Riley- [I remember being a little kid, hanging out with my neighborhood friends, when one of them told us about this game called Five Nights at Freddy’s. I thought it was weird, and my first exposure to the game was a video of Markiplier playing the fourth game, when he said “the first night’s usually not so bad-” and then proceeded to get jumpscared. It left me absolutely terrified, but for some reason, I thought it was so cool. I only really got into FNaF when I was 12, I started watching Markiplier playing Sister Location, and that really kicked off my interest in the fandom. I played the first game, but never got past the fourth night, it was too stressful. I normally watched youtubers play the games instead of playing them myself because i didn’t really have a good device for playing any of the games.
I had heard rumors throughout the years of a movie, but they were all fake teasers, and I eventually gave up on my hopes of ever seeing those legendary characters live action, but then 2023 rolled around, and teasers were released saying that Josh Hutcherson was to star in the FNaF movie. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes, was it actually happening? I kept seeing ads for the movie, and eventually trailers on social media. I was so excited, I made plans with one of my friends to see it the day it was released. Unfortunately, we had to move it back one day, but I showed up to the theater in my Evan Afton cosplay, ready to watch the movie. My sister had seen it the day before, and she said she liked it, even though she wasn’t a FNaF fan like I was, so I was hopeful about this movie.
I genuinely enjoyed it. I know a lot of people didn’t like the movie because the animatronics acted too childish when they’re literally children. Oh, but they killed people! Yeah because they’re children in animatronic bodies who have been traumatized by the man behind the slaughter who, mind you, is an adult and they had no issues with Mike Schmidt’s little sister, they just wanted her to join them, which did include a dark and twisted method, but they didn’t know any better, they just know that getting shoved into an animatronic suit is the only way for someone to join them. Also, all of the book series are entirely separate from the game storyline, so why should the movies follow the confusing game lore?
People also say the spring lock suit being tripped wasn’t gory enough, but it’s a PG-13 movie, the film producers still wanted teenagers to go and see it without needing to drag their parents, so sacrifices had to be made, and realistically, if you were bleeding out in a springlock suit, most of your blood would probably just seep out the bottom in a pool. I still thought it was an epic scene though, the music really added the right tone and it gave me goosebumps seeing William Afton walk out in the springlock suit. The plot in general was very interesting, I thought it was an exciting twist that William Afton himself killed Mike’s brother. It was a wee bit predictable, but it felt satisfying when I saw my theory was correct.]
Jayna didn’t have much FNAF knowledge prior to the movie.
Jayna- [I was introduced to Five Nights at Freddy’s by my best friend in 2021. We were having a sleepover at her place, and looking for something to do. She suggested we turn the lights off and play FNAF, so we did. The suspense, like many horror games, is FNAF’s biggest appeal: it’s hard to relax when anticipating a jumpscare.
I never liked scary things, especially when I was younger. My imagination would run wild and make me miserable every time I was alone. So I didn’t have any interest in this game, even after its introduction. It wasn’t that scary- I just got bored. Creepy robots jumping at me was only fun for an hour. Then the novelty wore off.
A couple of years later, the movie comes out, and everyone’s super excited. The internet is pumping out Five Nights At Freddy’s memes, but that’s not unusual. The fandom has always been active, and peaks with every new release from the franchise. In 2021 a game called “Security Breach” was released, and the internet did the same thing. Exploded with FNAF.
On Halloween, my friends and I saw the movie in theaters. Before we went, I watched a ten-minute lore video. None of this lore (that I didn’t really understand) really appeared in the film. Regardless, I liked the movie. I’d give it a 7/10. I thought it was cute, even though I didn’t really have background information. The movie explained itself to me as it went along, so I wasn’t as confused as I was expecting.]
