From frightening jingles to horrifying twists and turns, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” doesn’t go full circle and should have doubled down on showing the style of the early 2014 to 2021 video game series. With underwhelming special effects, ranging from expected jumpscares to cliché side plots, the film was disappointing with clear unused potential. As such, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” contends for worst movie of the year and hardly lives up to the franchise’s dignified reputation. 

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” (directed by Emma Tammi) follows newly-employed security guard, Mike (Josh Hutcherson), as he patrols the run-down local diner Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Mike is forced to become a security guard at the pizzeria to provide for his little sister Abby (Piper Rubio). He stumbles across sentient animatronics with a mind of their own while accompanied by police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail). Mike is forced to navigate his way through eerie hallways in order to survive the bloodthirsty animatronics hunting him down, and figure out the secrets behind the pizzeria. 

The movie’s execution was bland and showed a lot of potential that wasn’t used. The gore and the horror aspect were forced and at the same time, lackluster.  As someone who doesn’t know all of the background information about the video games, I feel like half of the movie’s tone clashes with the horror aspect by being too light-hearted. I don’t know if that was added to continue the flow of the story but it didn’t stick for me.

Something the producers did well was the portrayal of the animatronics. The animals’ clunky movements and stained fur, plus the depictions of the run-down store, were well presented. I appreciate the fact that the kills were creative. For example, the head sever was unexpected, and overall entertaining. I valued the unexpected plot twists and unsettling emotions. 

From the well-captured animatronics to the creative representation of the source material, seeing “Five Nights at Freddy’s” could have made for a memorable experience, the movie was a major miss for me personally.