I teach middle school and discussions of FNAF is pretty common among kids that age. It's not surprising the movie aimed younger than people who remember the first one coming out
This movie is an enigma. I’m a casual fan of the games and know the early lore stuff (before Sister Location). The movie doesn’t land on the scare-factor for almost all of the movie. The movie also made bizarre both narrative and character choices. As soon as Matthew Lillard was cast, EVERY fan who he was gonna play. We didn’t even need a name. That said, I enjoyed watching this movie! The references, the production design, Josh Hutchison and his character I was surprised how much depth they gave him (before it became too much), and I liked the score. It does lack that sense of dread and the script absolutely should have tightened/changed some things, but I can’t deny that I had a blast watching it, even if I can’t call it a “good movie”. Middle of the road overall. Here’s hoping they improve on the sequel
I substitute in elementary classes and one class had a “five nights at Freddy’s movie countdown” on the board if that gives you an idea of the audience.
As a fan of FNaF and yours, I think this review is very fair, I was really curious as to how someone who had no clue about Five Nights would feel about it. I loved it but it definitely has it's flaws and is way too slow when you aren't deep into the lorrrrrreeee of this series.
Yup Scott Cawthon and Blum House said that this movie is targeted toward fnaf fans. I notice critics hate this movie due to the flaws but for most fnaf fans, they were satisfied with the movie, it's lore and Easter eggs.
The movie is neither slow or fast. It's pacing is all over the place. Everything is kind of happening at a natural pace, and then they speed through the twist and the ending in 15 minutes.
@@thenameless7810It's sad to rely on fan service to make a movie successful, it had potential to be more but failed in doing so. The 2nd part of the movie is all over the place and a lot of issues/themes haven't had any answers, it had a lot of potential to do something good for everyone but only a part of the viewers will love it because of its flaws.
See I respect this comment I’m looking for an honest review to see if I should wait for peacock but keep coming across the typical fan fic biased BS type mfs that call it a “masterpiece” or that it’s perfect when I know for fact it’s not as few movies are and immediately follow with “im a die hard fan” like it’s like saying “I THINK ITS GOOD BUT ITS BECAUSE I LOVE ANYTHING FNAF” but someone like this I can respect honest even as a fan
I am a huge FNAF fan.... I really really liked it. I think its a semi watchable kids/tween movie. Not a whole lot here for general movie goers, .... or normal adults really..... But I really really enjoyed myself.
I am a fan of FNAF and I liked parts of the movie and the references/EE's, but I do feel like it did miss the mark in more ways than it hit it. I'd say 5/10 for me. One thing I do know is Scott does like to make the fans happy and if people voice what they didn't like, he will most likely correct that, which could make the next movie awesome.
I had a completely different experience in my theater. The audience was cheering and claping the whole way through, and you could tell everyone enjoyed the movie.
I believe the reason FNAF is so popular is because of the deep and convoluted lore. As far as I’m aware the games don’t actually explain the backstory and it’s up to theorists to figure out what exactly is the story behind the FNAF universe. You’d be forgiven for having no idea why people are into FNAF because I guess you could call me a fan, but even I don’t understand why it’s so appealing.
I think one of the reasons why it was appealing was probably the setting and kinda how unique the game was at the time. Im pretty sure there were games before it that used the whole “something from childhood turn scary” trope but with FNAF it took off due to the idea of working at a Children’s pizza restaurant and big threat being the Chuck E Cheese style animatronic mascots pursuing the player. I think another reason and probably the main one was the huge boost of popularity it got from UA-camrs doing Let’s Plays of it which is how it got a huge child audience, along with the design of the characters being child friendly mascots on the surface.
I’m very curious to see what the second weekend drop for the film is going to be between the bad reviews, the day-and-date Peacock release strategy (which this film pretty much confirms that Universal seems to only be using for films they don’t have as much faith in), and also the fact that it only has about 5 days of relevancy before the Halloween season is over.
How many did for Halloween kills and Halloween ends and while a lot of people don’t like those two films they did really fucking well at the box office so I don’t think universal’s doing that because they don’t have faith in it because let’s be honest movie theaters unfortunately are dying off
@@Ghost_-nz5dyBoth of those films tanked in their second weekend and didn’t recover (and also lost Universal a lot of money despite their low budgets because they had to pay out everyone that had a backend deal as if the films were monster hits in order to do the day-and-date release model). Also, the other studios that have tried the day-and-date release strategy have abandoned it because it’s not a financially sustainable model. Universal is the only studio still doing this model because they’re desperate to get more people to sign up for Peacock by any means necessary.
I was around 12/13 when the first few games released, the first 4 games released over 2 years, and I was in the prime demographic for them. However, I've always hated horror and they freaked me out. The film is rated 15 in the UK, which is a middle ground that doesn't exist in the US. Some American PG-13 films are 15 rated here and many R rated films are too, so I had no real gage of what would be in the film. You also can get ID checked at cinemas for 15 rated films, so there weren't kids at my screening. I was genuinely frightened by quite a few of the sequences with the animatronics (which I feel there was the perfect amount of) and I preferred the family drama stuff. I definitely didn't think it was boring. I did call the twist with William Afton and Vanessa immediately and when he showed up in the Springtrap costume, I was laughing hopefully with it more than at. Overall, while I definitely understand why people don't like it, horror fans especially, I thought it was decent enough, solid 3/5.
I understand your problems and I even share those issues, but as a massive long-term fan, I had an absolute blast. I think the fans are really going to push this movie farther than people expect.
Glad you liked it. I'd give it a 6/10, because of the slow pacing, confusing plot at times, and lack of scares. The animatronics were incredible, acting pretty decent, and set design looked great.
I was also unfamiliar with the property but I landed a little differently. I agree that the hunt and kill scenes were far less prevalent than I was expecting but the movie picked up for me when it fully committed to the mystery (which I also acknowledge was fully telegraphed from the casting). Maybe it is because I am a Minnesota boy and the similarities between this mystery and the Jacob Wetterling case kept me intrigued. I also grew up with Showbiz as my birthday party hub and liked the atmosphere the film delivered. A not great film for this newcomer but purely serviceable. To your point though, fans of the game in my screen complained after about the lack of scares and the why it cherry-picked what it wanted to from the games making it a sprt of poor adaptation.
So here’s the thing, a lot of the FNaf lore is about family drama. It’s not just about the killer animatronics, that’s just the gameplay side. In fact Fnaf 1-7 (Which I like to refer to as season 1) is basically about the main killers son trying to undo everything his father had caused.
@@meciocio Look if you didn’t like the movie that’s fine. I wasn’t trying to change Dans opinion about the movie, I was just trying to explain to him why it didn’t completely focus on the animatronics and instead on the family drama. Also no the movie wasn’t sh*t. Me and a majority of the FNaF fan base loved it and thought it was a great movie.
@@spirituallyconscious7774 Hey if you didn’t like the movie that’s fine. That’s why I like to say a majority of the fandom loved it and not all of the fandom. We all have different opinions!
"For the fans" is the laziest of lazy excuses anyone can come up with to defend a bad product. It is just an open admittance that it is a bad product sugar coated by fanservice pandering.
My two twenty something daughters watched it last night and texted that they really liked it. One is deep in the lore and the other isn’t into FNAF at all. I have no interest whatsoever but my teen daughter is going with her friends as a whole “event”. This could be a sleeper box office hit driven by the young folks.
My daughter and I have been heavy into the games, books and the lore for years. This movie was a dream come true for us. EDIT: Oh and the FNAF games are all about family drama. It would be weird if the movie wasn't like this.
The game was always just babys first jump scare, like all things though - a fairly hardcore fanbase formed around it. I think what differentiates FNAF from other niche IPs is that there was a very hot minute (probably still somewhat ongoing) where a whole industry popped up around the game & its imitations, slenderman etc. I'd say i'll be skipping it, but I was never gonna be bothering with it in all honesty, just curious what dan thought of it lol.
Disappointed this did not turn out better. Just because it's a kids movie doesn't mean they should have to settle for mid. Maybe the next one will be better
As someone whos been a fan of the series for about as long as its been around, I also found this movie to be not very great at representing the series properly. I didn't really want a whole bunch of blood tbh but I feel like this was way out of line from what I expected a pg13 adaptation of this franchise to be. The family drama has nothing to do with the series as far as I know, and my biggest gripe was that there wasn't a whole lot of focus on the night shift parts, which is what the entire games are about. I feel like taking the first game and making a movie out of the five nights and the troubles that come when playing the game while just getting through it by the skin of your teeth would have worked a lot better. I would have loved to see a scene where foxy comes out of pirate cove and Mike just barely gets the door down out of panic about what to do. Also, I don't think the toredore march was played even once throughout the entire movie. Thats essentially the theme song of the series, how could that be left out? They did put the living tombstone song in the credits though so that was pretty good I guess
I’m 25 & seen it with my two younger brothers. My 20 yr old brother played the games as a lil kid & said he really liked it. My 10 yr old brother who watches them on UA-cam said it was awesome! I thought it was alright lol.
Before I watch this video. I've only experienced the franchise through Markiplier and MatPat over the years and I also read the first book. I'm familiar with the lore but not first hand. I have mixed feelings about this movie. It looked great and really kept close with the source material, but it struggled with tone, genre, the bad dialogue and line deliveries. Now that I think about it, they really focused on Mike too much. They should have kept his past for the 2nd movie kinda like how the 2nd game expands on the more beyond the gameplay. Kinda like the Sonic movie, I MIGHT watch a sequel. I'm not disappointed, but not super impressed. The PG-13 hurt the movie. Anyone who has seen the gameplay is there to be terrified. Maybe movie 1 doesn't have to have too much gore, but it failed to be scary in any respect... it was also way too wholesome at times... Was weird.
BILLY BOB!!! I had no idea he was part of a larger ensemble. I just remember "Billy Bob's" was the place I used to go to as a kid. That's cool you're familiar with it too.
It's like we were watching two different films. Not catering to existing horror audiences is easily it's biggest strength. Instead of being a generic slasher, it's instead a psychological horror film that isn't cliche. The struggles of the main character is actually a good plot, which is very rare in horror. He's a loser millennial who deals with substance addiction issues because he relives the day he lost his younger brother over and over hoping to find some subconscious clue. Meanwhile, he's the guardian of his younger sister who his aunt is trying to steal custody of. Plus, no comments about the art direction? Even if you hate the plot and premise, the cool shots of the dilapidated arcade and the non-CGI puppets alone make it worth watching. It has been a long time since a medium to low budget film has done art direction this well.
It’s crazy seeing this series finally getting the movie released I remember I was in 7th grade when the first game came out. Went with some friends to see the movie and we all enjoyed it. The one friend in our group that didn’t follow the lore and games as much I think liked it the most. While I think the film can be a bit boring at times overall I thought it was pretty good. It was honestly better than I was expecting. I wasn’t going in thinking it would be like Willy’s Wonderland. It was fun seeing the Easter eggs and one cameo that I knew. As for lore from games I didn’t mind some things being changed I understand adaptations need to change things as not everything works in a different format. My father took my two brothers to see the film and they all really liked it. My dad only knows the basics but he thought they did a really good job. I’d give the film a 7/10 I do hope that they make a sequel and improve on the pacing as it’s really my only complaint. Though the fort building scene was a little weird. I know people have an issue with this being a PG-13 film instead of R but I honestly think that’s a stupid reason. I don’t get people’s obsession with gore and swearing none of that determines if a film is good or bad and they don’t belong in every fill. Honestly I thought the gore in this film was good enough. They showed more than I was expecting them to. The mind I think comes up with better horror than what they tend to show on screen anyway. Maybe in the sequels they can show more as it will be more fitting with Springtrap in it. This film I don’t really think a lot of gore was necessary it’s not that kinda film as it’s not a slasher or torture porn movie.
For a FNAF fan this probably will be 7/10 or 8/10 but for average viewer it's probably 5 or even 4 in my opinion The film didn't disappointed me but i was expecting more from it, but i can clearly see a normal non fnaf viewer being bored out his mind, the games while being technically Horror games and they are to some degree but the franchise in it's heart is a murder mystery spanning decades of lore and multiple continuity The film i can best way describe it captured FNAF's lore feeling in some aspects, and if someone is more interested in the more story depths either go to FNAF Game theory Playlist or read the books starting with the first trilogy of books they are probably the best way to het into fnaf
The things is that this is not a movie for the game... It's a movie for the UA-camrs, the reason the demographic was kids was cuz they watch compilations of UA-camrs playing this, making jokes, getting scared, it's almost like a "are you afraid of the dark" movie, it's only for fans of the phenomenon, so, no it's not a good movie, but it's really great FNAF addition
I mean... When I first saw the movie on a Saturday I had very weird expectations going into it because the "FNAF" movie was first announced back in April of 2015 and up until now it had been stuck in developmental hell with Scott not being completely satisfied with movie scripts and the movie passed on to different directors like Gil Kenan and Chris Columbus and then the movie got temporarily canceled and went from Warner Bros. to Blumhouse Productions and Emma Tammi got signed on to direct it... And after I finally saw the movie I said, "it was awesome and it was really amazing and really enjoyable the whole way through from the very opening to the very end of the movie… I’m so happy with what we ended up getting… I was so happy that I even talked a little bit with some random strangers in the hallway who saw the movie and who were fans of FNAF…," but after a while I think my feelings and excitement were a bit misconstrued and over the top and I think I was so happy because the movie actually had enjoyable things and things to be happy about and wasn't a *complete* failure with nothing enjoyable or fun about it because it easily could've been just that... But..., the movie definitely has its *major* problems and issues and things that don't make any sense at all and there is clearly a lack of subtly within the script with the movie over explaining things and not leaving the audience with *any* burning questions and there are weird placements for certain scenes like the "Fort Scene" within the movie and characters that are just generically evil and cruel just for the sake of it (Aunt Jan and almost all of her cronies besides Max and Doug...) and characters that are stereotypical (Vanessa being the stereotypical “cop who is cryptic and knows too much”...) and the movie not being faithful at all to the whole "Afton Family" storyline from the original games by not having Mike Schmidt be Michael Afton and having Vanessa be William Afton's *only* child in the movie's universe and Matthew Lillard being completely underutilized as Steve Raglan/William Afton...
I wasn't sure if it was because I don't know the lore or because of the script, but I was bored. It needed more action if it wasn't going to show the gore. People were literally talking on their phone in my theater. As a Gen Xer, it was nice seeing Mary Stuart Masterson and Shaggy/Stu Lillard on the big screen again.
From what I heard this movie is told different than the lore they probably can't make it into the movie because it's to dark for kids and the fnaf movie would have to be r rated
My only experience with FNAF is watching some people play it and the occasional lore theory video, but I really don't see how you make a good movie with it. The games (largely) involve you staying in one spot, flipping switches, and checking cameras to keep the animatronics away. And for some reason the character does this multiple nights while the authorities don't bulldoze the place. The mostly unexplained lore is the most interesting part of the franchise but even cobbled together I don't think it would make a good film. Each of these games could maybe work as 10-20 minute short film or like an episode of the old Goosebumps show, but I don't think they have enough meat or a sturdy enough structure to work as a full film.
Aww. I am going to go catch this one tomorrow in my local market, and I'm looking forward to it, but my expectations are now tempered somewhat by your review.
If you go in with an open mind, and you love FNAF, you will enjoy it. My daughter and her friend had a blast. It's not a perfect film, and there is some pacing challenges, but if you know anything about the game in the lore, you'll definitely get enough out of it to have a fantastic time
@@YakAttack915 Had a good time! The script could have used just one more pass, and there were definitely a few pacing problems, but it was definitely a fun time!
My problem is that Mike didn’t have much of a connection with the killer. Where the movie couldn’t deliver in scares it could of made up in emotion. They should’ve made William mikes father. Take Vanessa out cause the only reason she was there was to reference the most recent games. And everything else was the same problems that people had with security breach in terms of story.
Okay, so, I've only ever played Pizzeria Simulator (and explicitly avoided contact with the animatronics because I *DO NOT* like horror), but I've also been invested in the lore since MatPat's very first theory, so I came into the movie with certain expectations, especially with it being connected to Blumhouse - a film company I connect to the concepts of "wanton slaughter" and "horror for the sake of horror." So, I was rather surprised by how comparatively tame it was, but that is what made the movie enjoyable for me. The worst part was that one character getting chomped in half, but it was tastefully done (or, at least as tasteful as something like that can be, and I'm fairly sure that's a compromise Scott had to make). Now, I'm not going to go into every single detail that I liked or disliked (I'd make my own video in that case), but I can understand why horror fans might balk at a movie like this. It's a movie for fans, both young and old, and it does a good job of grounding the human characters in reality while still allowing for the supernatural element to take lead when it needs to. I wholly do not expect non-fans of the franchise to like it (heck, just need to read the RT garbage to notice that), but I do think it's a decent film nonetheless. Nothing groundbreaking, but then it wasn't trying to do that, and instead did the job it was designed to do.
As someone who is a diehard fan of Fnaf, i really enjoyed this movie. But i can also see where you're coming from with your points Dan. I kinda wish we had more Matthew Lillard and a little less dream stuff. The way the mo ie is written does feel a bit like the books the creator has written. He tends to do a lot of family drama stuff in them and i personally didnt. While im disappointed you didnt enjoy it as much i did, i enjoy the hell out of your videos and I hope a potential sequel can bring you around 😁
You are right, Dan. You shouldn't get any blowback on your opinion. The consensus is that it is indeed slow and boring. This movie should've been what audiences were expecting. A jump scare laded fun movie with a wink at the audience. Good review.👍
I absolutely loved it, I‘m an og fan tho so maybe it hits harder for me. However, I went with a friend who didn‘t know anything of lore, he liked it and gabe it a strong 7/10. Personally, I give it a well-deserved 9/10
What is implied is more scarier than what is shown These are the rules that Five Nights At Freddy's has followed ever since 2014 When the first game released.
I'll be seeing this one soon but it's unfortunate that it didn't impress as I find your taste in movies to generally be spot on. At least we still have *Willy's Wonderland* as I rather enjoyed that movie's embrace of the silliness and sounds like it certainly went harder than FNAF did. Aw well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One thing everyone makes mistake. Is not listening. They legit said. Hey this movie is for fans and fans would love it. They actually said it interviews. Not their fault ppl who aren't into it. Dont get it and all. For the fans. Ppl need to start listen more.
To be honest i don't think that the story is necessarily supposed to make sense in this first movie. I mean just like the first game there was very little to no story whatsoever. I think the story will be flashed out more ans stat to make sense in the sequel. Also ive seen alot of mixed reviews on this movie. Ive heard some people who are non fans say they like this movie and ive also heard others who are non fans say they don't like this movie. It'll ultimately come down to boxoffice numbers. But i do know one thing Mattew Lillard said he signed a 3 movie deal for FNAF. So if that's any indication we might be getting more.
The story does make sense in reference to the games. But yes, this is a very hard movie to understand for someone who doesn't know the lore from the games.
I've played the first Five Nights at Freddy's game and also watched a streamer play most of the other entries, so I'd say I'm a fan but not a super lore-intensive fan. My group and I all had similar thoughts to yours Dan, the movie was very slow, not that scary, and I really wish they had cut back on the family drama plotline. So many implausible things too, and I found the cop character to be ridiculous. The hunt sequence was fun, but I really wanted more killer animatronics running around and maybe have them not go for trying to humanize them in the middle of the film. I assume there will be a sequel, so I'd hope there's maybe more animatronics and scares and less outside character plots that (come on) no one really cares about.
The game was alrteqady only jumpscares without substance. A typ[ical streamer game where you watch streamers jumping when something happens in the game.
I was so excited to see this movie and im a huge fan, but i have pretty muxh the same opinions as you on the movie. I wanted to like this movie so bad but its just not a good screenplay at all. I still like Visuals though
This makes me nervous. My gf is a huge fan snd she put me on to them. She hasn’t seen a single thing about it to not ruin anything for her. I really hope she likes it even if I don’t. I have my showing Saturday, pray for me lmao
hmm yeah i think the core mystery and ultimate "reveal" is the weakest part of the film for me. I was thinking to myself why this wasn't a found footage style film while watching with more focus on mystery of the old pizzeria. For me it lands on "it's fine", i didn't mind the family drama stuff
Like the reveal of the career coach being the murderer makes absolutely no sense. I don’t care about the damn lore. This guy has not been in the movie for an hour and a half and now you’re just going to bring him OUT OF NOWHERE and try to convince me this is the main villain of the movie?
I watched this movie in a theater full of people I'd call the "target audience" - people that played the games and understood the lore. Outside of the one "reveal" (that you could see coming a mile away if you knew the lore), it was pin drop silent. It was awful. Who was this movie for - the people who knew the lore that would go into a movie that plays very fast and loose with the lore, or the people who didn't know the lore and had to go through a lot of MASSIVE suspensions of disbelief?
Josh Hutcherson's flashback dream sequences of a childhood incident involving his little brother turned out to be the most boring part of the movie for me. It was an underdeveloped backstory.
Another film with a very similar premise is “Willy’s Wonderland” starring Nic Cage. I may be in the minority, but I actually really enjoyed that version of the killer animatronic concept, even though I’m not really a big horror fan. I will probably pass on FNaF though
Even though I'm a huge FNAF fan that's excited to see this movie. I understand this review I was wondering how general audiences that aren't FNAF fans could think about this movie.
As a fan I love it but for people who never have seen fnaf I can see them not liking it which is far because the movie does have problems like the horror or ran time but I think it's okay not to like it or love it overall good review keep up the good videos
I think movie faithful to games and books, imagine what those animatronics do after performing with band all day an adventure when show biz pizza closes up at night. Have Fun with
I liked the review but just some advice, if you ever want to be "initiated into a fandom" dont go to the film adaptation of that thing. It will always be a disappointment because they are never a good representation of the original thing its adapting. Always go to the original thing first and then see if you like it. In this case if you really want to "see what all the fnaf hype is about" you should just play the OG game first instead of thinking the movie will get you into it, because its not really fair to judge a whole franchise based off its shitty film adaptations. If that was how it worked 99% of all franchises would be ignored.
I first got into Harry Potter, Dune, to some extent Lord of the Rings, and others because of movie adaptations. A great adaptation can bring in a lot of new people
@@DanMurrellMoviesthe scale of world building might be a bit different from those comparisons. Fnaf wasn't designed from the ground up to create an immerse world. It's a rather simple game that over time developed into a convoluted but out of the box story. The fnaf community gave it legs but imo the base can't be compared to the rich literary landscapes of those other fandoms.
I've been saying since this was announced that Willy's Wonderland already exists, and they were never going to top it. They should go animated, if they want to do something interesting with this property.
We need an animated horror movie to be released in theaters, it's been a while for something like that. Last time I saw an animated horror movie was Monster House, that shit scared the crapped outta me
@@800Ms-k6n I agree, 100%. I think the most recent animated horror entry, theater-wise, was probably Wendell & Wild (2022), which was pretty great...but there aren't near enough of that sort of film being released.
I'm exactly like Dan watching this movie last night. I've never played the games, but I'm aware of them. I'm an '80s kid, so I have some nostalgia for these kids play places. I was primed to enjoy this movie. But... meh. It was slow, not funny, uninteresting , not even will creative kills. And yeah, as soon as the cop hinted at who she was, I immediately knew who she was referencing. So no mystery there. The saving grace of this movie are the performances. I liked all the actors well enough. There's a solid 80-minute movie in there, maybe. It's over 100 minutes, though. However, the audience seemed to enjoy it, so maybe I'm too old to get it. To each their own.
Regarding this movie, I am at the level of watching someone else play Five Nights at Freddy's, but have no interest in the movie. Nicholas Cage made a move (well many movies) in 2021, "Willy's Wonderland" with a similar vibe, but I think with more gore and more (perhaps unintentional) laughs. However, even though it was only 2 years ago, I cannot remember much about Willy's Wonderland. I will not be seeing Freddy's.
I watched streamers play FNAF to see them get jump scared which usually involved the player character dying. That’s hard to turn into a movie where the main character presumably survives, or at least gets close.
I'm taking my son and nephew Sunday to see it. They are both under 10 and enjoy FNAF. I have knowledge of it from Game Theory channel. I told my wife to bring her kindle if she goes with us, I'm prepared to suffer
Willies Wonderland, despite being terrible, badly acted, lazily written, and totally nonsensical, is a lot of fun watching Cage kerb(toilet)-stomp an animatronic.
It'll be a watch at home for me. I never played the game. From what I hear, I'm not interested in a family drama. Also, for title sake, is there even Five Nights at Freddy's? It sounded more like One Scary Day at Freddy's, I may have heard wrong.
As far as I know about a game I didn't play, there's a lot of violence (of different kinds) in the lore suffered by children. I can't image a PG13 version of this would not be interesting.
i never played fnaf but im a huge fan of the lore. i was worried that a pg13 rating wouldnt do it justice and sadly i think that is the case. all thats left for me to do is to go home and watch it with ads on peacock
Like as an outsider in regard to this story, the thing I was most frustrated with was Mike himself. Not Josh’s portrayal of him but the fact that the writers gave me little to no reason to be invested in him after the first twenty minutes. I don’t know anything about him other than the fact that he’s sad that his brother died. Like okay great. Can you give me more than that?
@@Stupidmuffin64 That's not the point. The beginning of the movie was set up rather nicely with the flashbacks about the brother, the bitchy aunt, the sister and the desperation Mike has to take a job like this. The problem is in the execution. They keep hammering the point about the brother over and over and over again and it messes with the pace of the movie. It also takes away from what's going on with the animatronics. The fact we don't even get to see a lot of them in action until the third night so we can see the flashback about the brother yet again is a problem. This would be fine if like the games, we had a healthy balance of the animatronics and the struggles Mike is dealing with. But unfortunately we don't. And as a result, it's hard to really be invested in what's happening with Mike because of him going through the same scene over and over again.
@@sophieamandaleitontoomey9343 that is unfortunate. I did not share your experience on this. Felt it had good set up in the first act, fun exploration in the second act, and a very enjoyable conclusion. My only gripe is having to wait for sequels to get more of Lillard as Afton.
Yes and no. I’m not exactly a fan, but I’ve watched some theory videos and playthroughs. Basically, it’s a survival horror game where the player is a security guard stuck in a room of an abandoned pizzeria with a limited power supply. You cannot run or hide. Instead, you have to monitor the movements of the animatronics and learn how to prevent them from killing you. If you die, there’s a jump scare of a screaming animatronic. If you live, there’s a little celebratory “hurray!” That’s it. However, there is a lot of convoluted lore about the two owners of the pizzeria and their respective families. Basically, one of the owners is a child murder. The lore/story is revealed in hidden cutscenes that can be unlocked within the game. The novels (which I’ve not read) elaborate on the lore and family drama.
Dan, you may not know this but in the early days FNAF wasn't made for kids. It was a pretty dark story that sadly got washed down over the years. Hope this helps :)
In my opinion this movie is honestly fucking amazing, Im not that BIG of a fan of fnaf, I've played none of the games but I know most of the lore and this was my first ever horror movie and I loved it! Definitely 10/10 from me!
Well, I was excited to watch it as I enjoyed M3gan quite a bit. However, your review is probably spot on, and this is just a for the fans type of media. Which is kind of what I'm seeing. Also, I'm exactly like you Dan. Long live Showbiz Pizza.
Went to see it with my high school age daughter and her friend. To be honest, though it's not a perfect film, and has to appeal to a larger audience, I think it did more than enough to bring to life the spirit of FNAF, with just enough tension, humor, etc, to make it worth watching in the movie theater. For what most other reviewers have said, if you're not into the game, may not be for you. But if you are one of those who have followed it throughout the years, you'll definitely get enjoyment out of it. The world building and animatronics work very well. Obviously I would have like to see more of that as opposed to the other side of the plot, but if it does well enough and gets a second movie greenlit, I can definitely see it expanding. I know it's supposed to be a trilogy, but we know how often those never materialize. But we had a fantastic time, so if you're on the fence, but you are an FNAF fan, go out and support it at the movie theater. It's a whole different experience as opposed to watching it at home
I teach middle school and discussions of FNAF is pretty common among kids that age. It's not surprising the movie aimed younger than people who remember the first one coming out
So true. My little brother is in 5th grade and he and some of his classmates are looking forward to seeing this movie.
I was around 11 when FNAF first came on the internet and even though I'm now 20 FNAF has somehow been able to stay strong in the internet world.
EXACTLY
The kids I was in the theatre with lost their minds! 😂 It was fun. I also enjoyed the UA-cam cameos.
This movie is an enigma. I’m a casual fan of the games and know the early lore stuff (before Sister Location). The movie doesn’t land on the scare-factor for almost all of the movie. The movie also made bizarre both narrative and character choices. As soon as Matthew Lillard was cast, EVERY fan who he was gonna play. We didn’t even need a name. That said, I enjoyed watching this movie! The references, the production design, Josh Hutchison and his character I was surprised how much depth they gave him (before it became too much), and I liked the score. It does lack that sense of dread and the script absolutely should have tightened/changed some things, but I can’t deny that I had a blast watching it, even if I can’t call it a “good movie”. Middle of the road overall. Here’s hoping they improve on the sequel
I love that Dan mentioned Showbiz Pizza. Likewise, I had a lot of early b-day parties at Showbiz. 😁
For sure. It was the ONLY place to have a birthday party (unless you had a July or August birthday and there was a water park nearby).
I substitute in elementary classes and one class had a “five nights at Freddy’s movie countdown” on the board if that gives you an idea of the audience.
As a fan of FNaF and yours, I think this review is very fair, I was really curious as to how someone who had no clue about Five Nights would feel about it. I loved it but it definitely has it's flaws and is way too slow when you aren't deep into the lorrrrrreeee of this series.
Yup Scott Cawthon and Blum House said that this movie is targeted toward fnaf fans. I notice critics hate this movie due to the flaws but for most fnaf fans, they were satisfied with the movie, it's lore and Easter eggs.
The movie is neither slow or fast. It's pacing is all over the place. Everything is kind of happening at a natural pace, and then they speed through the twist and the ending in 15 minutes.
@@thenameless7810It's sad to rely on fan service to make a movie successful, it had potential to be more but failed in doing so. The 2nd part of the movie is all over the place and a lot of issues/themes haven't had any answers, it had a lot of potential to do something good for everyone but only a part of the viewers will love it because of its flaws.
See I respect this comment I’m looking for an honest review to see if I should wait for peacock but keep coming across the typical fan fic biased BS type mfs that call it a “masterpiece” or that it’s perfect when I know for fact it’s not as few movies are and immediately follow with “im a die hard fan” like it’s like saying “I THINK ITS GOOD BUT ITS BECAUSE I LOVE ANYTHING FNAF” but someone like this I can respect honest even as a fan
Lorrrrrrrrreeeee
Now I want a grumpy old dan series of reviews
I am a huge FNAF fan.... I really really liked it. I think its a semi watchable kids/tween movie. Not a whole lot here for general movie goers, .... or normal adults really..... But I really really enjoyed myself.
I wonder who am i then? i hate most official fnaf games but the movie is 7.5 or 8/10
This movie made me smile & feel things a lot
I am a fan of FNAF and I liked parts of the movie and the references/EE's, but I do feel like it did miss the mark in more ways than it hit it. I'd say 5/10 for me. One thing I do know is Scott does like to make the fans happy and if people voice what they didn't like, he will most likely correct that, which could make the next movie awesome.
I had a completely different experience in my theater. The audience was cheering and claping the whole way through, and you could tell everyone enjoyed the movie.
Same here. It’s the most clapping I’ve experienced at a theater. It was fun.
I believe the reason FNAF is so popular is because of the deep and convoluted lore. As far as I’m aware the games don’t actually explain the backstory and it’s up to theorists to figure out what exactly is the story behind the FNAF universe. You’d be forgiven for having no idea why people are into FNAF because I guess you could call me a fan, but even I don’t understand why it’s so appealing.
There's more story in adapting the series into a movie and them figuring it out along the way
Well I can't speak for everyone but no. Thats not why I'm such a huge fan. Kinda gave up on the story
I think one of the reasons why it was appealing was probably the setting and kinda how unique the game was at the time. Im pretty sure there were games before it that used the whole “something from childhood turn scary” trope but with FNAF it took off due to the idea of working at a Children’s pizza restaurant and big threat being the Chuck E Cheese style animatronic mascots pursuing the player.
I think another reason and probably the main one was the huge boost of popularity it got from UA-camrs doing Let’s Plays of it which is how it got a huge child audience, along with the design of the characters being child friendly mascots on the surface.
@@TheGamerRist22Idea of fnaf gameplay is cool, but first game was repetetive & gets not scary fast
@@theceoofeggmansempire5214 I still love it
I’m very curious to see what the second weekend drop for the film is going to be between the bad reviews, the day-and-date Peacock release strategy (which this film pretty much confirms that Universal seems to only be using for films they don’t have as much faith in), and also the fact that it only has about 5 days of relevancy before the Halloween season is over.
How many did for Halloween kills and Halloween ends and while a lot of people don’t like those two films they did really fucking well at the box office so I don’t think universal’s doing that because they don’t have faith in it because let’s be honest movie theaters unfortunately are dying off
@@Ghost_-nz5dyBoth of those films tanked in their second weekend and didn’t recover (and also lost Universal a lot of money despite their low budgets because they had to pay out everyone that had a backend deal as if the films were monster hits in order to do the day-and-date release model). Also, the other studios that have tried the day-and-date release strategy have abandoned it because it’s not a financially sustainable model. Universal is the only studio still doing this model because they’re desperate to get more people to sign up for Peacock by any means necessary.
@@Ghost_-nz5dyno they arent. It’s just there aren’t as many good movies lately
@@Ghost_-nz5dy " Five Nights" will make over 60 million this weekend despite being on peacock. Theaters aren't dying off.
I have only one problem with this movie... In the game, the security guard is 100% dead if he slept for 1 minute... and the guy slept for HOURS!!!
Hah, if you know the Dan Murrell lore from the LA days, the "friendly and familiar face" is pretty obvious to guess!
I'm lost lol
I was around 12/13 when the first few games released, the first 4 games released over 2 years, and I was in the prime demographic for them. However, I've always hated horror and they freaked me out.
The film is rated 15 in the UK, which is a middle ground that doesn't exist in the US. Some American PG-13 films are 15 rated here and many R rated films are too, so I had no real gage of what would be in the film. You also can get ID checked at cinemas for 15 rated films, so there weren't kids at my screening.
I was genuinely frightened by quite a few of the sequences with the animatronics (which I feel there was the perfect amount of) and I preferred the family drama stuff. I definitely didn't think it was boring.
I did call the twist with William Afton and Vanessa immediately and when he showed up in the Springtrap costume, I was laughing hopefully with it more than at. Overall, while I definitely understand why people don't like it, horror fans especially, I thought it was decent enough, solid 3/5.
I understand your problems and I even share those issues, but as a massive long-term fan, I had an absolute blast. I think the fans are really going to push this movie farther than people expect.
I think you really over estimate how many FNAF fans there are.
@@rmvdhaakfacts
Glad you liked it. I'd give it a 6/10, because of the slow pacing, confusing plot at times, and lack of scares. The animatronics were incredible, acting pretty decent, and set design looked great.
@@rmvdhaak You don't know anything about how massive FNaF is if you think I'm overestimating.
@@rmvdhaaklmao you were saying?
I was also unfamiliar with the property but I landed a little differently. I agree that the hunt and kill scenes were far less prevalent than I was expecting but the movie picked up for me when it fully committed to the mystery (which I also acknowledge was fully telegraphed from the casting). Maybe it is because I am a Minnesota boy and the similarities between this mystery and the Jacob Wetterling case kept me intrigued. I also grew up with Showbiz as my birthday party hub and liked the atmosphere the film delivered. A not great film for this newcomer but purely serviceable. To your point though, fans of the game in my screen complained after about the lack of scares and the why it cherry-picked what it wanted to from the games making it a sprt of poor adaptation.
So here’s the thing, a lot of the FNaf lore is about family drama. It’s not just about the killer animatronics, that’s just the gameplay side. In fact Fnaf 1-7 (Which I like to refer to as season 1) is basically about the main killers son trying to undo everything his father had caused.
So here's the thing, the movie was shit.
@@meciocio Look if you didn’t like the movie that’s fine. I wasn’t trying to change Dans opinion about the movie, I was just trying to explain to him why it didn’t completely focus on the animatronics and instead on the family drama. Also no the movie wasn’t sh*t. Me and a majority of the FNaF fan base loved it and thought it was a great movie.
@@titanium6549Of course yall loved it cus yall are biased. Only diehard fans of the game loves it but to us regular fans we not gonna like it.
@@spirituallyconscious7774 Hey if you didn’t like the movie that’s fine. That’s why I like to say a majority of the fandom loved it and not all of the fandom. We all have different opinions!
"For the fans" is the laziest of lazy excuses anyone can come up with to defend a bad product. It is just an open admittance that it is a bad product sugar coated by fanservice pandering.
My two twenty something daughters watched it last night and texted that they really liked it. One is deep in the lore and the other isn’t into FNAF at all. I have no interest whatsoever but my teen daughter is going with her friends as a whole “event”. This could be a sleeper box office hit driven by the young folks.
My daughter and I have been heavy into the games, books and the lore for years. This movie was a dream come true for us. EDIT: Oh and the FNAF games are all about family drama. It would be weird if the movie wasn't like this.
To me, it's not yhe subject matter that's the problem, the screenplay is just ass
The game was always just babys first jump scare, like all things though - a fairly hardcore fanbase formed around it. I think what differentiates FNAF from other niche IPs is that there was a very hot minute (probably still somewhat ongoing) where a whole industry popped up around the game & its imitations, slenderman etc. I'd say i'll be skipping it, but I was never gonna be bothering with it in all honesty, just curious what dan thought of it lol.
Disappointed this did not turn out better. Just because it's a kids movie doesn't mean they should have to settle for mid. Maybe the next one will be better
As someone whos been a fan of the series for about as long as its been around, I also found this movie to be not very great at representing the series properly. I didn't really want a whole bunch of blood tbh but I feel like this was way out of line from what I expected a pg13 adaptation of this franchise to be. The family drama has nothing to do with the series as far as I know, and my biggest gripe was that there wasn't a whole lot of focus on the night shift parts, which is what the entire games are about. I feel like taking the first game and making a movie out of the five nights and the troubles that come when playing the game while just getting through it by the skin of your teeth would have worked a lot better. I would have loved to see a scene where foxy comes out of pirate cove and Mike just barely gets the door down out of panic about what to do. Also, I don't think the toredore march was played even once throughout the entire movie. Thats essentially the theme song of the series, how could that be left out? They did put the living tombstone song in the credits though so that was pretty good I guess
As a fan, it was certainly not dissapointing, and I'm not so young haha
I’m 25 & seen it with my two younger brothers. My 20 yr old brother played the games as a lil kid & said he really liked it. My 10 yr old brother who watches them on UA-cam said it was awesome!
I thought it was alright lol.
Before I watch this video. I've only experienced the franchise through Markiplier and MatPat over the years and I also read the first book. I'm familiar with the lore but not first hand.
I have mixed feelings about this movie. It looked great and really kept close with the source material, but it struggled with tone, genre, the bad dialogue and line deliveries.
Now that I think about it, they really focused on Mike too much. They should have kept his past for the 2nd movie kinda like how the 2nd game expands on the more beyond the gameplay.
Kinda like the Sonic movie, I MIGHT watch a sequel. I'm not disappointed, but not super impressed.
The PG-13 hurt the movie. Anyone who has seen the gameplay is there to be terrified. Maybe movie 1 doesn't have to have too much gore, but it failed to be scary in any respect... it was also way too wholesome at times... Was weird.
You should have photoshopped a Florida State hat on young Dan.
The police officer’s name was Vanessa. Abby was the little sister
BILLY BOB!!! I had no idea he was part of a larger ensemble. I just remember "Billy Bob's" was the place I used to go to as a kid. That's cool you're familiar with it too.
It's like we were watching two different films.
Not catering to existing horror audiences is easily it's biggest strength. Instead of being a generic slasher, it's instead a psychological horror film that isn't cliche. The struggles of the main character is actually a good plot, which is very rare in horror. He's a loser millennial who deals with substance addiction issues because he relives the day he lost his younger brother over and over hoping to find some subconscious clue. Meanwhile, he's the guardian of his younger sister who his aunt is trying to steal custody of.
Plus, no comments about the art direction? Even if you hate the plot and premise, the cool shots of the dilapidated arcade and the non-CGI puppets alone make it worth watching. It has been a long time since a medium to low budget film has done art direction this well.
It’s crazy seeing this series finally getting the movie released I remember I was in 7th grade when the first game came out.
Went with some friends to see the movie and we all enjoyed it. The one friend in our group that didn’t follow the lore and games as much I think liked it the most.
While I think the film can be a bit boring at times overall I thought it was pretty good. It was honestly better than I was expecting. I wasn’t going in thinking it would be like Willy’s Wonderland. It was fun seeing the Easter eggs and one cameo that I knew. As for lore from games I didn’t mind some things being changed I understand adaptations need to change things as not everything works in a different format.
My father took my two brothers to see the film and they all really liked it. My dad only knows the basics but he thought they did a really good job.
I’d give the film a 7/10 I do hope that they make a sequel and improve on the pacing as it’s really my only complaint. Though the fort building scene was a little weird. I know people have an issue with this being a PG-13 film instead of R but I honestly think that’s a stupid reason. I don’t get people’s obsession with gore and swearing none of that determines if a film is good or bad and they don’t belong in every fill. Honestly I thought the gore in this film was good enough. They showed more than I was expecting them to. The mind I think comes up with better horror than what they tend to show on screen anyway. Maybe in the sequels they can show more as it will be more fitting with Springtrap in it. This film I don’t really think a lot of gore was necessary it’s not that kinda film as it’s not a slasher or torture porn movie.
For a FNAF fan this probably will be 7/10 or 8/10 but for average viewer it's probably 5 or even 4 in my opinion
The film didn't disappointed me but i was expecting more from it, but i can clearly see a normal non fnaf viewer being bored out his mind, the games while being technically Horror games and they are to some degree but the franchise in it's heart is a murder mystery spanning decades of lore and multiple continuity
The film i can best way describe it captured FNAF's lore feeling in some aspects, and if someone is more interested in the more story depths either go to FNAF Game theory Playlist or read the books starting with the first trilogy of books they are probably the best way to het into fnaf
The things is that this is not a movie for the game... It's a movie for the UA-camrs, the reason the demographic was kids was cuz they watch compilations of UA-camrs playing this, making jokes, getting scared, it's almost like a "are you afraid of the dark" movie, it's only for fans of the phenomenon, so, no it's not a good movie, but it's really great FNAF addition
I mean... When I first saw the movie on a Saturday I had very weird expectations going into it because the "FNAF" movie was first announced back in April of 2015 and up until now it had been stuck in developmental hell with Scott not being completely satisfied with movie scripts and the movie passed on to different directors like Gil Kenan and Chris Columbus and then the movie got temporarily canceled and went from Warner Bros. to Blumhouse Productions and Emma Tammi got signed on to direct it... And after I finally saw the movie I said, "it was awesome and it was really amazing and really enjoyable the whole way through from the very opening to the very end of the movie… I’m so happy with what we ended up getting… I was so happy that I even talked a little bit with some random strangers in the hallway who saw the movie and who were fans of FNAF…," but after a while I think my feelings and excitement were a bit misconstrued and over the top and I think I was so happy because the movie actually had enjoyable things and things to be happy about and wasn't a *complete* failure with nothing enjoyable or fun about it because it easily could've been just that... But..., the movie definitely has its *major* problems and issues and things that don't make any sense at all and there is clearly a lack of subtly within the script with the movie over explaining things and not leaving the audience with *any* burning questions and there are weird placements for certain scenes like the "Fort Scene" within the movie and characters that are just generically evil and cruel just for the sake of it (Aunt Jan and almost all of her cronies besides Max and Doug...) and characters that are stereotypical (Vanessa being the stereotypical “cop who is cryptic and knows too much”...) and the movie not being faithful at all to the whole "Afton Family" storyline from the original games by not having Mike Schmidt be Michael Afton and having Vanessa be William Afton's *only* child in the movie's universe and Matthew Lillard being completely underutilized as Steve Raglan/William Afton...
0:57 That's not Abby that's Vanessa 😂
I wasn't sure if it was because I don't know the lore or because of the script, but I was bored.
It needed more action if it wasn't going to show the gore. People were literally talking on their phone in my theater.
As a Gen Xer, it was nice seeing Mary Stuart Masterson and Shaggy/Stu Lillard on the big screen again.
From what I heard this movie is told different than the lore they probably can't make it into the movie because it's to dark for kids and the fnaf movie would have to be r rated
@@jeremiahpc5412 funny how it would’ve been “too dark” for kids, but kids are the ones that like the games. 😂
I loved it! The kids loved it! I'm good to go! Can't wait for the next one!
My only experience with FNAF is watching some people play it and the occasional lore theory video, but I really don't see how you make a good movie with it. The games (largely) involve you staying in one spot, flipping switches, and checking cameras to keep the animatronics away. And for some reason the character does this multiple nights while the authorities don't bulldoze the place. The mostly unexplained lore is the most interesting part of the franchise but even cobbled together I don't think it would make a good film. Each of these games could maybe work as 10-20 minute short film or like an episode of the old Goosebumps show, but I don't think they have enough meat or a sturdy enough structure to work as a full film.
Aww. I am going to go catch this one tomorrow in my local market, and I'm looking forward to it, but my expectations are now tempered somewhat by your review.
If you go in with an open mind, and you love FNAF, you will enjoy it. My daughter and her friend had a blast. It's not a perfect film, and there is some pacing challenges, but if you know anything about the game in the lore, you'll definitely get enough out of it to have a fantastic time
@@YakAttack915 Had a good time! The script could have used just one more pass, and there were definitely a few pacing problems, but it was definitely a fun time!
0:58 no she plays Vanessa Shelly. Rubio plays Abby.
My problem is that Mike didn’t have much of a connection with the killer. Where the movie couldn’t deliver in scares it could of made up in emotion. They should’ve made William mikes father. Take Vanessa out cause the only reason she was there was to reference the most recent games. And everything else was the same problems that people had with security breach in terms of story.
Can't wait for the Five Nights at Buc-ee's movie
Okay, so, I've only ever played Pizzeria Simulator (and explicitly avoided contact with the animatronics because I *DO NOT* like horror), but I've also been invested in the lore since MatPat's very first theory, so I came into the movie with certain expectations, especially with it being connected to Blumhouse - a film company I connect to the concepts of "wanton slaughter" and "horror for the sake of horror." So, I was rather surprised by how comparatively tame it was, but that is what made the movie enjoyable for me. The worst part was that one character getting chomped in half, but it was tastefully done (or, at least as tasteful as something like that can be, and I'm fairly sure that's a compromise Scott had to make). Now, I'm not going to go into every single detail that I liked or disliked (I'd make my own video in that case), but I can understand why horror fans might balk at a movie like this. It's a movie for fans, both young and old, and it does a good job of grounding the human characters in reality while still allowing for the supernatural element to take lead when it needs to. I wholly do not expect non-fans of the franchise to like it (heck, just need to read the RT garbage to notice that), but I do think it's a decent film nonetheless. Nothing groundbreaking, but then it wasn't trying to do that, and instead did the job it was designed to do.
I'd like to hear Dan's thoughts on Willy's Wonderland.
And The Banana Splits Movie while we’re at it.
Yes, much better than FNAF.
@@luciw.3133no tf it aint
@@MysteryMii I still need to see that
all shite except one has cage in it
As someone who is a diehard fan of Fnaf, i really enjoyed this movie. But i can also see where you're coming from with your points Dan. I kinda wish we had more Matthew Lillard and a little less dream stuff. The way the mo ie is written does feel a bit like the books the creator has written. He tends to do a lot of family drama stuff in them and i personally didnt.
While im disappointed you didnt enjoy it as much i did, i enjoy the hell out of your videos and I hope a potential sequel can bring you around 😁
Matthew Lillard said he signed a 3 movie deal for FNAF. So if that's any indication we are getting more.
You are right, Dan. You shouldn't get any blowback on your opinion. The consensus is that it is indeed slow and boring. This movie should've been what audiences were expecting. A jump scare laded fun movie with a wink at the audience. Good review.👍
I absolutely loved it, I‘m an og fan tho so maybe it hits harder for me. However, I went with a friend who didn‘t know anything of lore, he liked it and gabe it a strong 7/10. Personally, I give it a well-deserved 9/10
What is implied is more scarier than what is shown These are the rules that Five Nights At Freddy's has followed ever since 2014 When the first game released.
I'll be seeing this one soon but it's unfortunate that it didn't impress as I find your taste in movies to generally be spot on.
At least we still have *Willy's Wonderland* as I rather enjoyed that movie's embrace of the silliness and sounds like it certainly went harder than FNAF did. Aw well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One thing everyone makes mistake. Is not listening. They legit said. Hey this movie is for fans and fans would love it. They actually said it interviews. Not their fault ppl who aren't into it. Dont get it and all. For the fans. Ppl need to start listen more.
To be honest i don't think that the story is necessarily supposed to make sense in this first movie. I mean just like the first game there was very little to no story whatsoever. I think the story will be flashed out more ans stat to make sense in the sequel. Also ive seen alot of mixed reviews on this movie. Ive heard some people who are non fans say they like this movie and ive also heard others who are non fans say they don't like this movie. It'll ultimately come down to boxoffice numbers.
But i do know one thing Mattew Lillard said he signed a 3 movie deal for FNAF. So if that's any indication we might be getting more.
The story does make sense in reference to the games. But yes, this is a very hard movie to understand for someone who doesn't know the lore from the games.
What can we do to get Dan to guest on RLM?
the lore of the game is essentially a family drama so thats why the plot is like that
0:59 That is Vanessa, not Abby. Abby is the little sister.
I’m not sure if a lot of people are going to go to the theater to see it since it is streaming on peacock.
I had a similar background to you regarding the FNAF franchise, and while I share some of your criticisms, I enjoyed it more than you did.
@03:03
Thank you for saying SHOWBIZ PIZZA.
This is why I rock with you.
I've played the first Five Nights at Freddy's game and also watched a streamer play most of the other entries, so I'd say I'm a fan but not a super lore-intensive fan. My group and I all had similar thoughts to yours Dan, the movie was very slow, not that scary, and I really wish they had cut back on the family drama plotline. So many implausible things too, and I found the cop character to be ridiculous. The hunt sequence was fun, but I really wanted more killer animatronics running around and maybe have them not go for trying to humanize them in the middle of the film. I assume there will be a sequel, so I'd hope there's maybe more animatronics and scares and less outside character plots that (come on) no one really cares about.
The game was alrteqady only jumpscares without substance. A typ[ical streamer game where you watch streamers jumping when something happens in the game.
I think I'll just rewatch Willy's wonderland instead.
I was so excited to see this movie and im a huge fan, but i have pretty muxh the same opinions as you on the movie. I wanted to like this movie so bad but its just not a good screenplay at all. I still like Visuals though
This makes me nervous. My gf is a huge fan snd she put me on to them. She hasn’t seen a single thing about it to not ruin anything for her. I really hope she likes it even if I don’t. I have my showing Saturday, pray for me lmao
hmm yeah i think the core mystery and ultimate "reveal" is the weakest part of the film for me. I was thinking to myself why this wasn't a found footage style film while watching with more focus on mystery of the old pizzeria. For me it lands on "it's fine", i didn't mind the family drama stuff
Like the reveal of the career coach being the murderer makes absolutely no sense. I don’t care about the damn lore. This guy has not been in the movie for an hour and a half and now you’re just going to bring him OUT OF NOWHERE and try to convince me this is the main villain of the movie?
I watched this movie in a theater full of people I'd call the "target audience" - people that played the games and understood the lore. Outside of the one "reveal" (that you could see coming a mile away if you knew the lore), it was pin drop silent. It was awful. Who was this movie for - the people who knew the lore that would go into a movie that plays very fast and loose with the lore, or the people who didn't know the lore and had to go through a lot of MASSIVE suspensions of disbelief?
Josh Hutcherson's flashback dream sequences of a childhood incident involving his little brother turned out to be the most boring part of the movie for me. It was an underdeveloped backstory.
Another film with a very similar premise is “Willy’s Wonderland” starring Nic Cage. I may be in the minority, but I actually really enjoyed that version of the killer animatronic concept, even though I’m not really a big horror fan. I will probably pass on FNaF though
Even though I'm a huge FNAF fan that's excited to see this movie. I understand this review I was wondering how general audiences that aren't FNAF fans could think about this movie.
As a fan I love it but for people who never have seen fnaf I can see them not liking it which is far because the movie does have problems like the horror or ran time but I think it's okay not to like it or love it overall good review keep up the good videos
0:58 “plays abby” lol
The third act made ZERO SENSE and Vanessa/William characters made ZERO sense.
I think movie faithful to games and books, imagine what those animatronics do after performing with band all day an adventure when show biz pizza closes up at night. Have Fun with
Nah, knowing Kauffman and how the books read this is about what he wanted. Though I can see editing being a problem.
slow? did we watch the same movie I thought it was way too fast
I liked the review but just some advice, if you ever want to be "initiated into a fandom" dont go to the film adaptation of that thing. It will always be a disappointment because they are never a good representation of the original thing its adapting. Always go to the original thing first and then see if you like it. In this case if you really want to "see what all the fnaf hype is about" you should just play the OG game first instead of thinking the movie will get you into it, because its not really fair to judge a whole franchise based off its shitty film adaptations. If that was how it worked 99% of all franchises would be ignored.
I first got into Harry Potter, Dune, to some extent Lord of the Rings, and others because of movie adaptations. A great adaptation can bring in a lot of new people
@@DanMurrellMoviesthe scale of world building might be a bit different from those comparisons. Fnaf wasn't designed from the ground up to create an immerse world. It's a rather simple game that over time developed into a convoluted but out of the box story. The fnaf community gave it legs but imo the base can't be compared to the rich literary landscapes of those other fandoms.
@@DanMurrellMovies Thanks for the reply! 👍
I've been saying since this was announced that Willy's Wonderland already exists, and they were never going to top it.
They should go animated, if they want to do something interesting with this property.
We need an animated horror movie to be released in theaters, it's been a while for something like that. Last time I saw an animated horror movie was Monster House, that shit scared the crapped outta me
@@800Ms-k6n
not trying to be rude but did the movie scare you as a child or an adult?
@@800Ms-k6n I agree, 100%. I think the most recent animated horror entry, theater-wise, was probably Wendell & Wild (2022), which was pretty great...but there aren't near enough of that sort of film being released.
I'm exactly like Dan watching this movie last night. I've never played the games, but I'm aware of them. I'm an '80s kid, so I have some nostalgia for these kids play places. I was primed to enjoy this movie. But... meh. It was slow, not funny, uninteresting , not even will creative kills. And yeah, as soon as the cop hinted at who she was, I immediately knew who she was referencing. So no mystery there. The saving grace of this movie are the performances. I liked all the actors well enough. There's a solid 80-minute movie in there, maybe. It's over 100 minutes, though. However, the audience seemed to enjoy it, so maybe I'm too old to get it. To each their own.
Literally the lore videos on UA-cam were more interesting than this movie.
Yeah
Regarding this movie, I am at the level of watching someone else play Five Nights at Freddy's, but have no interest in the movie. Nicholas Cage made a move (well many movies) in 2021, "Willy's Wonderland" with a similar vibe, but I think with more gore and more (perhaps unintentional) laughs. However, even though it was only 2 years ago, I cannot remember much about Willy's Wonderland. I will not be seeing Freddy's.
I watched streamers play FNAF to see them get jump scared which usually involved the player character dying. That’s hard to turn into a movie where the main character presumably survives, or at least gets close.
You dont need jumpscares or death to make a good horror movie, you just need suspense and interesting characters
FNAF is basically made for reaction- and lore videos and has little else.
"Painfully slow and incredibly boring" . That's an accurate adaptation them, I don't get these kind of games. 🤣
FNAF is about family drama
I'm taking my son and nephew Sunday to see it. They are both under 10 and enjoy FNAF. I have knowledge of it from Game Theory channel. I told my wife to bring her kindle if she goes with us, I'm prepared to suffer
Please don't bring a Kindle to a cinema 😆
now i wanna know which cameo he recognized lmao
Willies Wonderland, despite being terrible, badly acted, lazily written, and totally nonsensical, is a lot of fun watching Cage kerb(toilet)-stomp an animatronic.
The shark in Dan’s intro is scarier than this FNAF film
It'll be a watch at home for me. I never played the game. From what I hear, I'm not interested in a family drama. Also, for title sake, is there even Five Nights at Freddy's? It sounded more like One Scary Day at Freddy's, I may have heard wrong.
As far as I know about a game I didn't play, there's a lot of violence (of different kinds) in the lore suffered by children. I can't image a PG13 version of this would not be interesting.
I agree Dan... it's so slow, so boring, so scattered ..... with no pay off.
But maybe the fans will love it??? Only Box Office $ will tell right?
I dont blame you at all for not liking the mike family stuff but for the fans of the series it was a pretty big deal
i never played fnaf but im a huge fan of the lore. i was worried that a pg13 rating wouldnt do it justice and sadly i think that is the case. all thats left for me to do is to go home and watch it with ads on peacock
The gore wouldn't have helped the weak story though
This is exactly me! EXACTLY!
PG-13 would indeed do it justice. That's literally it's target demographic.
@@bust0nethe story is told way different than the lore from the games
Like as an outsider in regard to this story, the thing I was most frustrated with was Mike himself. Not Josh’s portrayal of him but the fact that the writers gave me little to no reason to be invested in him after the first twenty minutes. I don’t know anything about him other than the fact that he’s sad that his brother died.
Like okay great. Can you give me more than that?
His struggles to raise and care for his sister didn't give you anything?
@@Stupidmuffin64 "After the first twenty minutes."
@@sophieamandaleitontoomey9343 set up for the emotional ties to the character happened in the first act of the movie!? Weird
@@Stupidmuffin64 That's not the point. The beginning of the movie was set up rather nicely with the flashbacks about the brother, the bitchy aunt, the sister and the desperation Mike has to take a job like this. The problem is in the execution. They keep hammering the point about the brother over and over and over again and it messes with the pace of the movie. It also takes away from what's going on with the animatronics.
The fact we don't even get to see a lot of them in action until the third night so we can see the flashback about the brother yet again is a problem. This would be fine if like the games, we had a healthy balance of the animatronics and the struggles Mike is dealing with. But unfortunately we don't. And as a result, it's hard to really be invested in what's happening with Mike because of him going through the same scene over and over again.
@@sophieamandaleitontoomey9343 that is unfortunate. I did not share your experience on this. Felt it had good set up in the first act, fun exploration in the second act, and a very enjoyable conclusion. My only gripe is having to wait for sequels to get more of Lillard as Afton.
For fans, a question;
Is the family drama part of the game lore?
Yes and no. I’m not exactly a fan, but I’ve watched some theory videos and playthroughs.
Basically, it’s a survival horror game where the player is a security guard stuck in a room of an abandoned pizzeria with a limited power supply. You cannot run or hide. Instead, you have to monitor the movements of the animatronics and learn how to prevent them from killing you. If you die, there’s a jump scare of a screaming animatronic. If you live, there’s a little celebratory “hurray!” That’s it.
However, there is a lot of convoluted lore about the two owners of the pizzeria and their respective families. Basically, one of the owners is a child murder. The lore/story is revealed in hidden cutscenes that can be unlocked within the game. The novels (which I’ve not read) elaborate on the lore and family drama.
Huh, thanks. The books might be worth a cursory read to me@@MiraBoo
Dan, you may not know this but in the early days FNAF wasn't made for kids. It was a pretty dark story that sadly got washed down over the years. Hope this helps :)
In my opinion this movie is honestly fucking amazing, Im not that BIG of a fan of fnaf, I've played none of the games but I know most of the lore and this was my first ever horror movie and I loved it! Definitely 10/10 from me!
But was purple man in it?
Looks like they combined the game with Sinister
Well, I was excited to watch it as I enjoyed M3gan quite a bit. However, your review is probably spot on, and this is just a for the fans type of media. Which is kind of what I'm seeing. Also, I'm exactly like you Dan. Long live Showbiz Pizza.
Went to see it with my high school age daughter and her friend. To be honest, though it's not a perfect film, and has to appeal to a larger audience, I think it did more than enough to bring to life the spirit of FNAF, with just enough tension, humor, etc, to make it worth watching in the movie theater. For what most other reviewers have said, if you're not into the game, may not be for you. But if you are one of those who have followed it throughout the years, you'll definitely get enjoyment out of it. The world building and animatronics work very well. Obviously I would have like to see more of that as opposed to the other side of the plot, but if it does well enough and gets a second movie greenlit, I can definitely see it expanding. I know it's supposed to be a trilogy, but we know how often those never materialize. But we had a fantastic time, so if you're on the fence, but you are an FNAF fan, go out and support it at the movie theater. It's a whole different experience as opposed to watching it at home
Interestingly, in the UK it is rated 15. I wonder why
Showbiz Pizza ruled! Long live Billy Bob and the band!
Well, this definitely isn't a movie for me, but I hope it works for FNaF fans.