Five Nights at Freddy's Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

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Written by: Scott Cawthon (based on the video game series "Five Nights at Freddy's" by), Scott Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback & Emma Tammi  (screenplay by), Scott Cawthon and Chris Lee Hill & Tyler MacIntyre (screen story by)
Directed by: Emma Tammi
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Matthew Lillard, Mary Stuart Masterson
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
A troubled security guard begins working at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. During his first night on the job, he realizes that the night shift won't be so easy. Soon he will discover what actually happened at Freddy's.

Verdict
The foundation for this movie is shaky at best. So little of it makes sense. With many scenes I thought, this is just not how a human would react in this situation. It doesn't do horror all that well either. Any set up and payoff  is very telegraphed. It captures the essence of the games, but it doesn't do well at translating it to film.
Skip it.

Review
While I'm sure Willy's Wonderland was inspired by the video game Five Nights at Freddy's, it also does a better job adapting the content to cinema.

This movie nearly follows a horror movie checklist. The first scene is a terrified security guard entrapped by an unseen entity. Then we skip to Mike (Josh Hutcherson) raising his sister Abby (Piper Rubio), though we get pretty far into the movie before this explains that's his sister. I assumed it was his daughter, and it seems easier to make her his daughter. Mike can't keep a job, and his last option is a night security guard at an abandoned pizza place.

Josh Hutcherson plays Mike

The pizza place is more horror than abandoned restaurant. It's creepy, and the job placement guy seems rather suspicious. It seems like a setup. What kind of abandoned pizza place even needs security? Why does the place only need security at night? Why would this place need security at all even when it was running? It's a pizza place. Is the proprietary animatronic technology that valuable? You can't ask too many questions in this movie, because none of it makes sense.

The animatronic characters: Bonnie, Freddy, Chica

Mike's brother was abducted when they were kids, and he's also dealing with a potential custody battle. He has a baby sitter willing to work all hours of the day. I wondered why she worked for free, but that's answered just as you're asking that question.

One of the craziest things is that when Mike realizes the animatronic animals seem real and are possessed by ghosts, he decides to help them build a fort to make Abby happy. It makes no sense. Since his sister can communicate with ghosts, Mike's cool with it hoping that his sister can communicate with his abducted brother through the ghosts at this restaurant.

Mike also runs into a cop that visits him while he guards this place. At no point did she seem like a cop as she spends way too much time at Freddy's. It's clear from the beginning she knows more than she's letting on.

This movie takes giant leaps in logic. We get a bunch of reveals at the end. I hesitate to call them big, because by that point, who really cares. This throws a lot at you, tripping over a bunch of horror tropes. I was checking to see how much time was left and I checked often.