a film adaptation. 

But that was the beginning, in the present day the games and characters associated within the titles have seemingly become household names within not just the video game industry, but the horror genre as a whole. The series itself is known for having some of the most intriguing and extensive lore within its universe, so when audiences heard of a film in the works, people didn’t know what to expect. Would it take after the entire series, the countless novels, or be something entirely original? It seems the producers over at Blumhouse Productions, known for their works within the horror genre itself, wanted to take the more grounded approach by basing the plot of the film off of the very first game, a wise decision as it easily has the simplest outlines for both an independent-standing movie and the potential to green light future films if received positively.

Personally, I thought the film was what both casual moviegoers and fans of the franchise needed during the over abundance of superhero movies along with surprising political overviews covering many movies nowadays. The film was not anything great but I found it to be serviceable and enjoyable, which is what I want out of a movie sometimes, a nice sit-down-and-watch type of flick. Notable performances which I believed to be standouts were Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, portraying a broken person to the extent of having the audience conveyed in actually wanting to figure out the mystery of his dead brother, and William Afton, played by  Matthew Lillard, who brings a charismatic performance I had thought to never see again since the old days of horror films… and who too portrays his character with the intensity of a springlock failure crushing your ribs.

While the movie was shown to have an overall highly positive rating with casual audiences, it seemed as if the critics didn’t have the same reaction as apparent by a shockingly low Rotten Tomatoes score, a common review-aggregation website. This however makes sense in hindsight, as most of the material offered in the film seems as if it was made with fans of the franchise mostly kept in mind, leaving the common person to be left with a barebones experience of a scary movie if not having known of the source material the film is based on. Even so, a lower critic score and higher audience score is not new for recent video game film adaptations, as shown with films such as “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Uncharted,” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Movies and video games are two wildly different mediums, and combining the two together may not seem adequate for most critics of film. Therefore, it can be assumed that as long as critics stray far away from the video game industry, so too will the film industry continue to under-appreciate possible success from video game film adaptations such as “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”