YMMV / Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

• Accidental Aesop: Be sensitive to those who may be suffering poor mental health. At several points in the movie, characters are dismissive or can be insensitive to those whose minds aren't in a good place at the moment. Notably, Steve sees Mike as a "head case", not realizing he suffers from the trauma of losing his brother, while Vanessa tries to get him to let it go without knowing just how much it troubles him. It also applies to Abby, with Aunt Jane calling her "mentally ill" in a negative way and being looked down on for saying it.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • When Chica tries to shove Abby into a springlock suit to make her another animatronic, Abby is able to wrestle with her long enough for Mike to rescue her. This seems odd because Abby is a small girl and Chica is a big, hulking robot made of solid metal and wires...but the children in the suits don't really want to hurt anyone and are vulnerable to being controlled by Afton, so it's possible that Chica was holding back and not using her full strength because deep down she didn't want to hurt Abby.
  • Mike calls Aunt Jane and implies he just asked her to babysit Abby for the day, which Abby misinterprets as him handing her over. However, given how he was off to "save" Garrett once and for all, did he truly consider letting go of Abby for her own survival?
  • William Afton's brief reaction to stabbing his daughter Vanessa. Is it a short My God, What Have I Done? moment that he quickly gets over, is he more worried about the legal consequences if she is found dead, or is it even shock that he has fatally injured a pawn that could still be of use to him?
  • Aunt Jane seems to be quite wealthy. We really just have Mike's word that she wants custody of Abby to get a check from the government, and she the amout of money she spends trying to get custody seems likely to exceed any gain. It is possible to read her as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who honestly thinks she'd do a better job of raising Abby. Notably, she does agree to take Abby for one night, despite having no financial incentive to do so. Extending this a step further, did she really not care about Mike at all? Or did she hope that if he was unable to hold a job she could use her money to control him as well, "for his own good."
• Awesome Music:
  • The score by the Newton Brothers, regular composers for Mike Flanagan, perfectly hits the eerie '80s vibes of the film's setting with John Carpenter-style synths. The film's opening credits theme in particular uses a boy's choir to underscore the ominous visuals of Freddy's in its heyday.
  • "Talking In Your Sleep" by The Romantics is the main song choice of Freddy and the gang whenever they are in performance mode. It's also extremely fitting for the skeletons that Mike hides in his closet — or rather, his dreams.
  • The credits sequence of the movie includes The Living Tombstone's iconic fan-song for the first game.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Garrett's kidnapper that has eluded Mike for all these years is William Afton, something fairly easy to guess given... well, it's a child kidnapping in this franchise, who else was it going to be? That Steve Raglan was Afton all along also counts, especially given Dawko announced Matthew Lillard as playing Afton before the first trailer was even released.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Afton meeting his slow, brutal death courtesy of the animatronics, which are possessed by the spirits of the children he murdered and brainwashed.
  • Aunt Jane's death courtesy of Golden Freddy.
  • For players of Security Breach, to see Vanessa face William Afton and cement her Heel–Face Turn in live-action. Even better? She survives.
• Common Knowledge: Despite fans using the names 'Springtrap' or 'Spring Bonnie' to refer to William Afton's mascot disguise, he's never addressed as such in the movie, subtitles, or promotional material. When he is mentioned before The Reveal he's simply called 'the Yellow Rabbit.' Also, if you want to be technical, William doesn't get springlocked until the climax, so he wouldn't be Springtrap yet.
• Complete Monster: William Afton is a psychopathic Serial Killer hiding behind the mask of an unassuming man. As the "Yellow Rabbit", Afton lured five children to the back of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, killed them, and stuffed their bodies into the animatronic mascots. Priding the establishment as his personal hunting ground, Afton takes control of the vengeful spirits of his victims, influencing them to kill countless security guards he would deceive through his identity as career counselor Steve Raglan. Upon realizing that Mike Schmidt was related to Garrett — the boy he kidnapped and murdered years ago — Afton sends Mike to the pizzeria to "complete the set" while setting his sights on Mike's younger sister Abby as his next victim. Revealed as the abusive father of Vanessa Shelly, Afton psychologically and verbally forces her to fall in line with his demands, sinking to his lowest when he remorselessly stabs her for her persistent insolence.
• Crack Pairing: Doug x Ness/MatPat. They have not shared a single reaction apart from Ness trying to serve the group as a whole. Despite that, Doug's excitement at seeing the chipper waiter hand him a menu is treated as a romantic gaze, rather than the look of a hungry man. Not to mention Doug appears to be rather aged while Ness is quite youthful. A video of Doug's actor thanking MatPat has also helped with this.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • The animatronics are hulking robots who, despite being fluffy mascots for a themed children's restaurant and arcade, are hulking, murdering machines capable of mangling grown adults. The sheer practical talent at work is enough to make any scene with the animatronics very cool, and half of these scenes are the animatronics pursuing prey and stalking in the shadows.
  • The Yellow Rabbit. Not only is the costume design on him amazing and terrifying, but he is introduced emerging from the shadows with Glowing Eyes of Doom, a Hitler Cam making him look huge and a haunting soundtrack. What follows is him No-Selling a police taser and brutally tossing Mike around with ease. It also helps that he's given a scenery-chomping performance courtesy of Matthew Lillard , complete with an Actor Allusion to Scream (1996).
• Creepy Cute: The animatronics, full stop. On the outside, they're a group of Uncanny Valley mascots (with Foxy looking outright fierce); on the inside, they're murderous machines controlled by restless spirits... and, even deeper on the inside, they're children who love playing games and just want to make friends. Even on the outside, one can soon get over the uncanniness of their exposed joints and mechanical eyes and see them for the round, fluffy-looking animal mascots they are; the fact Abby's actress routinely hugged them behind the scenes is very telling.
• Critical Dissonance: Similarly to The Super Mario Bros. Movie that came out the same year, the film received a negative score from critics, who lambasted the film as having a confusing plot and not being very scary, but was very successful with its audiences. Compare its 32% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes to the 87% audience score.
• Critic-Proof: Continuing from the above, while the majority of film critics derided Five Nights at Freddy's as a So Okay, It's Average film at best, nobody can deny that the movie sold extremely well. It was made with a 20 million dollar budget and had a box office success of 296.4 million, more than 10 times what it cost to make it.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The movie shows a vandal getting attacked by Chica and her cupcake... and we get a Smash Cut of the cupcake latching onto his screaming face. While it looks weird out of context, the fact that the poor bastard is mauled by a cupcake out of all things is hysterical. One would immediately think back to its infamous jumpscare in nightmare form.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Abby is interpreted by some viewers as being autistic, due to her more introverted leanings and obsession with drawing 'her friends' instead of interacting with others. Aunt Jane also calls her 'mentally ill' in such a way that's clearly meant to be a Kick the Dog moment.
  • Similarly, both Mike and Vanessa are generally agreed to have PTSD symptoms. Mike in particular has recurring nightmares about his brother's abduction and is obsessed with finding the abductor to the point of affecting his life; his attack on the mall patron could easily be interpreted as him being triggered. Vanessa, meanwhile, has Mood-Swinger tendencies that could be attributed to her being an adult survivor of child abuse.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Aunt Jane's lawyer, Doug. He only shows up in two short scenes, looking as if he's in constant pain whenever the camera cuts to him. This garnered him a semi-ironic following amongst the FNaF community, with many saying that he was the single greatest character in the film. Fanart, fancams, and requests for him to appear in the sequel were made almost immediately after the film came out. On top of this, the actor's TikTok account gained nearly 200k followers within a month of the film's release, and he even got a Youtooz figure as a result of his popularity.
• Epileptic Trees: Abby's role as Mike's little sister led the fans to believe she's the film version of Elizabeth Afton, which is helped along by her name being an anagram of "Baby", as well as "Abby" being an obscure nickname for "Elizabeth". The animatronics do actually try to stuff her into a suit that bears a striking resemblance to Circus Baby (although it's actually a springlock suit version of Ella from the novels). However, it's ultimately Vanessa that serves as Elizabeth's counterpart.
• Estrogen Brigade:
  • Like the games, the film is mostly aimed at male fans, but a lot of fans online are female. This is mainly due to its protagonist Mike being played by the very good-looking Josh Hutcherson, in addition to the gorgeous Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa receiving a female following of her own. Together, they gained so many swooning fangirls that the most popular fanfics of the film are the reader shipping themselves with Mike or Vanessa.
  • Matthew Lillard as Steve Raglan also has a smaller following of his own, where he's seen as a Silver Fox. It helps that William Afton already has a built-in Estrogen Brigade of his own.
  • Unsurprisingly, MatPat's cameo as Ness was adored by his own female fans, many who declare that he looked handsome in his waiter's outfit.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Golden Freddy manages to be a creepy yet wickedly smart Manipulative Bastard who has hit it off with the fans. His manipulation of Mike in particular is credited as one of the film's most engaging scenes.
  • The Big Bad William Afton is only in a few scenes, but is credited as the scariest and most charismatic incarnation in the franchise. The fact that he even goes out with a Defiant to the End, unlike his game counterpart who was a Dirty Coward, is considered a major plus.
• Fandom Rivalry: The film has a rivalry with two similar animatronic-based horror films: The Banana Splits Movie and Willy's Wonderland. Some fans of this film accuse the two of being blatant rip-offs of FNAF and hopping on the Mascot Horror trend. Fans of the other two movies, however, feel like both films delivered a better and scarier execution of the Five Nights at Freddy's premise than the actual FNAF film. Then, of course, you have a third party of those who meet in the middle and outright like aspects from some or all three of them.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Having been unseen in mainstream films since his Star-Making Role as Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games, Josh Hutcherson received acclaim from viewers for his portrayal as Mike, perfectly capturing the character's neuroticism, struggles, and emotional turmoil over his tragic past. The scenes where he talks about Garrett's kidnapping and his final dream where he sees his family have been praised as his best acting in the film.
  • Matthew Lillard truly shows his acting chops in his role as William Afton, capturing the character's bumbling facade as "Steve Raglan" and his Ax-Crazy sadistic personality when revealed to Mike, especially portraying the character's pain when killed by the springlocks. While he has been compared to his previous serial killer performance as Stu Macher, it stands out due to Lillard bringing a sense of terror and seriousness to Afton akin to his characterization in The Silver Eyes. The fanbase has universally praised him as the definitive portrayal of the Purple Guy for bringing the iconic villain to life on the big screen.
  • Nonetheless, the biggest praise goes to Piper Rubio in her role of Abby. Having never starred in a big-screen film and being practically unnoticed by the industry, she knocks it out of the ballpark in her acting as an inquisitive, eccentric, yet innocent child whose friendliness attracts the animatronics. This was lampshaded by YouTubers like Dawko who were blown away by how easily she stepped into the role of Abby during filming.
• I Knew It!:
  • When Matthew Lillard was first announced to be part of the film in an undisclosed role in December 2022, rumors flew that he would be playing William Afton. This was later officially confirmed by popular FNAF Let's Player Dawko in a charity livestream. A lot of people also predicted that the film would end with him getting spring-trapped.
  • Quite a few fans, when Vanessa was announced, predicted she was an Early-Bird Cameo of Vanny.
  • A lot of fans correctly predicted that the credits theme would be The Living Tombstone's FNAF song long before the movie released.
  • Many have joked about how MatPat's cameo would involve him spouting his iconic, "It's just a theory!" line. As it turns out, he does just that.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: William Afton is a Serial Killer who targets children, but Matthew Lillard is clearly having a blast playing such a deliciously evil character that it's hard to totally hate him. The same cannot be said for Aunt Jane, who tries to get Mike fired from his new job by hiring goons to smash the place up, calls Abby "mentally ill" in an insulting manner, is haughty and mean to everyone all the time, and only wants custody of Abby to receive money from the state rather than out of any familial love.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The fact that the film didn't take the easy way out of using CGI to portray the animatronics, and instead used advanced puppetry and other practical effects courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop was a massive point of excitement for even non-fans of the franchise. Even critics of the film generally didn't have anything bad to say about this decision.
• Karmic Overkill: Many viewers couldn't help pitying Max and wishing she had gotten the chance to defy Aunt Jane and make a Heel–Face Turn, as even though she is working for Jane behind Mike and Abby's backs for money, she seems to be the most decent person out of Jane's entire posse — if we don't count Jane's reluctant lawyer, Doug — and even seems to be regretting double-crossing Mike and taking part in the plan by the time she breaks in with the other vandals. However, not only does she not survive the movie, but she gets the most gruesome and nightmarish death in the entire movie next to William Afton himself.
• Like You Would Really Do It: The fact that the film is rated PG-13 is a good indicator that Abby won't be killed or turned into an animatronic. It also told fans that a lot of violence would be implied or obscured rather than shown.
• Love to Hate: William Afton is a child-murdering sociopath who will go as far as stabbing his own daughter with a butcher knife just for refusing to do his dirty work. Nevertheless, Matthew Lillard's Chewing the Scenery makes him quite an entertaining villain in his own right.
• Magnificent Bastard: Golden Freddy is the genius and affable leader of the ghost children haunting the animatronics . Golden Freddy helps the animatronics in their plans to trap and later kill the various security guards that come to Freddy's Pizzeria. Upon meeting Mike Schmidt, Golden Freddy begins to bait him into doing what he says by revealing to him he'll tell Mike what happened to his deceased brother. Golden Freddy then gives a Mike a deal by playing on his emotions to want a happy family again in return for agreeing to give up his sister Abby. When Mike agrees, but later changes his mind and tries to get out of it, Golden Freddy captures him. Golden Freddy later brings Abby to the pizzeria, intending to turn her into his newest friend. When Mike defeats the killer of the ghost children, William Afton, Golden Freddy helps take him down and elects to keep him around to torture Afton for killing him.
• Memetic Badass: Mr. Cupcake. In the games, he wasn't even a character (until 4, that is); in the movie, he somehow manages to be the most aggressive, deadly and resilient of the animatronics and even has the highest body count out of any of them, his victims including William Afton. As far as many fans are concerned, Mr. Cupcake in the film was a menace who carried the team.
• Memetic Loser: Movie Bonnie, "the most aggressive of the animatronics", is not talked about for delivering one of the most brutal kills in the film, but for malfunctioning and "fucking dying" more than once. With the slapstick he suffers, many jokingly theorized that Scott Cawthon demanded Bonnie be a Butt-Monkey in the film as revenge for the fact he gave Scott nightmares back in 2014.
• Memetic Mutation: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Memetic Psychopath: The cupcake has been noted to be the most aggressive out of the animatronics, spawning jokes about its likely long history of violence.
• Memetic Troll: Some fans interpret Chica as sassy due to subtle mannerisms from her animatronic, such as when she lowered her eyelids as Mike pointed his taser at her as if to say "Really? You want to take me out with that little thing?".
• Moe: Abby is quite adorable, particularly how she befriends the animatronics towards the middle of the film.
• Moral Event Horizon: As if Steve Raglan/William Afton murdering children just like the original games and manipulating them into believing he is on their side wasn't bad enough, he ultimately crosses it when he attempts to kill his daughter Vanessa when she ultimately turns on him for all the abuse and witness of his horrific crimes.
• Narm: The scene where the ghost children rush at Mike in his dream and slash bloody gashes into him is utterly ridiculous, mainly because all of them aside from the Foxy child are using their bare hands and clearly barely touching him.
• Narm Charm:
  • MatPat's cameo as the waiter "Ness" is fairly awkward due to his somewhat corny acting, but fans of Game Theory and FNAF theories were ecstatic to see an important figure in the discourse of the franchise' lore nonetheless.
  • In a similar manner to M3GAN, the scene of the animatronics picking off the vandals one by one. It could be considered cheesy for its slow pace and their prey's hysterical screams, but it's the one sequence that embodies the suspense and menace of the iconic bloodthirsty animatronics and the franchise overall. The fact that their targets are mostly Asshole Victims makes it more fun to watch without feeling too bad about it.
  • In general, the behavior of the animatronics. One moment, they are creepy, and then they are goofy. But their childlike yet unnerving presence is touching, helped that they are possessed by the missing children.
  • Let's face it: the entire concept of Mike, Vanessa, Abby, and the animatronics making a blanket fort is, on paper, ridiculous. However, contextually, the characters involved have gone through hell both in the movie and game canons. It's also a reminder that the animatronics were once innocent children who had their lives stolen from them. So, it comes off more as endearing if anything.
• Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: It's not hard to figure out that "Steve Raglan" is the Big Bad. Even if you had no prior Five Nights at Freddy's knowledge, didn't know that Matthew Lillard had been cast as William Afton, or missed that they're the only named character unaccounted for by the film's climax, the filmmakers wouldn't waste a recognizable actor on such a seemingly nothing role.
• Nightmare Retardant: While the animatronics have been praised for looking realistically creepy in the trailer, a significant portion of fans found the animatronic's red eyes to be rather distracting, as it just makes them look like they're stoned. However, in the film proper, these red eyes are only prominent at the end as the animatronics drag Afton's springlocked corpse away, with the rest of the film having them sporting their standard mascot eyes with a subtle orange glow.
• Older Than They Think: This film isn't actually the first time the animatronics had red eyes (not counting obvious ones like Withered Bonnie, the Nightmare animatronics, and Daycare Attendant’s moon form). Freddy has red eyes whenever you break his music box in the "Parts And Service" minigame from FNaF VR, and all the animatronics have them while haywiring in FNaF AR.
  • Some fans were surprised that Mike Schmidt isn't Michael Afton and has no relation to William Afton in this incarnation, but it hasn't been confirmed as the case in the games either, aside from some evidence from licensed material of unknown canonicity and a shared first name.
• Shipping: Let's just say that this film got many fans on board with shipping Mike and Vanessa, a pairing many fans didn't know they wanted.
• Shocking Moments: Vanessa revealing the murderer as William Afton had audiences cheering, but her revealing he's her father had them shaken. For new watchers, the twist itself is surprising, but for veteran fans, it's a huge reveal as the two's relationship in the games has yet to be outright confirmed and can be interpreted in different ways.
• Signature Scene:
  • Aunt Jane's crooks breaking into Freddy Fazbear's Pizza after Mike's second night and smashing it up, with the animatronics putting their threat on full display for the first time by killing them all off. The Cupcake devouring Carl's face and Freddy chomping Maxine in half are the two standout kills.
  • William Afton getting springlocked during the climax. Seeing one of the most important moments in the franchise come to life onscreen is enough to make any fan go hog wild. It also ends with Afton dropping his iconic catchphrase, "I always come back!" which can elicit thunderous cheers from an audience of fans.
• Tainted by the Preview: The teaser trailer for the most part left a very promising and faithful first impression, but some fans criticized the animatronics' glowing red eyes, feeling that they're not as effectively creepy as the natural endoskeleton eyes — black with tiny white pupils — in the games. The later full trailers have downplayed the red eyes, focusing more on the standard mascot eyes with a more orange tint in the dark, and the film itself does not have the eyes go full red until the very end when they turn on Afton.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Shadow Freddy appearing in the unlisted security cam video by Universal.
  • Balloon Boy appears as a small, unnerving doll that gives both Mike and the taxi driver a jumpscare.
  • Sparky, the famous FNaF hoax, of all characters is referenced, both as the name of a diner and later on as an actual dismantled suit.
  • A springlock suit based off of the Ella Doll appears, used by Vanessa to explain springlocks to Mike. It's also the suit the animatronics want to stuff Abby in.
  • While people expected her to appear at some point in a possible sequel, many fans were caught off guard by this universe's version of Vanny showing up in the film based on the first game.
  • The ice cream place Mike goes to at the start of the film has a very familiar logo: a certain magical rainbow that all Five Nights at Freddy's World fans have learned to hate.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Red-eye criticisms and jokes aside, Jim Henson's Creature Shop has gotten massive praise for their work on Freddy and the gang. It looks like the characters literally leaped out of the game into live-action, and the fact that they're actual physical animatronics on the set as opposed to CGI has won many over.

---