“Welcome to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza! A magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun comes to life!”
This franchise has and still plays a very important role in my life. Five Nights at Freddy’s was my first intro into horror games. If it wasn’t for this game I probably would have never played many of the horror games I have played to this day out of fear. I think the reason it did this though is because it taught me that there is more behind a horror game than just…well, horror. The story to me is just so interesting, even if it is very much complicated.
Although I didn’t join the community until around Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, once I started playing the games I was immediately sucked into the community and has never really let me go since then.
The community behind this game is so wonderful, to all the fan songs about the series to all the creativity displayed. This series is probably home to one of the most creative communities I’ve ever seen, to the most realistic costumes to inspiring so many future game creators.
Now enough about my love for everything about this series. It is time to talk about the movie. All I have to say is that this movie was hands down amazing in so many ways. All the references and horror moments were so well done.
I should say, though, to those who wish to watch the movie that this movie is very much geared towards fans of the series, so if you don’t know much about it or the lore it may not be for you. Don’t let me stop you from watching it though, it is just a heads up to those who are not as invested into the series.
Warning that beyond this point contains spoilers for the movies. You have been warned.
So just like the actual series itself, the lore was a tad bit confusing, but I am not complaining. After all, it’s one of the things I love about the series, deciphering the lore, or watching Matpat attempting to decipher it.
Another thing I liked about the movie though would have to be its goofy moments and its cameos. I was so excited when Matpat was on screen.
Everyone in the theater started cheering, especially after he said “Well, that’s just a theory.” I should probably mention that being in a theater with fans of the series definitely added to the experience.
One of the goofiest moments in the movie would probably have to be during night four where Mike (the main character), Abby (Mike’s sister) and Vanessa (a local police officer) build a large fort inside the pizzeria with all the animatronics.
I know that most would probably think this scene is too goofy for what is supposed to be a horror movie, but as someone who knows about the lore of the series I feel like it is a sweet reminder about the nature of the animatronics. It reminds the viewer that these animatronics are possessed by kids, so it makes sense for them to be playful around other kids.
Now I think it is about time to talk about horror. I felt the horror worked really well. The movie was trying to be scary. It showed off that animatronics can be incredibly dangerous when they want to be.
I feel the scariest part of the movie, as well as my favorite part of the movie, has got to be the introduction to Spring Bonnie aka William Afton. Throughout the movie Mike keeps getting closer and closer to finding the truth behind his brother’s disappearance.
Eventually he learns that the man behind this wears a yellow rabbit suit and then in the final night he gets a name behind this figure, William Afton.
While fending off the animatronics now being manipulated by Afton to save his sister he runs into the very man himself. Thinking he is another animatronic he fires a taser at him to stop him but to no avail. William just laughs this off and slowly approaches him with a knife, all the while reawakening the animatronics to attack.
Vanessa, who turns out to be his daughter, shoots him to stop him from killing Mike. Mike gets up and runs to go to the generator to turn it on. Meanwhile Abby draws a picture of Spring Bonnie killing the kids to remind them who it was that killed them.
William tries to stop her but Vanessa grabs him by the arm and pulls him back. He then proceeds to stab Vanesssa, incapacitating her, and makes his way to Abby, but he is too late. Mike turns the generator on and lights flash onto the drawing. The animatronics look at the drawing then back at Afton. Now they were after him.
Afton yells at them, calling them beasts. Chica’s cupcake suddenly jumps at him and bites a piece of the suit off. This causes the spring locks to go off, slowly killing him as he mutters his last words before putting the Spring Bonnie mask back on, “I always come back.”
The animatronics drag his shuttering and spazzing body away, never to be seen again until the final shot of the movie where he can be seen laying in the kitchen, bleeding out as his body still continues to shutter inside the suit.
I just love everything about this scene, from the music to the costume design to how threatening Afton felt as a character in general. I can’t wait for the next Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie. I just wonder where in the series the sequel will pick up. We’ll just have to wait and see.
That’s it for now, but this probably won’t be my last review on Five Nights at Freddy’s with FNAF Help Wanted 2 coming out sometime this year and probably many more games coming out during my time at UL, “but that’s just a theory, a game theory!” Thanks for reading and in the words of William Afton “I always come back.”