Five Nights at Freddy's (4½ Stars)

I watched the trailer for "Five Nights at Freddy's" twenty-five times before I went to see the film. That's not an estimate. I watched it exactly twenty-five times. I know the exact number, because it was shown before every film at the Fantasy Film Festival last month. That's how many films I watched.

Having said that, the trailer gave me the wrong impression. It looked like a security guard taking his daughter with him to work at an abandoned fairground, where he was attacked by killer robots. But that's not what happens in the film. First, it isn't his daughter, it's his (much) younger sister. Second, it's not a fairground, it's a pizza parlour. Third, the robots aren't killers. Not all of them, anyway.

Mike Schmidt is a socially awkward young man. He's done a series of jobs, but he's always fired within a few weeks. After the death of his parents in an accident he's taking care of his younger sister Abby. Her age isn't stated, but the actress who played her was seven at the time of filming. Abby is distant, maybe due to the loss of her parents. She spends all her time drawing pictures or talking to an imaginary friend.

Mike is offered a job as a night watchman at a disused pizza parlour called Freddy Fazbear's. It needs protection against vandalism. The pizza parlour is full of still functional pinball machines, and there are also giant animal robots that play music. When it's least expected they come to life. Abby makes friends with the robots and plays with them every night.

So there's no danger? Of course there is, but I'm not going to give away everything. All I'll say is that Mike is haunted by dreams of his brother being abducted when they were small children. These dreams are somehow connected with Freddy's Pizza Parlour.

Based on what I've read, critics don't like the film, but it's been a commercial success with the public. The fans are right, the critics are wrong.