Warning: spoilers ahead.

At Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, fans and newcomers alike will be dying to grab a slice.

Released Friday, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” brings the legendary video game series of the same name to the big screen after nearly a decade of dominance in the indie horror genre. Director Emma Tammi and FNaF creator Scott Cawthon, who worked alongside Tammi on the screenplay, have preserved the game’s premise – dead children possessing animatronics in the family pizzeria where they were killed. Throughout the film, a comfortable middle ground is reached, where fans can rejoice in iconic moments from the original series while those unfamiliar with FNaF can enter a story steeped in sprawling lore.

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Kicking off the scares, the opening scene details a security guard scrambling to escape the pizzeria, which shut down in the 1980s as a result of the disappearance of five children. The guard pushes his way into the ventilation system and dashes through the hallways – only to be caught by the animatronics. They then strap an old animatronic mask onto his face, its whirring gears ripping him to shreds off-screen.

With an immediate addition to the kill count, the film establishes the expectation that audiences will see gruesome deaths consistent with the game. But to avoid running afoul of its PG-13 rating, these scenes steer away from gratuitous gore, featuring enough carnage that audiences can imagine the aftermath. The animatronics spare no one unfortunate – or foolish – enough to venture into the tomb that is the pizzeria.

The film also pays homage to the FNaF community through a trove of easter eggs. For example, when Mike (Josh Hutcherson), who later becomes the next unfortunate security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, goes to order some food, the employees can be seen wearing pins with a cartoon rainbow. This character brightening their uniform is in fact an infamous villain, Chica’s Magic Rainbow, from the game “FNaF World,” hated for its absurd difficulty and piercing insults to players. Such an obscure reference speaks to the film’s attentiveness to its fans, who can feel rewarded for their devotion to the series and its unending list of titles.

However, the demands of FNaF fans do not fully define the film. Cawthon and Tammi have tapped into the main storyline of FNaF to create a refreshing cast of characters, whose experiences of family trauma anchor the narrative. The film’s tightly organized structure differs from that seen in games, which largely conveys the plot through scattered, inscrutable clues meant for only the most determined players.

The main character Mike is entangled in a custody battle with his Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson) over his sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), providing a clear framework for the overarching narrative. For Mike, keeping custody of Abby means more than defying his smarmy Aunt Jane – he explicitly fears losing another sibling, as he did when a mysterious figure kidnapped his brother right before his eyes during a family camping trip. His encounter with loss creates a poignant tone, which becomes heightened once he starts working as a security guard at the pizzeria and meets the terrifying animatronics.

Surprisingly, the animatronics themselves become sources of tenderness and emotional nuance throughout the film. When Abby joins Mike during a night shift, she befriends the pizzeria’s machine ensemble, and each of them begins to behave more like the curious child residing within. A janky sequence follows, with the animatronics dancing to loud music and building forts out of tables with Mike joining in alongside Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) – a cop who accompanies him on his shifts and possesses an uncanny knowledge of the pizzeria. Audiences can enjoy a softer side of the animatronics during this pause between kill sequences.

While admittedly fun to watch, the playfulness of the animatronics produces a tragic tableau that affirms the depth Cawthon and Tammi have granted to the narrative. The scene in which the animatronics, Mike and Vanessa lay down – all exhausted from building the fort – displays an attempt to recapture the childhood joy others took from them. By featuring the animatronics’ desire to return to the vulnerable children they once were, the film humanizes them in a way the games could never hope to achieve.

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The film’s two monumental tasks – delighting fans with callbacks to the game and converting the source material into a coherent plot for the uninitiated – merge during the animatronics’ final confrontation with their killer. Pushing the PG-13 label to its limit, the dramatic scene mirrors the famous death sequence from “Five Nights at Freddy’s 3.” The animatronics surround the culprit, who dons the rabbit suit he wore when he killed them. In the ensuing scuffle, the spring locks in the old suit activate, ripping into his sides and ensuring his death. Given its cultural significance for FNaF fans, this scene alone can clinch the film’s place as one of the best movie adaptations of a game to date.

Whether you’ve followed the series since its inception or have only heard of it through whispers in the dark, we can all celebrate the enduring horror of “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”