Written by Mateo J. Biggs
13 different games. 15 novels. 11 graphic novels. 2 guides. And as of the last 30 days, Steam has marked 206.4 average players. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” has been a game series that shot up in popularity early on into its career as an indie game series– a surprise for some given the fact many popular indie games gained their infamy after their releases. However, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” gained it’s popularity right off the bat of its release on August 8th, 2014– when many famous YouTubers (Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Pewdiepie, and other mainstream ‘lets players’ of the site) uploaded their dramatic reactions to unknown jumpscares and unnerving game design.
From there, the game developed further insight when theories were speculated about the series’ lore– Game Theory’s MatPat being at the forefront of the majority of these –and even fan-made songs about the games themselves have gained their own popularity. When a film was first speculated back in 2015, a year just after the first game’s release, it is no shock that many fans of the community were practically jumping with joy and excitement. Well, after many years of delays, company change overs, cancellations and restatings, the movie has finally been released in theaters and on the NBCUniversal streaming site; Peacock.
So…how did it flop so hard from critical reviews? Scoring only a solid 26% on RottenTomatoes, Rolling Stones critic, Miles Klee claimed that the film “…strains to erect a supernatural universe while neglecting to fulfill the basic promises of a scary film built on a gag premise, stretching its dreary tale of trauma to nearly two hours.” Forbes Critic, Paul Tassi states that “I do think the movie would have been a better ‘horror’ movie if it was more gory than it was.”
How did this happen? What went wrong?
The issue with many modern media movie scores is the fact that when a critic reviews a movie, it is done from an unbiased and almost scientific display of the movie’s craftsmanship and solidified plotlines. Audience reviews will always be at war with the critic reviews due to the fact that many audience members are biased towards either specific actors or director or even original author. Such is the case with “Five Nights at Freddy’s”– as many audience members gave it a hard 88% rating on RottenTomatoes.
Something to also keep in mind is that the movie utilizes actual animatronics for the iconic mascot characters, so it may appear silly to some people from the lack of CGI– which has become popular in recent cinematography.
Regardless, love it or hate it, just make an opinion for yourself after watching the film instead. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is available to watch on Peacock and at local theatres!
