Five Nights At Freddy’s is a beloved multimedia franchise centered around the series of indie horror games by Scott Cawthon. The movie adaptation was announced way back in 2015, and had quite a journey before finally making its way to the big screen on October 27th of this year.

 It’s no secret that the movie is catered to fans for its complex lore, focusing less on horror and jumpscares, making it controversial as a standalone film with critics. But is it really anything to talk about?

Five Nights at Freddy’s stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, who gets a job as a night security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a once beloved Chuck-E-Cheese style restaurant with a band of animatronic characters and a dark history. The movie’s source material is infamous for its confusing and complicated timeline that’s taken years to uncover, making the movie more of a loose adaptation.

First off, the animatronics in the movie look incredible. The use of practical effects rather than CGI was a great choice.

Many critics (and annoying people on the internet in general) have complained about one scene in particular, that showcases the animatronics building a pillow fort with Mike’s younger sister, Abby. The scene was criticized for being cheesy and not showcasing the violent nature of the animatronics. However, one detail that a lot of people seem to forget is that they are meant to behave fine around children, and also more obviously they ARE the souls of children. There were plenty of gory and dark scenes throughout the movie for me, and I actually enjoyed the focus on lore and character building. I also want people to keep in mind the film is rated PG-13, and had to tone down some of the darker aspects to perform well at the box office.

Onto some negatives of the film, the character of Michael Afton does not seem to exist within this universe, with his alias Mike Schmidt being his real name. The role of Afton’s child is instead taken by Vanessa. It does work, but there was a missed opportunity to have a lot more of an impactful reveal.

Overall, Five Nights At Freddy’s was a great adaptation for longtime fans and brought in many new faces as well. I had a blast watching it with my friends and I highly recommend it.