Five Nights at Freddy’s, and the Problem with Game Adaptations

Mohamed Shafiullah reviews Five Nights at Freddy’s, the 2023 American horror film, based on Scott Cawthon’s video game franchise of the same name.

This article has Spoilers.

Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) is a 2023 horror film directed by Emma Tammi (of The Wind fame).

I will start with the (minimal) strengths of the film. The film attempts to explore trauma at a deeper level than most monster horror films do. Through the main protagonist (Mike, played by Josh Hutcherson), we can see how trauma causes us to risk our future at the expense of fixing the past. Mike’s compulsion to reinvent the past jeopardises the possibly fruitful future he has with his sister (played by Piper Rubio). As a child, he was unable to prevent his brother from being kidnapped, and his happy family was further broken down when his parents died of grief. Mike is unable to live with this; every night he revisits the scene of the crime through his dreams and tries to capture more details in the hopes of rescuing his brother. Violent tendencies have become part of Mike’s nature as his every thought is obsessed with finding the kidnapper, which means he cannot hold down a proper job to support his sister. Mike also neglects his sister (who loves him very much; all of her drawings are of him) as a result of his preoccupation. Essentially, Mike’s attempt to fix the past is ruining his chances of having a great future with his sister.

Unfortunately, the only two characters that made sense were Mike and his sister. The character of the cop, played by Elizabeth Lail, was very uneven. She was going to let Mike and his sister die (and had let her serial killer of a father get away with much more). But somehow, she has a change of heart at the end and saves Mike. Her purpose in the film is convoluted; we are shown scenes where she attempts to solve the child kidnappings, but by the end, we know that she was fully aware of why and how the kidnappings were happening. So why is it implied that she was trying to crack the case? As someone who has supported a serial killer for so long (God knows how she qualified to become a cop), why the sudden change of heart (with no proper build-up done)?

The ending irks me to no end. Initially, the animatronic creatures support their murderer in his quest to capture more children (the reason given is that they were confused, which is just lazy writing). But Mike’s sister manages to draw a picture of the killer killing. And the animatronics now accept this fact and turn on their boss. As we often see, the filmmakers did not even try to make sense of their world’s logic, instead opting for an easy ending (why are the children possessing the animatronics? If the killer murdered so many children, why are there so few animatronics? Why are the murdered children supporting their killer?).

I think there is a larger statement to be made on the state of game adaptations. On the well-made side, we have shows like The Last of Us (TLOU). On the poorly done side, we have… this film. In order for game adaptations to succeed, the essence of the original material needs to be captured in the adaptation. This is why even though TLOU made drastic changes, people still hailed the show as a good adaptation; the core of what the game is exploring and the emotions it is trying to bring out in its audience was faithfully replicated in the show. The essence of the FNAF game is the thrill and fear that comes from managing a bunch of homicidal robots; this was not captured in the film. We did not see a security guard attempt to evade and misdirect the animatronics at all (which is the point of the game). We have to admit that not all games make for good adaptations. Film and games are fundamentally different mediums; the most basic concept can become the best game ever produced but the worst film ever made. Interestingly, you can find many games that share the exact same concept but are still popular and considered good. With film, on the other hand, audiences will moan about how a film is too similar to another movie they watched. This contrast between the two mediums is why FNAF makes for a good game but a basic film. The backstories and lore of FNAF, which are focused on in the film, are always secondary to the thrill of interacting and evading the robots. However, the limited agency we have as film audiences, compared to gamers, means that the essence of FNAF can never be truly captured. This ultimately results in a very basic, seen-before-a-thousand-times movie.

In this day of reboots, sequels, and adaptations, I can only hope producers learn that not everything needs a reboot, sequel, or adaptation. With the dearth of cross-medium potential, I believe this film was made as well as it could’ve been possibly made. Should you catch this film in theatres? Unless you have never watched a horror movie in your entire existence and are the biggest fan of the FNAF franchise, you could skip it.

Five nights at freddy's is showing in cinemas now. Watch the trailer here.