Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, 2025.
Directed by Emma Tammi.
Starring Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Matthew Lillard, Freddy Carter, Elizabeth Lail, Wayne Knight, and Skeet Ulrich.
SYNOPSIS:
A year after the events of the first movie, Abby decides to return to Freddy’s to reconnect with her ‘friends’.
Video games have always made for interesting movie adaptations, and you would think that a game about killer animatronic animal characters in a fast-food outlet would be prime material for some spooky fun. 2023s Five Nights at Freddy’s was such a movie (in theory) but it tried too hard to be all things to all people instead of being the silly children’s nightmare it should have been – or could have been if it had been made by Joe Dante in the 1980s – and pretty much represented the vacuous space that mainstream genre crossover movies occupy when their target audience is either too niche or the material is not well served for broader audiences. But it did well financially so, naturally, we got a sequel.
It is one year after the events of Five Nights at Freddy’s and Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is trying to help his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio) forget about the animatronic monsters possessed by the ghosts of dead children that she believes are her friends. Unfortunately, Abby is still pining to be with Freddy, Chica and the gang, and when Mike leaves her alone for the evening while he goes on a date with police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) – who also happens to be the daughter of (deceased) serial killer William (Matthew Lillard) – Abby decides to go back to where it all began so she can connect with her old friends once again, although their intentions are not overly friendly.
And if you throw several other sub-plots – including a high school science fair with rotten teacher Mr. Berg (Wayne Knight), a paranormal investigation TV show and a festival designed as a memorial to the slaughter in the first movie – into the mix then you have a busy movie, but busy does not always mean interesting because Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, as much as it tries to be exciting, has too much going on at such a sluggish pace that none of it congeals into a coherent story, and when the heart of that story is basically possessed robots going on a killing spree and it is all a bit tame, then you have a problem.
Killer robots have been done in movies before, and no doubt shall be again (if James Cameron has his way, at least), but it seems that in trying to get across the video game aesthetics the movie has taken on the video game trait of huge monsters just appearing for the playable characters – or in this case the hero, Mike – to take them on. It works in a game, but in movie world you have to apply at least a little bit of logic for it to make sense, and giant mechanical rabbits with ears taller than door frames don’t just magically appear behind open fridge doors – except they do here.
Of course, this is a horror/comedy movie and so everything needs to have a certain suspension of disbelief to make it work, but Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 – just like the first movie – doesn’t go for the horror as much as it should and what you end up with is a concept that has legs and an execution that won’t let them run, instead making them lumber about like the killer robots, who really are not all that threatening.
Add to that some seriously unlikeable characters, acting that feels like “that’ll do” first takes and too much time with sub-plots no one really came here for, and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 doesn’t even hit the mark of being so bad it’s good. However, there are a few saving graces that elevate it above the first movie, those being some inventive camerawork, Wayne Knight as Mr. Berg – whose incessant bullying of Abby doesn’t go unnoticed by her ‘friends’ – and the reuniting of Scream co-stars Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich, who pops up in a brief scene as a grieving dad. Alright, they don’t share the screen but for a certain demographic the fact they are both in the same movie will no doubt make it one to add to their watchlist.
For everyone else, however, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is a fairly dull sequel to a very dull first movie which hardcore gamers might get some enjoyment out of by spotting the references, but beyond that the appeal is extremely limited.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Chris Ward
