Movie: Five Night's at Freddy's (2023) Caution Spoiler Alert

 Five Nights at Freddy's

Came out; 2023

Time; 1 hours 49 minutes

Watched: Peacock

Rated: PG-13 for strong violent content, bloody images and language

IMDB Rating; 5.6/10

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring;

Josh Hutcherson as Mike

Piper Rubio as Abby

Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa

Matthew Lillard as Steve Raglan/William Afton

Mary Steward Masterson as Aunt Jane

Kat Conner Sterling as Max

Story Line;

Mike Schmidt, a night guard at a local diner, becomes troubled after confronting the truth about the animatronic costumes that reside: they aren't just robots. They are alive. Will he be able to survive all five nights at this haunted diner? Or is something more sinister at play?

Thoughts:

This was Willy's Wonderland with heart. It wasn't a bad movie, and I personally don't know the Five Night's at Freddy's story line, but having seen the first movie it was very similar.

I spent some time watching this trying to figure out why Mike was given the job, it was clear that Steve was up to something but figuring it out was hard and I loved that! 

It had such a twist ending. Matthew Lillard is such a great actor with amazing range. I love watching his movies, from Scooby Doo to this one!

CAUTION; Major Spoiler Alert

Mike Schmidt, a mall cop, loses his job after assaulting a negligent father who he confused for being a kidnapper. He is sent to visit career counselor Steve Raglan, who offers him work as a night guard at an abandoned family diner known as Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Though initially reluctant, Mike accepts the offer after social services threaten to take custody of his younger sister Abby, and pass her over to his estranged aunt Jane, due to concerns of Mike's emotional stress.

On the first night, Mike falls asleep and has a dream where he witnesses the kidnapping and presumed murder of his brother Garrett, whom was taken away by an unknown man. Mike is then met by five unknown children whom allegedly witnessed the kidnapping, and promptly run away. On the second night, Mike meets police officer Vanessa Shelly, who shows him around the restaurant and tells him that the place closed in the 1980s after five children were murdered there; the bodies were never found. Mike's dream is repeated, though after Mike attempts to confront one of the children, he is attacked and wakes up to find himself wounded physically, though his wounds are treated by Vanessa.

On the third night, Jane hires a group of delinquents to vandalize the restaurant in order to get Mike fired, an act which would enable her to gain custody of Abby. As the break-in occurs, the restaurant's animatronic mascots - Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Foxy and Bonnie - come alive and murder the delinquents. One of the vandals happens to be Abby's babysitter Max, which requires Mike to bring Abby to his next shift. The animatronics become active once more, being hostile towards Mike though being friendly towards Abby. The animatronics befriend her, though Vanessa and Mike are hesitant, with the latter discovering that the animatronics are possessed by the ghosts of dead children, whom are led by a boy with blonde hair and allegedly talk about a "yellow rabbit" consistently.

In between shifts, Mike explains the disappearance of Garrett when he was young, which became a cold case and that he had been taking sleeping pills every night in order to repeat his dreams and find who kidnapped his brother. After panicking from Abby's increasing relationship with the animatronics on the fourth night, Vanessa warns Mike to not bring her to the restaurant again. Mike gets Jane to babysit Abby, much to her frustration, as he goes back to the restaurant during the day and overdoses on his sleeping pills.

Inside the dream, the five children appear again and tell Mike that he can stay with Garrett forever, in exchange for Abby. At Mike's house, Jane is murdered by "Golden Freddy", a variant of Freddy Fazbear possessed by the blonde boy, who takes Abby back to the restaurant. Mike is attacked several times inside of his dream and wakes up strapped to a torture device that attempts to tear off his face. He escapes the machine and flees the restaurant, but is critically injured until Vanessa arrives to help him.

After Mike details his dream, Vanessa reveals that she is the daughter of the serial killer that murdered his brother and the other five children, William Afton, and that the animatronics and souls of the children are under his control. She also tells him that they will likely attempt to murder Abby, much to Mike's dismay. He drives to the restaurant with the necessary equipment to disable the animatronics and save Abby, who is taken into a backroom by Chica. Chica tries to kill Abby by stuffing her inside of an animatronic suit with springlocks, though Mike disables most of the animatronics and saves Abby. However, he is attacked by Chica's cupcake and is separated from Abby, who is attacked by Foxy but is saved by Vanessa. Both animatronics are defeated, but as the group try to leave the restaurant, William, revealed to have been posing as "Steve Raglan" and having murdered Garrett, appears wearing the now-decaying Spring Bonnie suit, knocks Mike unconscious, and re enables the animatronics.

Knowing that they need to understand the truth, Abby begins drawing a picture of William murdering the children, while Vanessa distracts and shoots him but is afterwards stabbed. Abby shows her drawing to the animatronics, causing them to turn on William. Surrounded by the pizzeria's main mascots, part of his suit gets bitten off by the cupcake animatronic, triggering the springlock machinery inside of it and crushing his body as he is dragged into the back room of the restaurant and locked away. Mike and Abby carry a wounded Vanessa out of the restaurant, though she falls into a coma afterwards and is taken to a hospital. Mike continues to look after Abby and they return to their normal lives.

In a mid-credits scene, Golden Freddy watches as the dying William bleeds out in the corner, closing the door on him soon after. In a post-credits scene, Balloon Boy is shown appearing inside a taxi driver's car.