Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Isn’t Perfect Either
Nearly three years ago, we published our review of Blumhouse’s first Five Nights at Freddy’s film ahead of the Halloween season. As someone who got into the franchise in its infancy, I was looking forward to seeing how they would scale up for the second film. After all, the second game in the series itself was one I remember improving upon and expanding on almost every concept explored in the first game, a feat I’d consider the sequel a better game overall for. Going into the sequel of the film adaptation, I was really hoping it would be sized up in all the best ways in that regard, right down to ending on my favorite song The Living Tombstone has produced of the franchise, It’s Been So Long.
At least they got that last one right.
As a game, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 puts all the control at the player’s fingertips to man their station and put up a fight against an overwhelming amount of new and old faces. The new mechanics introduced are genius in how they both add strategy and aid in the story’s first attempt at some serious worldbuilding. As a movie, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 feels multiple steps back from its predecessor, which is already a bad sign since, as stated in our original review’s title, Five Nights at Freddy’s isn’t perfect itself. Though, we also mentioned in the title that it’s okay it’s not perfect. Every franchise (even specifically video game adaptation franchise) has some growing pains it and its audience need to bear before hitting the ground running.
So can someone please explain why it feels like nothing happens in this film? Be warned we’re getting into spoiler territory with this review. I’m sorry, I try to keep these reviews mostly free of spoilers, but I need to fully rip into this one because it’s just so baffling to me.
Michael Afton (Freddy Carter) being separated as a character from Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) is a fine change. That doesn’t bother me so much as his motivations are just outright stated with no definitive reasoning. Was there any conditioning or psychological torture that led him to be so accepting and willing to carry William Afton’s (Matthew Lillard) legacy on? Are we just supposed to accept Vanessa’s (Elizabeth Lail) evil brother she never mentioned has been waiting this whole time for more people to come to the original abandoned flagship location? I know that sentence just went on and on horrendously, but that’s seriously the ACTUAL justification we’re fed and meant to accept.
Nothing in this movie feels like it matters. The toy animatronics are tearing up the whole neighborhood targeting childrens’ families, and Vanessa is still the only officer on the scene? With how much the adults of the town seem to condemn Fazfest, heightened police activity should be a given. Oh, sorry I forgot the adults in this movie are useless and don’t do anything. Mike doesn’t take what Abby (Piper Rubio) says seriously, and even the opening scene with the marionette features a million unhelpful adults who won’t take Charlotte (Audrey Lynn-Marie) seriously. This movie feels like it’s actively AGAINST progressing the plot in any satisfying way. Every beat of the antagonists’ plot continues on without a hitch until the last act where Mike rushes through the FNAF 2 gameplay loop and rushes back to his house to fight the toy animatronics and Michael Afton with Vanessa. And then the classic animatronics from the first film/game show up to defend the Schmidt family (from the “franchise location” as they call it in this film) before they shut down and the childrens’ spirits… go to heaven or something? It felt like a hamfisted attempt at resolving an unfinished business storyline that either didn’t fully develop or I didn’t care about at all.
Letting Scott Cawthon (the creator of the game series) in the writer’s room is something I hope to myself isn’t the core problem with this film series, but the signs are just horrible. He has such a specific flavor of making-this-up-as-we-go that plagues specifically his work in the franchise that no one else can replicate. Good for him still having creative control, but I just don’t think he knows how to write a compelling narrative for the big screen at all. I still want to see a Five Nights at Freddy’s 3, but Scott either needs to step his game up next time, or collect his paycheck and get out now.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is now playing in theaters, and is available for purchase/rental on digital platforms.