--- title: "Five Nights at Freddy's" year: 2023 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/five-nights-at-freddys" fi1m_id: "five-nights-at-freddys" imdb_id: "tt4589218" tmdb_id: 507089 wikidata_id: "Q21512706" fi1m_score: 42 critics_score: 41 critics_reviews: 16 published: "2026-09-10" updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:04.865215+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) Directed by Emma Tammi · 1h 50m · MPA PG-13 · Horror, Thriller ## Identity Five Nights at Freddy's - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/five-nights-at-freddys - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** five-nights-at-freddys - **IMDb ID:** tt4589218 - **TMDB ID:** 507089 - **Wikidata ID:** Q21512706 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4589218/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/507089, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21512706 **Fi1m score: 42** · Critics 41 from 16 reviews *In a sentence:* The robots plainly weigh a great deal and the film still cannot get one to land on anybody > Jim Henson’s Creature Shop has built a band of superb animatronics, and Emma Tammi’s film keeps them on the stage while Josh Hutcherson has bad dreams in another room. Worth a look for the puppets; not much of a horror film. ## Synopsis Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is a security guard who cannot hold down a job. He has custody of his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio), an aunt (Mary Stuart Masterson) who wants it instead, and a memory of the day his little brother was taken that he replays every night in his sleep. A careers adviser (Matthew Lillard) offers him the only work going: night watchman at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a family restaurant that shut in the 1980s with its animatronic band still on the stage. A local police officer, Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), drops by to check on him. After dark, the band moves. Emma Tammi directs, from a script she wrote with Scott Cawthon, who made the games, and Seth Cuddeback. ## Review Scott Cawthon’s games are about sitting in a chair. You are the night watchman at a shut-down family restaurant, you have a bank of security monitors and a door that will not hold forever, and something in a bear costume is coming down the corridor. Emma Tammi’s film, written with Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback, decides that this is not enough for 110 minutes, and adds a custody fight, a brother who vanished when Mike was a boy, and a dream Mike keeps going back to in the hope it will tell him who took him. The result is a horror film that keeps leaving the room where the horror is. What is in that room is worth seeing. The animatronics were built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and they are proper puppets, with worn fur, scuffed plastic teeth and eyes that catch the light a beat after the head has turned. Marc Fisichella’s pizzeria is a real place: stained carpet, a ball pit nobody has drained, arcade cabinets under dust sheets, a stage with the curtain half drawn. Lyn Moncrief lights it from the monitors and the green exit signs and leaves the band standing in shadow at the back of the frame for long stretches. We sat up the first time Freddy’s head came round, because it plainly weighed something and the turn took as long as it should. Then we waited for the film to do anything with him, and we waited for most of the remaining hour and a half. Tammi cuts away from the creatures as if she has borrowed them and is worried about the deposit. The violence lands on passing strangers, mostly off screen, and the band spends far more of the film standing still than stalking anyone. The certificate here is a 15, which is more than the film needs. It is not the censor holding it back. Josh Hutcherson carries it further than the script deserves. He plays Mike as a man who has not slept properly in years, slow to speak and quick to apologise, and he makes the scenes with his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) the warmest thing on offer. Rubio is good at the kitchen table, drawing pictures and refusing to explain them. Matthew Lillard turns up as the careers adviser who sends Mike to Freddy’s and has more fun in five minutes than anyone else manages in two hours. Elizabeth Lail’s police officer Vanessa is handed most of the exposition and delivers it standing in doorways. Mary Stuart Masterson’s Aunt Jane is a cartoon, and not a funny one. The script is the trouble. Mike takes pills so he can dream, and William Paley and Andrew Wesman cut back to the same sunlit field so often that we began to dread it for the wrong reasons. Every return adds one detail and costs four minutes. The backstory, when it comes, arrives in speeches. Four composers are credited, Ilija Grkocski, Saun Santipreecha, Andrew Grush and Taylor Stewart, and between them they have produced a low hum we could not have described to you ten minutes after the credits. Natalie O’Brien’s costumes at least know what decade the restaurant died in. Jason Blum produces, and his better small horrors, *Get Out* among them, understood that one location and one rule will carry a film if you are strict about both. Cawthon’s own games knew it too: you cannot leave the office. Here Mike can leave whenever he likes, and does, driving home in daylight to argue with his aunt while the best puppets in the film wait for him to come back. We were bored for long stretches, and then puzzled that anyone with those robots in the building could have let us be. Most critics have landed on the same shrug, and we are with them. If you have played the games, or live with someone who has, there is an evening in spotting the posters and the props and hearing the band finally get down off the stage. If you have not, you will be watching a tired man not get eaten for 110 minutes, in a film rated 15 and built for people who are eleven. *Fi1m score 42, published 10 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics find Five Nights at Freddy’s dull rather than frightening, and the spread is narrow: nine of sixteen reviews are negative, six mixed, and only one positive. The praise clusters almost entirely in one place, the animatronics built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which several reviews call the real stars of the film. Josh Hutcherson’s lead performance earns a few kind words, and a handful of critics credit Tammi’s direction with some ambient dread and evocative detail. The reservations are just as consistent: a convoluted backstory, too much exposition and flashback, toned-down violence, and long stretches in which nothing happens. More than one review reaches for Scooby-Doo or Goosebumps as the nearest comparison. The lone dissenter is /Film, which reads it as a charming, kid-friendly horror film that respects its young audience and takes the sibling relationship at its centre seriously. Vulture sits at the other end, finding it bleak and joyless. ## Straight answers **Is Five Nights at Freddy's worth watching?** *Five Nights at Freddy's* is worth a look for its puppets and not much else, and we scored it 42. Jim Henson's Creature Shop has built a superb animatronic band, but Emma Tammi's film keeps leaving them on the stage to follow Josh Hutcherson's bad dreams and a custody fight. Fans of the games will enjoy spotting the props; anyone else will be bored for long stretches. **How long is Five Nights at Freddy's, and what is it rated?** *Five Nights at Freddy's* runs 1h 50m and is rated PG-13 by the MPA in the US. It is a horror and thriller film. **Where can I watch Five Nights at Freddy's in the US?** *Five Nights at Freddy's* is streaming on Peacock, The Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How does Five Nights at Freddy's compare to Gremlins?** *Five Nights at Freddy's* and [*Gremlins*](https://film.one/film/gremlins) both put weighty practical puppets at the centre of a horror film, and Joe Dante's is much the better of the two. *Gremlins* lets its creatures loose and delights in their bad behaviour; Tammi's film cuts away from its animatronics as if worried about the deposit. Choose *Gremlins* unless you already love the games. ### Reviews we read (17) - **Los Angeles Times**, Jen Yamato (60/100, inferred): The surprisingly gory PG-13 horror offers refreshing bloodthirst and strong practical effects from the animatronics, along with confident direction and sensory production design. However, it leans too hard into traumasploitation and convoluted storytelling conventions that dilute the scares and runtime. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-10-27/five-nights-at-freddys-review-josh-hutcherson-horror) - **Radio Times**, Terry Staunton (3/5): The critic finds it a solid shocker that follows generic horror tropes too closely, diluting the game's unique elements, but praises the animatronic creatures by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for bringing fun and frights. It risks disappointing diehard fans due to toned-down violence and convoluted plot. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/five-nights-at-freddys-review/) - **Empire**, Helen O'Hara (55/100, inferred): The film takes a muted, drama-focused approach to the video game adaptation rather than delivering scares or kills from the animatronics. It has a good heart and solid lead performance but feels toothless and disconnected overall. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/five-nights-at-freddys/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Simon Abrams (55/100, inferred): The film has enough ambient dread to explain the games' appeal but relies too much on by-the-numbers plotting and anemic character drama. Tammi excels at evocative details and atmosphere but the movie feels like a generic post-Amblin kiddy fright-fest with weak dialogue and jump scares. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/five-nights-at-freddys-movie-review-2023) - **Screen Daily** (30/100, inferred): The review calls it a lacklustre horror adaptation that fails to deliver scares or laughs, relying on clichés, resulting in a tedious experience. It praises the rendering of the animatronic creatures by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop but criticizes the serious tone and uncompelling backstory. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/five-nights-at-freddys-review/5187294.article) - **The Guardian** (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a competently made but maddeningly dull and unscary attempt to adapt the video game. The slow pace of the villains and a convoluted, nonsensical plot are singled out as major flaws that make it instantly forgettable. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/26/five-nights-at-freddys-review-halloween) - **The Telegraph** (30/100, inferred): The film is criticised for promising chills but delivering yawns, with an awkwardly plotted script and low suspense. Josh Hutcherson's worn-out lead performance is noted as a rare saving grace amid the dull atmosphere and missed opportunities for black comedy. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/five-nights-at-freddys-review/) - **Total Film**, Neil Smith (30/100, inferred): The adaptation is ploddingly predictable and gore-lite, more like a Scooby-Doo episode than effective horror despite the menacing animatronics. It fails to deliver on its scary potential and lands as a yawner. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/five-nights-at-freddys-movie-review/) - **Variety**, Murtada Elfadl (25/100, inferred): The adaptation squanders the game's creepy animatronics and unique setting in favor of a convoluted, humorless backstory for the protagonist. It features too few effective scares, repetitive beats, and uninspired direction that turns the material into a slog. [Read](https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/five-nights-at-freddys-review-1235768953/) - **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri (20/100, inferred): The movie is a hollowed-out exercise in atrociousness that is neither scary nor fun, with its soul-crushing bleakness steamrolling any promise of the premise and characters that are one-dimensional and haunted in all the wrong ways. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/movie-review-five-nights-at-freddys-is-unscary-and-unfun.html) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Frank Scheck: The film never quite figures out what it wants to be and results in a snooze, aiming for cult status but delivering sanitized violence and a tedious backstory instead of genuine scares or excitement. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/five-nights-at-freddys-review-josh-hutcherson-1235628678/) - **/Film**, Jeremy Mathai (7/10): The critic praises the film as a charming, kid-friendly horror movie that respects its young audience with dreamlike storytelling and heart. They single out the strong sibling bond between Mike and Abby, along with the effective use of practical effects and old-school horror techniques for both scares and laughs. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1430619/five-nights-at-freddys-review-campy-gruesome-gloriously-funny-good-time/) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (50/100, inferred): The review finds the film a safe PG-13 take that prioritizes character development and psychological elements over visceral horror. It singles out the Jim Henson Creature Shop animatronics and puppeteers as the real stars while noting the story drags and lacks the game's frights. [Read](https://deadline.com/2023/10/five-nights-at-freddys-review-movie-version-popular-video-game-1235583731/) - **Polygon**, Jesse Hassenger (50/100, inferred): It is not a particularly great horror movie, but it serves as a dizzying mashup of decades of pop culture that may appeal to fans; the tactile animatronics are impressive but the horror elements lack tension and are underplayed in favor of convoluted backstory. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23934016/five-nights-at-freddys-movie-review-horror-streamers/) - **Den of Geek**, David Crow (2/5): The film is a toothless PG-13 horror movie with fewer scares or laughs than old Goosebumps episodes, serving as mediocre fan service for young viewers nostalgic for the games. It wastes its amusing Chuck E. Cheese-from-Hell concept on stilted melodrama and mythology rather than creative horror-comedy. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/five-nights-at-freddys-review/) - **Collider**, Chase Hutchinson (D): The film is dull and uninteresting, failing to deliver scares while fixating on explaining the game's lore through excessive flashbacks and exposition that exhaust the viewer and show a lack of trust in the audience. [Read](https://collider.com/five-nights-at-freddys-movie-review/) - **The Wrap** (30/100, inferred): The review calls the film a tedious adaptation that replaces the game's primal fears with endless exposition, humdrum drama and jarring tone shifts. It singles out the failure to capture the experiential terror of surviving nights at the pizzeria in favor of explaining mythology. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/five-nights-at-freddys-movie-review-2023/) ## Details - **Director:** Emma Tammi - **Director:** Emma Tammi - **Screenplay:** Seth Cuddeback, Scott Cawthon, Emma Tammi - **Cinematography:** Lyn Moncrief - **Editor:** Andrew Wesman, William Paley - **Music:** Taylor Stewart, Andrew Grush, Saun Santipreecha, Ilija Grkocski - **Production design:** Marc Fisichella - **Costume design:** Natalie O'Brien - **Producer:** Scott Cawthon, Jason Blum - **Cast:** Josh Hutcherson as Mike; Piper Rubio as Abby; Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa; Matthew Lillard as Steve Raglan / William Afton; Mary Stuart Masterson as Aunt Jane; Kat Conner Sterling as Max; David Lind as Jeff; Christian Stokes as Hank - **Runtime:** 1h 50m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 27 October 2023 - **Genres:** Horror, Thriller - **Budget:** $20 million - **Box office:** $297 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4d_v-HyR4o ## Where to watch in the US - Peacock: streaming, uhd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-10.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HU, ID, IE, IN, IT, JP, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Willy's Wonderland* (2021): Nicolas Cage versus possessed animatronics, and this one lets them fight. - *Gremlins* (1984), Fi1m 80: Puppets with real weight and teeth, and a film that trusts children to enjoy being scared. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/gremlins.md) - *The Innkeepers* (2011): Two bored night staff, one empty building, and dread that builds because nobody hurries it. - *Housebound* (2014): A New Zealand haunted house comedy that finds the jokes this film kept missing. - *Child's Play* (1988): The original toy-that-moves horror, short, nasty and sure of what it is. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/five-nights-at-freddys