I stepped out of the theater almost crying.

Not because of the jumpscares. Not because of the blood. Not because of my past fears.

But because my childhood dream had finally become a reality.

I went to see the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie on Oct. 28, the day after its release.

The one-hour-and-50-minute movie is based on the indie horror game series “Five Nights at Freddy’s” that was started in 2014. The movie was overlooked by the games’ original creator Scott Cawthon and directed by Emma Tammi.

By the time I watched it, there were already many reviews about the movie, and discouragingly, most were negative.

But luckily, most were very wrong.

While I see how critics would find the movie’s plot lackluster, especially if many of them barely knew anything about FNaF, it was a pretty solid film.

It had amazing performances by Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard, along with all the other actors. Hutcherson and Lillard portrayed their roles so well, I don’t think I could ever see other actors in them. The scare and gore factor was at a perfect level. The animatronics and set were absolutely amazing. And while yes, the movie isn’t completely game accurate, the fact that we even got a movie is huge.

Especially for the fans who had been with the characters since the beginning.

Many have been part of the fandom since the game began. And for many, like myself, it’s been a huge staple of their childhood.

The movie, like the games, follows the story of a security guard who got assigned the night shift at the abandoned establishment of Freddy Fazbears’ Pizza. The establishment closed due to kids going missing, and recently so have the security guards.

After continually getting fired from jobs, the protagonist, Mike Schmidt played by Josh Hutcherson, gets offered this job as a last resort to support his little sister Abby, played by Piper Rubio. Unknowing of the dangers the pizzeria would hold, he starts working the night shift and begins to learn the secrets of the children that went missing, as well as those of his own employer.

The director did a superb job of translating the main plot, even with all its changes, to the big screen.

While some fans are mad about the movie’s changes to the lore, I expected these changes from the start, as it’s something that has been constantly repeated in game-to-movie adaptations.

It’s not really that much of a bad thing, as it has been known that the movie wouldn’t be connected to the game lore anyway. This gives a new chance to make new theories about the changes in lore, allowing fans to go through the fun experience of pointing things out as they did when the games first released.

The main gripe I saw people having with the movie was that it wasn’t scary enough. The film is PG-13 and many think that the gore was too mellowed down and that it would have been better as an R rated film. I disagree as while a good amount of fans are around adult age now, much of the fandom is still made up of teens.

The gore for me was at a perfect in between, showing a good amount of what happens and just implying parts that were more disturbing. I know friends that wouldn’t be able to enjoy the movie if it was R rated, so sacrificing a gore-fest was a good way to go.

I understand why critics and normal movie-goers would dislike the movie.

I really do. It’s not the usual adaptation that sacrifices everything unique about itself to make the Hollywood standard.

Anyone can watch the movie, anyone can hate or love it. At the end of the day, this is a movie made for the fans in mind.

It’s for those kids who would play until one in the morning and repeatedly watch MatPat theory videos. It’s for those kids who would draw their own fan characters for the franchise. It’s for those kids who would repeat the lore again and again to their friends every time a new easter egg was revealed.

This isn’t meant to be Hollywood’s next big thing, and in all honesty, I don’t want it to be. It’s a movie meant to appeal to people’s nostalgia while at the same time, providing a new story based on games that thousands love.

Overall, watching this movie is an extremely fun experience that I would recommend to all fans, new and old. It may not be a masterpiece, but who says something needs to be perfect to be enjoyable?