Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (FNAF 2), the adaptation of the game with the same exact name, has seen wildly polarizing views in the past month since it released. Having finally watched it myself, let’s see what it has to offer.
The film opens with a flashback sequence at the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant. A girl named Charlotte Emily (Audrey Lynn Marie) is pulled by her best friend Vanessa Afton (child: Miriam Spumpkin, adult: Elizabeth Lail) to go have a piece of cake instead of sitting by the stage alone. While sitting there, Charlotte sees a boy being lured into the back rooms by William Afton (Matthew Lillard), the founder of the restaurant, in a yellow rabbit costume. Charlotte panics, attempting to alert any nearby parents of the situation, but she is ignored. As she decides to take matters into her own hands, Vanessa tries to stop her, but Charlotte enters the back rooms anyway. While she manages to rescue the boy by carrying him out of the backrooms, she collapses soon afterwards—having been stabbed by William three times in the back. She falls through the trapdoor onstage and is caught by the Marionette animatronic, which rises with a now deceased Charlotte in its arms. William is never caught and the restaurant closes down soon afterwards as a result.
In present time, Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is trying to move on from the events of the first movie while his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio) and Vanessa are seemingly unable to. Abby asks Mike about her ghost friends over and over again, but Mike, who does not know of their whereabouts, makes excuses until Abby goes to the abandoned restaurant herself and finds that the animatronics are seemingly gone. Mike finds her sitting on the floor of the abandoned restaurant and apologizes to her for lying, but then lets Abby take something from the abandoned restaurant as a souvenir. She ultimately chooses the FazTalker, a talking toy, and they return home together. Soon afterwards, Toy Chica (voice: Megan Fox) contacts Abby through the FazTalker, asking her to come to the original Freddy’s location. She meets up with the Toy Chica, Toy Freddy, and Toy Bonnie believing them to be her ghost friends from the first movie, just in different bodies. When Vanessa finds out about this, she realizes that Abby is being manipulated—the Toy animatronics are possessed by Charlotte, who is actively attempting to use Abby to escape the restaurant. Vanessa attempts to tell Mike, warning him that Abby is in danger, but Mike doesn’t take the warning seriously.
Soon after, Vanessa returns to the restaurant herself and tries to placate Charlotte, who now haunts the Marionette and demands Vanessa disable the barrier that’s preventing her and the Toy animatronics from leaving the restaurant. Vanessa refuses, knowing that Charlotte will use the animatronics to kill people in her quest for revenge. Charlotte manages to capture Vanessa, holding her hostage until Abby returns to her “friends”. Charlotte threatens to kill Abby unless Vanessa hands over the code to disable the barrier and Vanessa ultimately agrees, freeing the angry spirit. What happens, then, as Abby continues to walk hand-in-hand with the enemy? How will Mike get his little sister out of this situation, and how will Vanessa manage to stop Charlotte’s murderous rampage?
Nobody goes into the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise expecting actual good storytelling. I know this is one hell of a statement to open my review with, but it’s something I said in my review in the first movie and it’s something I most fervently stand by. This franchise has a reputation for having some of the most convoluted lore so it’s not exactly surprising that the movies—written by the same man who made the games, Scott Cawthon—is the same way. That, however, does not excuse the fact that the second movie is somehow even more perplexing than the first.
There’s an old trope with horror movies where the story constantly revolves around the characters making dumb decisions, and unfortunately this film in particular feeds directly into this. Abby has somehow not learned a single thing from the first movie, running off many many times throughout the course of the movie without telling anyone as to where she’s going. Vanessa and Mike, despite having a fairly close relationship following the events of the first movie, are just incapable of communicating properly.
One major problem is that Mike almost never takes Vanessa seriously during this film. After their dinner together, Mike admits that he’s been trying to “fix“ Vanessa this entire time—something that is incredibly insensitive to say. When Vanessa realizes Abby is poking around the original Freddy’s restaurant, she tries to warn Mike but Mike tells her that she wants to move on and Vanessa’s parting warning to him is incredibly vague and frankly unhelpful. Mike doesn’t realize Abby is in danger at all—in fact, in his ignorance, he’s not aware that there even is another Freddy’s at all. This is only made worse by the ending of the film, where despite everything Vanessa has sacrificed for Abby and Mike, Mike tells her to stay away from them because she was unable to tell him the full truth before it hit him in the face. It’s good representation of how women are often treated in society, especially when they are trying to convey something important—how they are ignored, then ultimately blamed for their reaction.
As someone who has enjoyed the game franchise for a very long time now, this movie is still fun. It’s stupid for sure—it’s not very horror-esque or coherent—but I quite enjoyed watching it. There are references to things that non FNAF fans wouldn’t understand—things that might feel out of place unless you’re fairly knowledgeable in the games. The big one for me was the Circus Baby animatronic during Vanessa’s dream sequence, when she tries to confront her father. I love this character in the games, and to see this on the big screen was a huge highlight for me. In this vein of thought, the set and the props are just fantastic. I love that they chose to create the animatronics by hand instead of simply using CGI—and even more impressive that they look extremely accurate. The places all feel very real, even if the sequences in said places don’t. The acting, despite the confusing storyline, is also great—but is unfortunately bogged down by the plot. It’s confusing, but the acting and the set design keep it grounded for the most part.
From a horror standpoint, this movie is an absolute train-wreck—but I found that I enjoyed it a lot more when I was just watching it as a FNAF fan with no expectations. It’s funny, goofy, and honestly the train-wreck part of it is just a part of the charm. The negative reviews from critics are right, but honestly so are the positive reviews from general audiences. This franchise taken seriously takes away half the fun, and considering the current state of the film industry, this lightheartedness is certainly not the wrong direction to go in.
If you would like to support the author, click here to receive an analysis of the sequel’s trailer. As the website is still being worked upon, you may have to wait 3-5 business days to receive your bonus content. Thank you!
Comments