Night Five is a solid attempt at an adaptation, however it falls short as a piece of cinema

I've never been much of a gamer, however, one of the few games that did get me invested was the original Five Nights at Freddy's franchise. Yes, like all kids and preteens in the 2010s I was sucked deep into the incredibly complicated lore that this seemingly simple narrative revolving around a haunted pizzeria chain possesed. Sure, the enjoyment of it faded over time, but it's still partly a nostalgic piece of my early years. So with the Blumhouse feature film adaptation all fans (and even former enjoyers who have a nostalgic tie-in to the original games) had been waiting for years to finally get released, I decided to take a brief look at some fandmade content. One which being a feature length fan film called Night Five, which acts as a direct adaptation of the first game.

I'll be pretty brutally honest here, but I didn't enjoy this take nearly as much as I hoped I would.

Now, don't get me wrong, the amount of effort that went into this flick is clear as day (or should I say, night?). It's obvious that the production team were big fans of the game and that they tried their hardest to include as many storybeats, characters, settings and other references to both the first game and it's many sequels and spin offs on what was very much a shoestring budget. And I honestly applaud them for not giving up on this and sticking with it to the very end, as well as getting it to be feature length since most fan films are usually shorts. As somebody who dabbled into filming fan films myself I know just how tiring and challenging the whole process is, so this review is in no means trying to attack the creators or say that it sucks as an adaptation because it doesn't, in fact, as I had already mentioned, it's incredibly faithful to the lore of the source material and I have only respect for the filmmakers and actors behind it.

However, if I look at this with a critical eye and see it as a piece of cinema, it's just not very good. But why exactly is it like this? Well let's start off with...

(1) The Writing

Before I get to the more negative side of the story, I'd like to give credit where credit is due. Whilst the writing isn't phenomenal, it does a great job of bringing the world, characters and even mechanics of the game on screen and it's clear that this truly was a passion project. Some elements of the original trilogy of canon tie-in novels written by Scott Cawthon (the creator of the franchise) and Kira Breed Wrisely (The Silver Eyes, The Twisted Ones and The Fourth Closet) are also present, althought they're pretty minor factors as far as I've noticed, however, I'm glad that they did indeed pay hommage to another very important staple in the series' history.

There are also some decently executed moments of tension, for example the fairly intense cold open and the series of orientation tapes that perfectly illustrate the growing paranoia of the pizzeria's last security guard that went missing under unkown circumstances.

However, is all of the writing good if we look at it objectively?

Well, not particularly.

Don't get me wrong, it's not terrible, in fact I've seen far worse writing even in big budget studio backed Hollywood productions, but it would be nigh impossible to call it good or really that great. In fact it's meh or unintentionally funny at best, which would have worked fine if it went for a goofier so bad it's good approach (like, for example, the 2021 horror comedy Willy's Wonderland, which, coincidentally, shares a lot of simmilarities with FNAF), however, it wishes to be treated like a serious supernatural mystery, failing at it thanks to a galore of plot holes and cliche dialoge.

All in all, despite some good elements sprinkled throught it, the writing of the film doesn't really live up to it's premise and it really feels like they could have done atleast one or two more drafts in order the flesh out the story, setting, lore and characters more.

(2) The Acting

Again, just like with the writing, I won't harp on this aspect too much.

You can clearly see that these people are fans of the games and that they're seriously trying to get as accurate portrayals of the characters as we've seen them in canon media prior to this project. Not to mention that all of them are, after all, first time actors and, as somebody with a tad bit of acting experiance myself (more on stage than on screen though), I understand how hard it is for one to perfectly nail a performance on their very first try. For example, Tom Hanks' first role was in a terrible made for TV fantasy movie called Mazes and Monsters and he, wouldn't you know it, isn't particularly good in it. Granted, he was the only person in the whole cast of that shitshow that suceeded in showing atleast some emotion and skill and would go on to do bigger and better things.

Anyways, where were we?

To be fair, the acting here does have a sort off so bad it's good quality to it due to this effort and, whilst it isn't very good if looked at objectively, it's decent if you do take that aspect into consideration prior to watching it (trust me, I've seen stuff that's been acted dozens of times worse than this that I couldn't bring myself to atleast smile or snicker at because of the fact that I was roaring in pain brought on by the shere cringe before my eyes).

There isn't even an actor I'd single out as particularly bad or particualrly good in my eyes, they're all about on the same level and that helps me judge all elements that make up this film on more or less equal ground.

(3) Any Positives?

Ok, that's enough of trashing this film. I really don't mean to sound like I hated the viewing experiance even though I didn't. Let's talk about some positive aspects it has.

As I had previously mentioned the storyline is very faithful to the lore presented in the games as well as supplimentary material and I applaud the creators for trying to stick to this aspect as close as possible as I enjoy seeing maximum faithfullness with any adaptation of a piece of media I enjoyed.

The soundtrack is actually pretty neat and achieves the desired aeshtetic and atmosphere of the 90s, which served as a great deal of inspiration for the first game in the original series, very nicely. It also doesn't detract from the horror atmosphere which is the case with most soundtracks in low budget horror flicks, so I'm glad they not only got their cake, but ate it as well.

The lighting and cinematography are rather well done and you can clearly tell that there's a semblence of talent hidden within this flick, proving that the director could certainly work on far superior things in the future. At no point did I feel like they were flat or generic, but always like the production team had a

clear goal intended for every aspect of this film.

The effects on the pizzeria animatronics, the main stars of the whole show, also look downright remarkable for something filmed on a shoestring budget, the most of which was probably spent on them. They might look a tad shabby and are clearly fake, but, the same thing could be said about the effects in the upcoming Blumhouse adaptation and even the original games. Looking realistic or particularly scary was never the point to these characters, not even in universe, so I'm very pleased with how the production team brought them to life.

So, in the end, would I actually reccomend this to anyone?

As a matter of fact I would.

Sure, it might not be a great piece of cinema, but it's a legitamately well made, faithful and admirable indie produced adaptation. It may be questionabley written and awkwardly acted, however, despite all that, I'm proud the creators didn't decide to simply give up halfway throgh the process, actually sticking with it until the very end, wishing to bring their vision of the project to life. I'm quite happy for them and wish everyone involved with the project moves to something bigger and, who knows, maybe even better.

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