I MUST confess total unfamiliarity with the Five Night’s at Freddy’s media franchise, prior to learning of its film adaptation, which has just hit cinemas. Somehow, the 18 video games and 31 comic books released since 2014 completely passed me by. Perhaps I’ve been living under a rock? It would seem that this one is pretty popular.

Originally conceived by Scott Cawthon, the series revolves around the goings on at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a once-successful but now abandoned restaurant and entertainment centre. Freddy Fazbear is the centre’s animatronic mascot. He is, as the name suggests, a bear.

Freddy’s not alone at the joint. There are three other mascots: a rabbit named Bonnie, a chicken called Chica and Foxy, who is, of course a fox. In the film, they’re voiced by Jade Kindar-Martin, Jessica Weiss and Roger Joseph Manning Jr, respectively. Kevin Foster plays Freddie.

The gameplay is generally straightforward. Each night, after midnight, the centre’s mascots come to life. Night at the Museum, however, this is not. The quartet seek not fun and games but to brutally murder any man, woman or child still in the building.

Players typically inhabit the role of the centre’s night time security guard, who must arm himself with a variety of tools in order to survive each shift. Most of the action is entirely contained within the security control room.

Josh Hutcherson plays Mike Schmidt, the latest of Freddy’s security staff, in the film, which comes directed by Emma Tammi and from the producers of M3gan. For the benefit of dramatic appeal, Mike does not spend the entire film in his control room. He’s not alone at the centre either. A struggling guardian for his younger sister, Mike has no choice but to bring Piper Rubio’s Abby along for his shifts.

This becomes a problem, however, when it transpires that Freddy and the gang are, in fact, possessed by the troubled souls of deceased children and are prepared to go to great lengths to make Abby one of their number. So much for ‘you sleep, I work.’ Released just in time for Halloween domination, Five Nights at Freddy’s looks set to be another sure bet for horror hit making studio Blumhouse. A modest budget won’t be hard to exceed, while the plummy 15 rating should see teens flood the multiplex. Let’s hope they all survive the night.