FNAF viewers are divided over new movie

by Lucy Cotter

Student Life Editor

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

Five Nights At Freddy’s Movie debuts in theaters October 2023. (Patti Perret/Universal Pictures, via Associated Press)

The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie follows Mike Schmidt, played by Josh Hutcherson, an adult brother who takes care of his younger sister Abby. After getting fired from several jobs, Mike must resort to a security position at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Little does he know the horror he will face.

The movie is rated PG-13, though many fans anticipated an R-rating for the horror aspect. The lower age rating allows for a wider audience reach. I think that the movie lacked a major horror or scare aspect, but I anticipated a lack of scares based on the rating.

In addition, the FNAF film is currently rated 27% on the Tomatometer and the Audience Rating received an 88% score. These scores highly contrast one another as most critics claim that without knowledge of the game the movie is “muddled and decidedly unscary,” according to Rotten Tomatoes.

While some fans enjoyed the Easter eggs and references made in the movie, others have a different take on the subject. Sara Togni explains, “it just didn’t really follow the lore that was already established. They changed a lot of things we knew were canon just to fit whatever script they already had written.” Furthermore, fans have differing opinions when it comes to how the lore was presented and portrayed.

Some fans were not satisfied with the lack of scares in the movie since the games were filled with jumpscares and that’s what FNAF was known for. Isaac Cotter (10) claims, “I was expecting it to be more scary but it wasn’t. I still liked the movie overall though.” The lack of jumpscares could potentially make-or-break fans’ opinions on the movie.

As someone who hasn’t played or known much about the FNAF games, I still enjoyed the movie. The plot twists and reveals were a little predictable, but I enjoyed the plot and the storylines a lot. There was an emotional pull towards characters and plot lines that enhanced the movie.

The cast of the movie features big names in the movie industry, such as Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, and Elizabeth Lail. YouTubers CoryxKenshin and MatPat who helped popularize the games had cameos in the film. Laura Togni (12) claims she “liked the cast, especially Josh Hutcherson [and]the animatronics.” The cast played an important role in the production of the movie.

Overall, fans of the games have differing opinions surrounding the movie than watchers who have never played the games seemed to like the movie.