The movie version of the wildly popular video game series, Five Nights at Freddy’s, was recently released, and it has split the entire fanbase. In the 1st game, the player takes the role of Mike Schmidt, who has recently taken a job at a rundown family owned pizzeria, as a security guard. As the game progresses, Schmidt discovers a whole world of creepy animatronics, all out to get him. To win, the player must survive five nights as a security guard, without getting jumpscared by the animatronics. The game, originally being released in 2014 has always had people wanting a movie version. However, since the movie was released about a month ago, it has received low reviews. With a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 5.5 rating on IMDb, many fans have been disappointed.
I recently watched the movie, and as someone who has never played the games, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I was consistently intrigued by Mike Schmidt’s action and background, I was constantly wondering what would happen next. Since I found the movie quite interesting and entertaining, I decided to talk to my friend, freshman Eli Andaya, about his opinions about the movie. Eli has played the original games, so he obviously went into the movie with different expectations than me. He said that overall, he would give the movie a 5/10, as he went into the movies with high expectations, since he had played the games before. He found that the movies included some parts that were not as important to the overall storyline than others.
I also asked Eli how he would compare the movie to the games. He said, “the movie is pretty different compared to the games. The games had lore and backstory in the background of the main game. However, the movie barely included the main idea of the game, and was more focused on Mike Schmidt’s internal problems, and problems between the missing children and his sister.” After talking to Eli, I did my own research on the games, and I did understand his points. The game is more of a survival game, and doesn’t really have story gameplay. An example of stories being pivotal to a video game is The Last of Us, which had stories that were necessary to understanding a character’s actions. These elements were not included in the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, and they weren’t imperative for the game’s progression.
People’s opinions on the movie likely varied due to different expectations when going in. If you went into the movie having already played the games, you were likely to be disappointed, as the movie made many creative decisions, and focused on things that were not important in the games. Likewise, if you watched the movie without having ever played the original games, then the movie could have been entertaining and interesting. Background is important in situations like these, as they could have a large effect on the opinions of people. This not only applies to movies, but also to real world events. So if anything can be learned from the new Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, it should be that it is always okay to have varying opinions on a topic, as people can always come into a situation with different background, and pre-existing expectations.