Dog’s Movie House: “Five Nights At Freddy’s” Has Interesting Premise But Zero Scares!

The film stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike, a nice guy with a bad temper who needs to take a job as a security guard to keep custody of his younger sister Abby (a very good Piper Rubio) from the clutches of his greedy Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson). As a last ditch effort, he takes a job at a decrepit pizza joint called Freddy Fazbear’s. Like the Chuck E. Cheese pizza parlors that inspired the game, this abandoned place was home to a series of animatronic animals who entertained thousands of children during the 1980s. The children started to disappear, never to be seen again and the restaurant fell under suspicion. Turns out the animatronic animals are alive and fairly bloodthirsty, possessed by the spirits of the deceased children. It’s up to Mike, along with help from a friendly police officer (Elizabeth Lall) to figure out the mystery of Freddy Fazbear’s before they all become animatronic animal chow!

Now the story, including the enhancments to the script from the game, has an intriguing premise and the performances, especially thos of Rubio and Hutcherson, are quite good. The animatronic animals are appropriately creepy looking (terrrifically designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop) and anyone who has frightening memories of that damned six foot mouse at Chuck E. Cheese will get a little shiver now and then. The trouble is in the atmosphere. . .there is none to speak of. Director Emma Tammi forgets about maintaining any reasonable level of suspense. The editing is choppy at times and the actions of the deadly robots are often hard to discern. The fact that the PG-13 rating is designed to cater to the widest possible audience means that the it take a special example of suspenseful filmmaking to create an effective horror film without the gore. This is definitely not such one example.

The good news is that the success of “Five Nights At Freddy’s” might mean a better follow-up film in which the creepy concept is developed further into an appropriately frightening film. Until then, “Five Nights At Freddy’s” is a diverting time-waster that’s primarlly notable for its failed potential. 2 1/2 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!

Pages: 1 2