Director: Emma Tammi
Writer: Scott Cawthon
Stars: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio
Synopsis: One year has passed since the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Former security guard Mike has kept the truth from his 11-year-old sister, Abby, concerning the fate of her animatronic friends. When Abby sneaks out to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy, she sets into motion a terrifying series of events that reveal dark secrets about the true origin of Freddy’s.
Video game movies have been around for decades, but they’ve never reached the extreme heights of success within the film industry until very recently. From the slow rise of The Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy to the revitalization of Mortal Kombat in movies, videogame adaptations have clearly been on fire, and the mega success of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s, is no exception. The first film, despite its negative critical reception, was a smash success and was seen as a roaring comeback for the creator of the game series, Scott Cawthon. So of course, they were going to make a sequel, but unfortunately, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is even more of a pathetic attempt at a film adaptation than its predecessor. You can feel every moment of this sequel trying to up the ante in the scares and presentation, but it’s all let down by abysmal jumpscares, laughably bad dialogue, and a screenplay so focused on dumping as much game lore and references as possible that it barely resembles a complete film. The children and die-hard fans this sequel is clearly targeted for will likely be the only audiences appeased, but they deserve better than a sequel that insults their intelligence and easily cements itself as one of the year’s absolute worst films.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 picks up about one year after the events of the first, with Mike (Josh Hutcherson) still reeling from his experience at the long-abandoned Freddy’s Pizzeria, but he’s doing his best to help his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) and new friend from the previous film, Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) forget about the trauma they all experienced. While Vanessa tries to get over the pain that her evil father, William Afton (Matthew Lilliard), inflicted upon her for so many years, Abby still misses the memories she formed with her animatronic friends. In the background of these events, unwanted guests lurking about in the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria and darker secrets about the past of Freddy’s are uncovered, surrounding yet another mysterious child death in the ‘80s.
The central issue that destroys Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 from the get-go is the screenplay and story at its center. One would imagine that having the creator of the games himself as the sole screenwriter would yield, at the very least, more interesting results, but Cawthon’s script only seems concerned with pouring as much lore and easter eggs from the games as possible. For all its many faults, at least the first film had a clear semblance of basic plot developments and structure, but this sequel simply lacks interest and decides to dump monotonous, convoluted lore about the formation of other FNAF characters, like the marionette who acts as this film’s antagonist. Not only is the explanation of the marionette’s conceit preposterous, but it adds to the further problem of every character in this film acting as an exposition machine; every performance in the movie truly feels like an “in it for the paycheck” experience, and it only adds more to the tedious experience of watching the story unfold.
Then there’s the direction of the film itself, which has a whole other set of issues. Director Emma Tammi clearly wants to lean into more genre elements than the first film ever entertained, so it’s a shame that they’re so poorly conceived here. The film often uses the laziest loud jump scares imaginable to scare audiences, and there’s absolutely no innovation to be found in the horror besides ambient quiet followed by loud noises or crazy stuff flying at the screen. It remains the most annoying type of way to execute on elevating tension and is predictable nearly every time. Matters are not helped by the film’s PG-13 rating, which only hampers any potential terror that could be witnessed in the kills that are so clearly meant to be show-offs.
To top it all off, as an irony of sorts, the film doesn’t even have an ending, choosing to instead leave jingling keys in front of the eyes of mega fans, teasing what’s next for the future, essentially encapsulating the core problem with this movie. FNAF 2 is only focused on teasing and providing for the fans first and actually forming a cohesive film second, and there’s a world where both can be done with balance to provide an experience that can be enjoyable to everyone, rather than a jumbled mess for anyone who isn’t initiated.
The sole positive aspect of this sequel, like the first, remains the great work done by Jim Henson’s creature shop on the titular animatronics, but Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is devoid of quality in nearly every other aspect. From its baffling screenplay to its laughable attempts at scares and developments between these characters, this sequel is truly adrift and only exists to tease and jingle keys rather than providing anything else worthy of substance, cementing it as a truly hollow experience.
