OLLA MOKHTAR
campus editor
olla.mokhtar@my.tccd.edu

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria sells more than pizza, apparently, they sell mediocre fright too. 

“Five Nights at Freddy’s”, inspired by the game released in 2014, follows the lore of William Afton, the owner of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. 

 The premise of it is that he used his family friendly environment to lure five children to their murder. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria had five animatronics, Freddy, Foxie, Bonnie and Chica who were the stars of each night’s fun, performing and dancing to songs for the childrens’ entertainment. 

He later stuffs the childrens’ bodies into the animatronics to avoid the authorities, not knowing the children’s souls would possess said animatronics. They aren’t harmless though; they try to kill anyone that comes into the abandoned pizzeria to avenge their own deaths.  

This includes Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), the new security guard and his sister Abby whom he drags along because he struggles to find childcare for her as his mom passed away and his dad was out of the picture.  

In comes Venessa, a local police officer who warns him about the pizzeria and finds out that it’s because the animatronics he thought weren’t working are actually alive and well.  

They intend to take Abby’s spirit and stuff her body into an animatronic because she was kind to them. I mean who knew ghosts needed companionship too. 

The story itself was enough to drag me into the depths of the TikTok FNAF edit hole that I’m still not out of. Please don’t be like me and search for origin stories on any platform, that’s all you will see for days. 

I’m not complaining though, the movie brought the animatronics and the game it’s based on to life. Though Schmidt’s character story wasn’t something I expected I appreciated it because it added depth to the movie.  

It was simple to follow and engaging. Scary, yes but not scary enough for me to be frightened of watching this in an empty theater. 

Though there were definitely times I was frightened by the sight of two glowing eyes staring at me, I didn’t exit the theater terrified thinking about it.  

Don’t get me wrong, the designers of the animatronics, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, really put their creative minds to work and it shows. They looked exactly what I imagined a possessed animatronic would look like, engaging and almost life-like.  

It was released near Halloween, that was the perfect opportunity to make me terrified of being in a theater all alone, instead I was just trying to understand why all of the TikTok editors were going berserk over Josh Hutcherson. I’m sorry but I just don’t get it, I guess I’m just not that girl. 

The casting of Josh Hutcherson was odd, to say the least. It’s not that I think actors can’t act in whatever genre they choose, it’s that since “The Hunger Games” series I haven’t seen much of his work.  

Mike and Peeta have the same personality traits, especially with how they treated their loved ones. They both had to do things they didn’t want to do but did them with no complaint. In a way his previous role prepared him for this one, and he executed it pretty well.  

I felt the love Mike had for Abby just like I felt the love Peeta had for Katniss. In a way, I think him being Peeta prepared him into being Mike. 

This may be harsh, but it was mediocre and a disappointment. I wanted more jump scares but got mildly frightened at best. It was marketed as a horror film, and I expected it to be as such. 

Still, if you’re looking for a “scary” film to open for your younger siblings to watch because they think they’re grown, then definitely stream this film. But if you want to actually be scared, play the game.  

There the actual five nights seem like an eternity and your bladder might just combust because of how many jump scares there are.