Midvale, Utah — Following the success of the original movie, work was quickly begun on a sequel to smash-hit Five Nights At Freddy’s. Directed by Emma Tammi and starring Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Lail in leading roles, the successor to the first film has finally arrived. Based on the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” series of games that effectively created the “mascot horror” genre, it follows Mike, Vanessa, and Abby as they both try to fend off a new set of animatronics and attempt to move forwards from the events of the previous movie.
Perhaps the most immediate flaw of the movie was that the dialogue was absolutely terrible. This is certainly not unique to Five Nights at Freddy’s 2—it was a flaw in the first movie as well—but that does not excuse the fact that the dialogue seriously impacts the movie’s ability to create tension and create an environment in which the events of the movie can be taken seriously. It is, perhaps, the film’s single biggest flaw.
Despite this, however, there is perhaps a redeeming factor: the performance of Hutcherson in this movie has marginally improved over its prequel. While in the first movie Hutcherson’s character often seemed affectless, here he plays a more convincing part. This does not save the awful script, but it does soften the blow—while Hutcherson is unable to redeem the lines, he has evidently improved.
The other actors, unfortunately, did not have the slight improvements that Hutcherson had. While watching the movie, they often felt “flat,” as though the actors did not truly care about their parts in the film. This led to an amplification of the flaws in the dialogue—while Hutcherson was able to save the occasional bad line through a semi-convincing performance, the other actors hardly ever did this. Lail’s character in particular did not seem like a real person experiencing the events of the film, but instead often acted as though they were being forced to be in the movie. In fact, the only parts of the film in which the actors seemed to be convincing was in the scenes in which their character dies—here, they did seem to genuinely be afraid of the animatronics.
The animatronics, however, were also perhaps the best part of the movie. Though the main set of three animatronics are more or less a rehash of those from the first movie (much like the games), the other animatronics were generally far more interesting. Without going into too much detail, one in particular that is introduced within the first 5 minutes of the movie moves in an unsettlingly “natural” way, in sharp contrast to the slow-moving march of the others. Furthermore, the introduction of these new animatronics also leads to the death scenes to be more disturbing than those in the first movie.
The death scenes were another major strength of the sequel. While in the first movie there was only one death in particular that stood out as particularly brutal, this movie has at least four that match (and, in one case, surpass) the brutality of that one death. Furthermore, the kill count of the animatronics adds more weight to their appearances, as we can see firsthand why exactly we should be scared of them.
This leads us to another (and albeit a much smaller) flaw in the movie—most of the jumpscares (of which there are many) are obvious. Typically you are aware of when the character is going to be startled by a rogue animatronic, which may soften the impact of the jumpscares for some viewers. Though the designs of the animatronics are generally spookier, being aware of when the jumpscares will occur can undo the initial surprise of their appearances.
Sadly, the movie is not solely jumpscares and spooky animatronics—it attempts to have a plot as well. This is perhaps another of the biggest flaws in the movie. The plot is incredibly thin, as even though they evidently wanted to have a story outside of the characters being hunted by animatronics, they also had to build off of the shaky plot in the first movie. They attempted to tie the story into the lore of the games, which sounds like a good idea on paper, but in practice results in a story full of plot-holes and poor decisions. Often one may find themselves raising their hands in shock—not because of the jumpscares, but rather because of the ridiculous decisions that the main characters make. For instance, much like the previous film, a certain character refuses to disclose vital information despite supposedly being on the side of the rest of the main cast.
Ultimately, despite being in general a terrible movie, it was still somehow enjoyable to watch. Even though the plot was thin, the dialogue was silly, and the plot-holes were so big that it seemed as though the movie were a figurative wheel of swiss cheese, I found myself enjoying my time watching the film. I found that due to the film being more true to the game than its predecessor, it was a delight to watch. At the end of the day, even though it is utterly mediocre, it is still a fun watch, and as such I recommend that any fans of the games go see it at least once.
