Five Nights at Freddy’s(2023)

Submitted by Evan B

Pooper:
The animatronics are possessed by the ghosts of children that were abducted and killed by William Afton, the owner of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Afton also abducted and killed Mike and Abby’s brother Garrett (though Garrett isn’t an animatronic). With the help of Afton’s daughter Vanessa, Mike and Abby undo the brainwashing of the ghosts and the ghosts cause the animatronics to fight and defeat (but don’t kill) Afton. The trio escape Freddy’s, but Vanessa is left in a coma.

LONG ENDING:
Mike (Josh Hutcherson), is a down on his luck young man. He is raising his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) after their parents died. He has very little money and is in a custody dispute with his Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson). He begrudgingly accepts a job offer from a career counsellor (Matthew Lillard) to work as a night security guard for a long-closed family entertainment center (thing Chuck E. Cheese) called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Freddy’s was closed in the 1980s after various children disappeared there. But the owner refuses to sell the place and hires security guards to keep the pizzeria safe from vandalism.

Other than being startled several times by a statue of “Balloon Boy,” Mike mainly sleeps at his job (and during any other free time he gets), When he sleeps, Mike dreams of a childhood trauma. While playing at a family campout with his brother Garrett, Mike loses sight of his brother. When he finds Garrett, it is in time only to see a stranger abduct his brother and drive off with Garrett in a car. When Mike dreams at Freddy’s, random ghostly children also appear in his dreams.

Mike befriends a police officer named Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), whose beat includes Freddy’s. Vanessa knows a lot about Freddy’s and shows him the giant animatronics that played for children when Freddy’s was opened. They include Freddy (a bear), Bonnie (a purple-colored rabbit), Chica (a chicken), Foxy (a pirate fox), and Mr. Cupcake (a talking cupcake). Later, when some vandals hired by Aunt Jane to break into Freddy’s (she hopes the break-in will cause Mike to lose his job and, therefore, custody of Abby), the animatronics spring to life and kill the intruders.

Mike brings Abby along one night and learns the animatronics are sentient when they begin playing with Abby. Later, Abby says the animatronics told her that they are inhabited by the ghosts of the abducted children. Mike realizes that these are the same children appearing in his dreams. Vanessa (who knew the animatronics were sentient) is unhappy when she learns that Abby has made friends with the animatronics. She tells Mike they are dangerous. Vanessa shows Mike that a powerful spring-lock mechanism fastens the outer shells of the animatronics to their electrical skeletons. Should the mechanism activate near a human, it would likely kill them.

Mike confronts the children in his dreams. They say that they can cause Mike to have only happy dreams where he is living with Garrett and his deceased parents. In exchange, they want to play with Abby… forever! Mike initially agrees to this, but then changes his mind. The ghosts then cause the animatronics to put Mike into a death trap that he barely escapes with Vanessa’s help. She explains that the Freddy’s owner – William Atherton – was a murderer that hid the bodies of the abducted children victims in the animatronics (Atherton also abducted/murdered Garrett, though Garrett isn’t one of the ghosts). Vanessa explains that Atherton then brainwashed the ghosts to do his bidding. She tells Mike that the animatronics can briefly be stunned via electricity and gives him a taser. Meanwhile, Freddy goes to Mike’s house where he convinces Abby to come to Freddy’s to “play.”

Mike manages to tase Freddy, Chica, Mr. Cupcake, and Bonnie. He rescues Abby just before she is impaled by the spring-lock mechanism of a costume after Chica put her inside one. The siblings are then confronted by Foxy and a man in a yellow bunny animatronic suit. The yellow bunny reveals himself to be the career counselor that found the job for Mike, but in actuality is William Atherton (having changed his identity since the 1980s). They fight, and are soon joined by Vanessa, who reveals herself to be Atherton’s daughter (explaining why she knew so many things about Freddy’s but was unwilling to intervene). Atherton stabs Vanessa and prepares to kill Mike and Abby too. Abby makes drawings of William killing the children and when the animatronics see the drawings, it undoes their brainwashing. They attack Atherton and he is non-fatally impaled when the spring-lock mechanism in his bunny suit is activated. Atherton is dragged away by the animatronics.

The film ends with Abby and Mike living happily together. They visit Vanessa (who is in a coma) at the hospital. Abby then asks if they can visit their friends (the ghosts/animatronics) at Freddy’s. Mike replies with a maybe.

In a post-credit scene, the Balloon Boy statue scares a taxi driver (cameo by Cory “CoryxKenshin” Williams) who brought Freddy and Abby to the Pizzeria