Haunted by the disappearance of his younger brother Garrett (Lucas Grant) several years ago, Mike (Josh Hutcherson) must prove to his aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson) that he is fit to take care of his little sister Abby (Piper Rubio). ). Thanks to a seemingly benevolent man (Matthew Lillard), Mike lands a job as a night watchman at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.
After an eventful first night, Mike meets Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), a police officer who knows a lot about these not-so-reassuring places. Abandoned since the disappearance of children whose bodies were never found, the pizzeria was very popular in the 1980s, notably for its group of animatronics: Freddy the bear, Bonnie the rabbit, Chica the chick and her cupcake , as well as the pirate fox Foxy. However, these giant doggies, guided by a mysterious large yellow rabbit seen in children’s drawings, want Abby’s skin.
Adaptation of a popular video game series created in 2014 by Scott Cawthon, Five Nights at Freddy’s, by Emma Tammi (the horror western Cursed Earth), risks disappointing more than one. Even with very, very low expectations. Certainly, this horror drama with its macabre funfair feel shares the vintage charm of the 1980s with the famous Stranger Things series and at times recalls Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, but that’s where the comparison ends.
Like the gloomy Silent Hill, by Christophe Gans, another adaptation of a survival horror video game, great care has been taken to reproduce the dark, dilapidated settings and the suffocating atmosphere of the games and its derivatives. Rather than CGI creatures, puppeteers from the Jim Henson Company were called upon to animate the monstrous robots. Alas, it’s too little to hold the viewer captive.
Carried by actors who defend their score without conviction, Five Nights at Freddy’s reveals itself to be mortally boring very early on as the rhythm is laborious and the story is as simplistic as it is predictable. Although the shock effects are multiplied, few will jump in their seats. Those fueled with hemoglobin will not get their money’s worth. While the all-too-brief presence of Matthew Lillard, star of the first part of Wes Craven’s Scream, promised to offer a pint of good blood, it is clear that even humor is sorely lacking in this stand-up turnip.