If you are familiar with the names Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Freddy Fazbear from the video game “Five Nights at Freddy’s” (FNAF) which spawned several games in the 2010s, then you will love the live action adaptation of the same name.

This review will contain mild spoilers.

The movie is about Mike Schmidt, a young man who has to provide for his sister Abby after their mother died and the father walked out on the family. After Mike is fired from his job at the mall, he meets Steve Raglan, who gives him a position to work at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Mike is apprehensive at first, but he later accepts the job in order to provide for his sister so she doesn’t get handed over to their greedy aunt, Jane.

As Mike starts his new job, he meets a police officer named Vanessa, who, as the movie goes one, reveals that the pizza arcade’s animatronics are actually possessed by the ghosts of dead children who went missing years ago.

After watching this movie, all I can say is that the only saving part of it is Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt. He knows when to be funny in the movie, like when Mike is given a death glare by Freddy Fazbear after he thought that the animatronic kidnapped his sister Abby. When he thinks that the animatronics are someone pulling a prank, he begins yelling out for the person to reveal themselves.

Hutcherson also knows when to be serious during the parts of the film that are sad or scary, like when Mike gets flashbacks about his brother being kidnapped and having to witness the whole thing as a child, leaving him with PTSD.

I also like Piper Rubio as Mike’s sister Abby. She does a good job of playing a lonely and tormented child who is suffering without parents but becomes brave later on in the movie as she and her brother fight against the main villain.

Additionally, Matthew Lillard also does a great job as Steve Raglan. At first, we are led to believe that he is one of the good guys who helps out Mike until it is revealed that he has much more sinister intentions at the end. If you have ever played the games, you’ll know what I mean.

As much as I had a good time during the movie, most of it was underwhelming because the animatronics were underused the most in the film. I wish we could have seen more of them in action. I also wish we could have seen Josh Hutcherson interact with Matthew Lillard’s character more in the movie, as I felt that Steve Raglan was underused as well. 

As this review comes to an end, and while I have never played FNAF but only watched cutscenes on YouTube, this film was fun in many ways. Not only will you see the main animatronics from the game, but there are also hidden Easter eggs from other characters like Balloon Boy and Chica’s magic rainbow.