If there was a critic predisposed to enjoy Five Nights at Freddy's 2, you're reading him. I defended Emma Tami's critically panned first adaptation. I've written about the overblown "curse" of video adaptations here on IGN. Let that appropriately color my disdain for Tami's malfunctioning sequel bright red like an alarm. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 brings back the Henson company's impressive animatronics for another creepy kid's meal, but this time, they're bound to an atrocious story that underestimates how video games and movies are two hugely different mediums.
Fives Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon claims sole screenwriting duties this time (no Tami or Seth Cuddeback, who shared the job on the first film), and the dropoff is catastrophic. Cawthon shoves Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) and lil' sister Abby (Piper Rubio) into a reassembly of his 2014 point-and-click survival horror sequel, reopening Freddy Fazbear's original location. Here, where William Afton (Matthew Lillard) began his killing spree, Abby attempts to reunite with her lost friends—animalian animatronics possessed by the souls of murdered children. What she finds is far more sinister, and unleashes a new evil from Freddy’s derelict restaurant shadows: The Marionette. Afton's daughter, Vanessa Shelly (Elizabeth Lail), tried to subdue and hide the possessed puppet—but now, inhabited by the soul of Afton's bravest victim, Charlotte (Audrey Lynn-Marie), it's vengeful and on the prowl.
Before things get heated, let me confirm the animatronics are innocent. Jim Henson's Creature Shop doubles its presence with the inclusion of "Toy" versions of Freddy's gang. These sleeker, more metallic versions stand just as impressive as the fuzzier, more Chuck E. Cheese iterations we've already beheld, and remain a masterwork of practical effects dominance. Foxy's "Mangle" form, a failed pull-apart activity experiment, gives a freakish junkyard appearance, while The Marionette dangles and flails with a noodle-like uncanniness that juxtaposes Freddy's robotic motions. Tami understands how to bring these not-so-gentle giants to life and does so with larger-than-life appeal—but that's where my praise stops.
Oh! Animatronics and The Newton Brothers’ partytime score that’s inspired by 8-bit soundtracks and cheesy kiddie restaurant tunes. There, that’s two whole things I applaud! Now, the not so fun stuff.
Fazbear fanatics will know precisely what to expect from Five Nights at Freddy's 2, because Cawthon cares more about parading the hits than reworking his "security guy in a room" playability. Tami's saddled with a screenplay that's cramming nutritionless Easter eggs down our throat like we’re held hostage in a Cadbury production facility. Is it humorous when Hutcherson mocks a discarded Freddy faceplate, dismissing its use as a disguise—only for it to later work? Sure. But the first film is far savvier about transforming the sedentary Five Nights at Freddy's play style into a feature-length adventure. That movie hardly panders; evolution reimagines Five Nights at Freddy's for theaters. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is a step backward in that regard, trying to one-for-one gameplay elements without realizing how silly the functionality appears on-screen.
Tami and Cawthon strive to provide a more ferocious horror bite but rely on only one method: jump scares. Cawthon introduces The Marionette as a sock-puppetty villain that possesses humans and turns them into bright-eyed demons, but the film makes frustrating use of the otherwise eerie imagery. I've already written a CineFix script about the art of the jump scare, specifically how it's an additive, not the main course. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 disagrees, and renders itself frightless in the process. Tami leans into the most conventionally uninteresting tropes of PG-13 horror films in terms of terror (anything interesting happens off-screen), which includes beating jump scares like a dead horse until they're utterly redundant and predictable. Add in a terrible Instagram face-filter for whenever Charlotte inhabits someone's body—lookin' like something that'd only haunt your DMs—and woof does the film's attempt to be spookier land with a thud.
It all feels so … self-conscious and reactionary. Cawthon tries to beat complaints to the punch, which is a recipe for disaster. Don't get me wrong, Five Nights at Freddy's was viciously savaged by critics—but to backpeddle almost feels like cowardice. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 makes all the glaring video game adaptation mistakes we've seen before, which stings even worse because its predecessor does not. The game franchise is a convoluted mess of continuity, which is already seeping into Blumhouse's films. Such narrative ridiculousness is more forgivable in video games, where interactivity trumps storytelling, but movies are a different beast. Without Tami or Cuddeback, Cawthon defaults to a video game mindset that doesn't work the same in Hollywood.
Worst of all, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 suffers from a horrendous third-act problem. In that, it really doesn't have one? Cawthon treats the sequel as feature-length promotional material for whatever comes next. The Marionette deserves so much better than this film, which does a whole lot of setting up without wanting to see anything through. "Don't worry, that'll all get addressed in the sequel," Blumhouse promises as they count fat stacks of ticket sales. Cawthon pelts us with lore and rubs salt in the wounds, dumping reveal after reveal before a blink-and-you'll-miss-it conclusion that displays no fundamental understanding of filmic structure. The movie wants you, so desperately, to gasp at its cliffhanger ending, but all it does is make us want to cut the cord from this on-the-fritz series.
Game over, pull the plug, reboot the system.
The actors fight tooth and nail to wrestle any modicum of intrigue from their roles, but there are Hallmark specials that read as more genuine. Lail's tortured daughter tries to bury us in Vanessa's trauma—but then pulls a gun on her spin class buddy mid-breakdown, and we're not supposed to laugh? Hutcherson wanders aimlessly through the sequel, filling the void wherever he's needed. Then there's Rubio, the victim of adult bullying by her science teacher because there's an important robotics competition the same day as a town-wide Freddy Fazbear festival. I … can't make this stuff up, and it's all so hackily cobbled together. Skeet Ulrich, Mckenna Grace, Wayne Knight, and Theodus Crane all deserve better in supporting roles that range from rage bait to nameless sidekicks.
Frankly, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is a bare minimum sequel. Everything it's doing lacks enthusiasm. As a horror movie, it lazily pushes characters straight toward danger, stupidly keeps them there, and ruins excitement by tipping every scare. As a video game adaptation, it trots out familiar mechanics and callbacks—red and green buttons! Balloon Boy!—but treats these thrown bones as the main attraction. It's an incomplete sequel, an underwritten coming-of-adolescence story, and as a PG-13 gateway horror film, it'd be laughed out of the cafeteria by the likes of Insidious or Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Game over, pull the plug, reboot the system.
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