When the first Five Nights at Freddy’s film escaped production hell a few years ago, fans were happy to finally see the series hit the big screen. Was it perfect? Absolutely not, but it nailed the overall vibe and look of the series enough so that the lack of scares and the basic plot could be ignored. The film brought in a lot of money for Blumhouse, which meant a sequel was inevitable, and in only two years, we have Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. Once again directed by Emma Tamni, this sequel promised to be scarier, expand the story, and include even more killer animatronics. Did they succeed, or did this sequel need a little longer in the oven?
It’s been two years since the end of the last film, which had William Afton finally pay for murdering children, but things haven’t returned to normal. Mike, his younger sister Abby, and Afton’s daughter Vanessa are still dealing with the traumatic experiences that occurred at Freddy Fazbear Pizza. Vanessa is haunted by visions of her deceased father, Abby misses her friends (the animatronics from the first film), and Mike is trying just to hold everything together. It’s already not an ideal situation, but when Abby is contacted by her friends to come help them at a different pizzeria, a whole box of secrets and horrors is set to be unleashed once again.
Five Nights at Freddy’s has a metric butt-ton of lore and story beats, which have made it difficult to “properly” adapt. The first film got around this by only including the basics, with a few easter eggs and nods here and there, but the second film doesn’t follow the same approach. Instead, they’ve crammed this film full of references, lore tidbits, and combined at least three games' worth of story, and it kinda works.
I wouldn’t call it good by any means, as the story here is all over the place and at times nonsensical, but it’s fun. The film knows what it is and leans into the absurd nature of the franchise, which makes up for a lot of the story's shortcomings while watching. You’ll definitely enjoy it more if you’ve played the games (or watched the Game Theory videos). However, even if you have no clue what’s going on, the stupidity of the circumstances still offers some value.
And just a side note, for anyone saying that this film isn’t lore accurate because they didn’t follow the games' stories perfectly, just shut up. The lore of Five Nights at Freddy’s is held together with duct tape and prayers, and Scott Cawthorn had no master plan when he made the games. I would bet money that the way the lore was created was: Scott released a game, people theorised the story, Scott would take those ideas and put them in the next game without thinking about the future. If anything, the films could be considered the “complete” lore, since he now has all the theory pieces. My point is, the films take aspects from every game and combine them into a story that doesn’t require over 30 YouTube videos to understand.
All of the main cast from the first film returned, and while I wouldn’t nominate their performances for any awards, they all know what type of film this is and look like they’re just having fun. Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt is still so fun to watch figure out the supernatural animatronics, even if he has slightly less to do this time around. I also enjoyed how by the end of the film, he’s the only main character with common sense (getting out of dodge). Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa takes on a more prominent role in the story, with more call-backs to her childhood, and she does a pretty good job portraying that type of trauma, even if it’s a little overacted at times. Piper Rubio as Abby Schmidt this time felt like a tool to get the plot going, and she didn’t feel as important compared to the first film. Rubio does a good job, but there’s just not much for her to work with here.
The three big newcomers for this film are Skeet Ulrich as Henry, Mckenna Grace as Lisa, and Freddy Carter as Michael. Each of these three doesn’t get much screentime compared to the main trio (especially Skeet), but they do well with their limited time. Freddy Carter, in particular, did really well, even providing the biggest jump scare (for me) of the film with his creepy ass smile. Grace is pretty good as Lisa, the paranormal investigator, and the way her character changes throughout the film added an interesting dynamic to the story. AND while Skeet had less than a few minutes of screentime, I’d expect him to play a bigger role in the eventual third film.
Lastly, Matthew Lillard does make an appearance again as William Afton through flashbacks and hallucinations, which is the perfect way to include him in this film. Some might be upset at his omission from most of the film, but I liked how he haunts the narrative, even when he’s not physically there. It’ll make his eventual return as Springtrap later on all the more terrifying for the characters and the audience.
The one aspect of the first FNAF film that everyone agrees was phenomenal was the animatronics and their designs, and that’s no different here. Once again created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the animatronics (new and old) look like they were ripped straight from the games. They nailed the plastic look of the toy animatronics, with Toy Chica getting some extra attention with the removable beak (just like the games). Toy Chica was also voiced by Megan Fox, whom I had my doubts about, but she did surprisingly well. The same can be said for Toy Freddy and Toy Bonnie, voiced by Kellen Goff and MatPat, with both looking both harmless and murderous when needed (I didn’t expect MatPat to have that high-pitched voice, though).
But it’s not just the shiny new toys; the film also includes the withered animatronics, versions of Freddy and friends with missing limbs and parts of their exoskeletons showing. These guys look a lot more intimidating than the toy animatronics and the OGs from the first film, with Withered Bonnie having half his face missing, being the creepiest to me. It is a bit unfortunate these guys aren’t in the film longer, so hopefully they show up in the next one.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is by no means a good film, but it’s also not as bad as some people say. Sure, the plot is all over the place, some of the performances aren’t exceptional, and it isn’t all that scary, but it is a fun time. If you go in knowing that you’re getting just under two hours of camp storytelling with phenomenal animatronics, you’ll have a blast. I am still interested in seeing where Blumhouse’s newest franchise will go next, especially after the ending and post-credits scenes set up some interesting plot points for the future.
Have you seen Five Nights at Freddy’s 2? What did you think? Was it better than the first? Let us know in the comments where we can talk all things FNAF.
