Director: Emma Tammi
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Struggling with his life, a down-on-his-luck guy takes a job as a night security guard at an abandoned pizza party which starts to turn his life around slightly, but when he finds the true reason for the job and why they're after his daughter tries to save her from the sentient animatronic robots loose in the building.
Review:
There's quite a lot to like with this one. One of the better elements here is the overall setup in place that puts everything in motion with his employment at the location. The entire first half with the deadbeat loser background beaten into this setup, the desire to keep his sister out of the diabolical aunt and her plans to bring the girl to live with her instead of the brother which spurns his later desire to take the job to help her all comes along together nicely. As the story goes along, the growing need to stay at the facility with how it helps him try to come to terms with the dreams that are the sole reason for his troubled life to this point becomes quite fun and generates quite a lot of depth to the kind of story presented here.
This one also manages to come off quite well with its technical qualities presented pretty much throughout the film. The setup of the facility is pretty fun and looks nice with the abandoned layout and design which is the same perfectly slick, glossy feel appropriate for this kind of mainstream film. There's also a lot to like with the animatronics at play which look distinctive and highly expressive for what they are, coming into play well with the few scenes of the homicidal robots going crazy including the attack on the trespassers or the friendly interactions with the sister that shows their varying nature. It's all fine enough to give the film a lot of likable factors to hold it up over its flaws.
This one does have some pretty big issues that bring it down. The biggest issue to be had here is the films' incessantly overlong and unnecessary setup that provides no real enjoyment or even connection to the franchise lore. The decision to go as deep as it does on the backstory of the security guard including the incident with his brother and the inability to figure out what happened then, the struggles with raising his sister alone despite the constant intrusions of the aunt to take her away and his struggles with finding a job are just not that interesting to see play out. It's not the kind of material that's warranted in this kind of film where it's supposedly about sentient animatronic robots going berserk in a run-down pizzeria.
That indeed leads to the other factor with this one where it needs more material usually warranted in this type of setup. With the aforementioned backstory already in play, the need to keep playing out each of these scenarios in detail trying to figure out the connections to everything keeps this from really unleashing the kind of mayhem expected here. The inability to let the killer animatronics go crazy and stalk a bunch of intruders inside the location is a big thing here since that's the main reason to enjoy this one and not doing that does hurt this one quite a bit for those expecting something similar to the chosen franchise.
Overview: ***.5/5
Fine for what it is but maybe not the movie most might want, those who are expecting more of a straightforward killer robots of the loose effort might be disappointed here despite the film as a whole being quite fun. Viewers who are free of those expectations or looking for a kid-friendly gateway horror film on a familiar franchise could be enticed to this one the most while others expecting something like those video games or find the issues to be underwhelming should heed caution with this one.
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