Review by Josh Lacher
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, directed by Emma Tammi, was released last week, and as someone who knows too much about the lore in that series, I was excited to see the movie. The movie is a continuation of the prior film, picking up a year after the first one, and continues building up the franchise. This one seemed to be bigger, better, and with more scares compared to the first one, which many had complained about. The scares in this movie were definitely amped up as playing right to the line of a PG-13 rating with the violence.
It seemed this movie struggled with keeping a well-rounded and cohesive story compared to what is known to happen within the games it is based off of. Without giving much away, the story diverges from several plot points in the game concerning characters and their goals/morality. While I go into an adaptation movie expecting changes to be made and not everything to be one-to-one, the changes made feel too different and out of nowhere. It seems that the co-writer of the movie and creator of the games, Scott Cawthon, is good at generating these ideas and lore for this movie and the franchise, but the execution is the last bit that needs to be worked on.
This movie worked on a budget of about $36 million and made around $109 million globally. This current box office success helps set up the next chapter in the saga, however this would have to be wanted by the fans. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics currently rate it 14% while the audience rates it 88%. I think that it is a good movie for the fans and for deeper lore, but it may not attract the casual audience.
Rating: 6.7/10
Review by Ethan Pulvermacher
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” roughly follows the story aspects of the eponymous video games, just as the first movie did. Though, much to the disappointment of some fans, the first movie deviated somewhat from the lore of the video games, and so too did its sequel, and arguably further so. But, approaching this movie from purely a film standpoint, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is nothing special whatsoever.
The beginning scene gives the audience the perfect impression of what the movie will have to offer—utter confusion. Charlotte, a seemingly lonely young girl, witnesses a child being abducted inside of the Freddy Faz
bear’s Pizzeria during its heyday. Distraught, she begs for help from the adults around. In a bizarrely inhuman turn of events, despite Charlotte being panicked and on the verge of tears while begging for help, every adult she pleads to rudely dismisses her. This eventually leads to her saving the child but being killed in the process, causing a butterfly effect that leads to the present day, with the pizza chain being largely abandoned.
It’s this profoundly bizarre writing that continues throughout the entire movie, leading to many sequences that either seem unnecessary and forced or riddled with plot conveniences.
Unfortunately, even what was arguably one of the more compelling aspects of the first movie, being the sibling relationship between main characters Mike and Abby, is somewhat sidelined in the sequel. Instead, it takes more focus on Vanessa, the daughter of the serial killer and main villain of the first movie, William Afton. She intends to dismantle her father’s legacy, as he co-founded the pizzeria as a means to kill children, and ends up finding herself conflicted as she tries to make amends with Mike and Abby, who almost found themselves victim to Afton in the first film.
While her character has potential, she simply does not have enough substance to carry her weight in the film. Mike and Abby’s relationship also becomes somewhat lackluster as a result of the lessened focus.
The story beats of the movie also feel notably worse than the first, despite following an eerily similar path. A good portion of the movie is just a wild goose chase, with characters running back and forth between locations trying to find one another. It feels almost directionless.
Though while these three main characters do have their moments, the same cannot be said for much of the rest of the cast. Most every other character comes off as wildly uncompelling, especially with the “twist” villain at the end that just comes across as bland.
One positive about the movie, just like with the first, are the props and set design. The pizzeria looks great, with pretty much all of it, including the animatronics, being done practically. In particular, the animatronics were done by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, notable for being founded by the creator of The Muppets. While CGI can obviously be seen in some moments in place of the practical props, it’s still to be appreciated.
In terms of its cinematography, it is absolutely nothing to write home about. There is the occasional interesting composition, but the film is shot in a way that comes off as very boring and typical. Very rarely do shots meditate on their subjects, nor do they even stay still. Everything is constantly moving and cutting back and forth, leading to the occasional cool shot composition being lost within seconds in a sea of mediocrity.
The movie concludes in a fashion that can only be described as baffling. Unlike the first film, which had a fair amount of resolution in the end, its sequel presents us with a predictable plot twist before cutting to credits. No resolution is to be had, not with the characters nor any sort of themes the film may have been attempting to present. It just ends. While it’s obviously attempting to set up a third film, the ending really encapsulates what the entire film felt like: unnecessary.
One thing that can be said is that, despite everything, the film seems to have been made by people who genuinely cared for it. It didn’t feel devoid of personality, and it felt as though it was sincerely attempting to connect with the fans. But ultimately, it fails to leave much of an impression, and it fails to do much outside of what comes across as poor attempts at fan service.
Rating: 2.5/10