Nostalgia Critic wants more menace from Five Nights at Freddy's

Doug Walker singles out the pizzeria break-in for praise, while viewers keep returning to Matthew Lillard's very different history with masked villains.

Channel: Channel Awesome Story of October 29, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 174,016 views a day, 5.7 times a normal first day on this channel (30,463).

Five Nights at Freddy's - Nostalgia Critic

Doug Walker likes the idea of killer animatronics. Getting them to be frightening for a whole movie is where he thinks Five Nights at Freddy's runs into trouble.

In "Five Nights at Freddy's - Nostalgia Critic," his verdict on the 2023 game adaptation is less outrage than frustration: an enjoyable premise has become a film he finds mostly boring. The exception comes when intruders break into Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria and the mascots turn dangerous. "This scene delivers everything you want out of a killer animatronic movie," Walker says.

The review reached roughly 69,000 views in six hours, putting its early pace well ahead of Channel Awesome's usual regular-video start. Its comment section had already drawn nearly seven times the channel's usual full-day comments.

Much of that conversation circles around Matthew Lillard. Viewers are connecting his role here with his live-action Shaggy in Scooby-Doo: the actor once helped unmask sinister figures at spooky attractions, and here he gets to be on the other side of the mystery. Walker also praises Lillard's performance, even while finding the villain reveal predictable.

The friendly middle stretch, including the animatronics building a fort with Abby, gets a colder reception from the Critic. He wants tension rather than a pizzeria playdate.

There is another reason for revisiting Freddy's, too. Near the end, Walker admits: "Did I review this film just so I could talk about the second one? Yes. Yes, I did."

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Nostalgia Critic wants more menace from Five Nights at Freddy's The full story on Trari: https://trari.com/en/story/channelawesome-19660/

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The numbers

The Freddy's review is running well ahead of the channel's usual opening pace, with an especially busy comment section.

the video's first day

usual first day here

30,463

this video

174,016

subscribers

1,430,000

no significant change in the last 7 days

total views

1,328,118,860

views per day

122,570

typical day: 284,889

the video

views

69,054

likes

3,751

comments

799

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

Fandom Entertainment

1,500,000

Channel Awesome

1,430,000

Mr Sunday Movies

1,420,000

The Hollywood Reporter

1,360,000

Lindsay Ellis

1,350,000

Thomas Flight

1,310,000

As of October 29, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.