Preamble

The concept of a movie based on FNAF has been around since the games became the biggest thing of the mid 2010s. Even the creator himself hinted at the idea of a FNAF movie coming out, but sadly it didn’t happen and what we got was a script that was rewritten for the Banana Splits in 2019 which ended up being terrible.

It hasn’t been confirmed, but its pretty much the conclusion when it does come forward. And then 5 years of silence because FNAF ended up dying as a franchise and the creator being cancelled and having to retire for the crime of being a Straight White Christian male.

Then on June 27 this year Universal pictures released the first trailer of the FNAF movie.

From the time until the release I haven’t seen much fuss about this film. Maybe everyone was busy with Oppenheimer, Barbie, and the new Napoleon movie.

I only knew about this film the day before release. So I decided that why not see this since I haven’t seen a new film since Minions 2.

Review of the plot (warning spoilers)

The movie begins with a security guard escaping from a animatronic and the first thing he does is escape from the security office and try to reach the exit building. The problem is that the door covered in chairs barley seems to fall apart and he decides that he didn’t check to see the keys were on him since all the exits were locked.

Of course Foxy catches him and is put in the Freddy suit which in my opinion is only made to look edgy with all the blades n sheeit, but in the games they would just jumpscare you and crush your body into a suit as you were already dead.

The opening credits happen and the 8bit stuff is kinda cool since the series has put a lot of emphasis on the arcade minigames in the games and lore.

And we reach to our protagonist who is Mike Schmidt (the first security) guard. Written as every security guard character ever as some mentally unstable man who has paranoia and has a history of not being able to find a job while also having a addiction to pills.

Like he beats up a father in front of his son in the fountain and they obviously make him say its a misunderstanding. He then goes to the employment office as the man gives him a dead end job of working Night Shift at Freddy Fazbears Pizza which he doesn’t accept because he can’t do Nightshift.

His binges make him have a dream of his brother being kidnapped as a child and after the state threatens to take away Abby (Mikes Sister) because she is a introverted kid who likes to draw in current year he decides to apply for the job as security guard.

The rest of the movie goes as the usuals format of a FNAF game. Mike goes through each night with the animatronics getting more with each passing night and during the day he has to deal with the history of the FNAF lore and his relationship with his little sister.

Mike uses his job to keep going through his flashback of his brothers kidnapping trying to use the 5 dead children to find clues to who took him.

The dead souls are different from the whole franchise as in they have a moral compass of protecting Abby while attacking the people who harm her and are friendly…. Until she gets into an accident and the animatronics change their minds and seek to make her into them and Mike goes to rescue her. All this because Vanessa fucked it up because of her estranged father being the one to kidnap Mikes brother.

After getting closure he sprungs into action to save his sister from William Afton who controls the souls with the drawings on the wall. Abby’s drawing skills come in handy as she writes the truth of what happened and the rest is history as William becomes springtrap.

Mike gets to keep his sister and Vanessa gets revenge on her father

Review of the film overall

The film is good visually as the sets feel legit and the atmosphere does fit well for the setting of the pizzeria.

The animatronics are accurate and move and feel like they are robots and not like people in suits or full CGI.

The film also is right on with the lore of the series with William Afton, the history of the pizzeria, and the fact that the pizzeria itself is abandoned. although they decided to have no phone guy in the movie if you count the guy from the employment office and the children can somehow travel outside their suits which isn’t explained.

characters

Mike Schmidt

In the film Mike goes through hell and back in his pursuit of finding closure of his brothers death and trying to keep his relationship with his younger sister at the same time. He already lost his only brother so he tries to keep what he has with his younger sister even if he ended up trying to use her to find the person who did it and become the hero in the end.

In the end he does learn that he can’t keep trying to go back to the past thinking he can change the outcome and accepts that his brother died long ago along with needing to be there for his sister in the present. Which in the end of the film he’s seen happy that his sister is no longer an introvert and is social now.

He represents the struggling Millennial male in modern times. As in that a bunch of men are struggling adults who have pills or other problems that all reflect on something that happened to them in their youth that they can’t escape from and can’t seem to find the help they need to resolve or move on.

Vanessa Shelly

In the beginning of the film she starts as someone who has a strange knowledge of the history of the Pizzeria that in my opinion is way to much and not enough buildup for the climax. She also knows that William was the guy the whole time and decides to do nothing about it until Abby is in danger of dying from him.

Her shame of being the daughter to William comes fourth in the climax as she wants to kill him to save Abby, but couldn’t have the will to shoot him to death and almost dies from a stab wound.

Abby Schmidt

Abby is the usual introverted kid who likes to draw and not socialize with her peers which is the Bain of the Karen’s who work in child services who want to send her away to a relative that she hates staying with.

In the course of the film Abby does begin to shed from her introverted ways as the dead children take a liking to her and become her only friends in the movie.

Nothing more to say in the sequel its going to continue the trope.

Conclusion

The movie in general is a solid film in terms of quality and performance. It may not be a big giant budget film that everyone was expecting from the golden ages, but it works and it is a good movie and a potential series like with the Sonic movies.

I am lowkey looking forward to what they will do with the sequel.

4/5