Five Nights at Freddy’s 4K Review (Universal/Blumhouse)

Five Nights at Freddy’s is a 2023 supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Emma Tammi (The Wind, Into the Dark, Fair Chase, and The Left Right Game). It was co-written by Scott Cawthon (Five Nights at Freddy’s videogames, BBJ’s, and Iffermoon) and Seth Cuddeback (Fades with Age and Death Ranch). It was produced by Jason Blum (Halloween franchise, Insidious franchise, M3gan, The Black Phone, The Invisible Man, Freaky, The Hunt, Glass, MA, The Craft: Legacy, Happy Death Day franchise, and Upgrade). It’s based on the video game series of the same name created by Scott Cawthon. The budget was $20 million and it grossed $294.6 million worldwide at the box office!!!!

At Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, an abandoned pizzeria and family entertainment center that was once successful. Mall security guard Mike Schmidt (played by: Josh Hutcherson from The Hunger Games franchise, The Beekeeper, Ultraman, Detention, and Red Dawn) is fired for assaulting a negligent father whom he mistook for a kidnapper. Mike’s career counselor Steve Raglan (played by: Matthew Lillard from Scream, SLC Punk, Scooby Doo franchise, Ghoulies go to College, Serial Mom, Hackers, She’s All That, and Thir13en Ghosts) offers him a job as a night guard at Freddy’s. Though initially reluctant, Mike accepts after social services threaten to take custody of his younger sister Abby (played by: Piper Rubio from For All Mankind) and pass her to their estranged aunt Jane (played by: Mary Stuart Masterson from Some Kind of Wonderful, Benny & Joon, Bad Girls, The Stepford Wives, At Close Range, Chances Are, and Bed of Roses). She only desires the custody’s monthly payments. During his first night there, Mike falls asleep and he has a nightmare about the kidnapping of his little brother Garrett (played by: Lucas Grant from The Patient). He runs into the five children who witnessed the heinous crime. The next day, Jane hires a gang of vandals which includes Abby’s babysitter Max (played by: Kat Conner Sterling from The Gifted) and they are led by Jeff (played by: David Lind from Shameless and Fargo) to destroy the restaurant in order to get Mike fired to get Jane’s custody of Abby finalized. During Mike’s shift that night, he meets police officer Vanessa Shelly (played by: Elizabeth Lail from Mack & Rita, You, Once Upon a Time, Countdown, and Dead of Summer), who explains that Freddy’s closed during the 1980s after five children were murdered there. The suspect and the victims’ bodies were never found. The vandals break in when Mike ends his shift, but the restaurant’s animatronic mascots which includes Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Mr. Cupcake murder the entire group. Max’s disappearance forces Mike to bring Abby along on his next shift, in which the animatronics befriend Abby and Mike discovers that the animatronics are possessed by the amnesiac ghosts of the missing children, whose leader consistently mentions a “yellow rabbit”. Vanessa  reveals that she is the daughter of William Afton, the serial killer who kidnapped and murdered the five children and Garrett. Mike must get through this nightmare so I can take care of his younger sister before Jane takes control of everything!!!!

Five Nights at Freddy’s took a minute to develop into a full length feature. The Banana Splits and Willy’s Wonderland  both didn’t waste no time and took advantage of this video game’s popularity turning their projects into robot horror before this one. Five Nights at Freddy’s is unfortunately a victim of the rating game, it tried too hard to be readily available for everyone which includes younger kids. It should have been Rated R rather than it’s watered down PG-13. Too many horror movies do this because they are scared that are going to flop in theaters. The ironic thing about this situation was, it premiered on Peacock the same day as it hit the big screen so it already risked that scenario despite it’s rating. As you can see, their gamble payed off since it did great at the box office. I just wish that they would do an additional R cut for the home video market because it really hurt this production for what it could have been. Don’t get me wrong, Five Nights at Freddy’s is still decent but it has so much more potential to it. The script covers all the basics and what you would expect from the original video games. Josh Hutcherson makes a good lead here. I like his characters motivation in this. Elizabeth Lail provides some nice eye candy and she’s really good in her role as the cop that’s willing to help this struggling guy. Veteran actress Mary Stuart Masterson steps into unfamiliar territory as the villain. I’ve always been a huge fan of her especially her earlier roles back in the day. She’s great as the greedy awful aunt that only cares about money. I was happy to see actor Matthew Lillard return to the horror genre with Five Nights at Freddy’s. He has an interesting small role for this robotics nightmare. The cast elevates this film and helps a little with it’s family friendly rating. There’s some violence here, just not enough especially compared to it’s original source material. It has some decent twists and turns towards the finale. I thought Five Nights at Freddy’s was entertaining enough and I would definitely check it out again in the future so it does have some replay value to it.

Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from Universal Pictures! This 2160p transfer with HDR10 looks amazing in 4K. The entire production has a huge quality boost here. The fx, cinematography, production design, and locations shine here. It has a few different audio options which includes English: Dolby Atmos, English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1, and French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1 on the UHD. It has English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles. Let’s talk about the special features. ” Five Nights at Freddy’s: From Game to Big Screen” is a little over 7 minutes. This making of Five Night’s at Freddy’s has interviews with director Emma Tammi, Producer Jason Blum, Josh Hutcherson, Mathew Lillard, and others. This is quick overview of the horror video game movie production. “Killer Animatronics” is almost 6 minutes. It has interviews with Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Maddock, Robert Bennett, and others. They chat about the killer robots for Five Night’s at Freddy’s. It goes behind the scenes with the actors that played the robots. They show the practical fx used here rather than the typical CGI. “Five Nights in Three Dimensions” is a little over 4 minutes. It interviews with the same people as the other extras on here. They discuss the locations and production design for the horror film. This Night Shift edition includes a slipcover, a digital code, and a blu ray copy of the release. It’s streaming on Peacock if you are curious. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!