Five Nights at Freddy's 2 review

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2:

FREDDY FAZBEAR’S SECOND ATTEMPT AT BIG SCREEN TERROR IS A LAUGH RIOT FOR BAD MOVIE LOVERS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: * out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, and Chica in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2

 

            Freddy Fazbear and his friends are back to cause more…terror? in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, the follow-up to the 2023 film adaptation of the popular Five Nights at Freddy’s video game series. I did not enjoy the first Five Nights at Freddy’s movie very much and even called it one of the worst films from 2023, I should also mention that I had never played any of the games. 

            I felt that for a movie about killer Chuck E Cheese-like animatronics, it was neither scary nor campy enough to properly deliver what it promised and found most of the film surprisingly dull. The animatronics looked good and I guess the production design did capture what a FNAF movie should look like (From what I had seen from the games) plus Matthew Lillard was an absolute treasure in it. 

            Despite it being lambasted by critics, the first FNAF movie was a huge hit becoming Blumhouse’s highest-grossing film and seemed to have been better received by fans of the source material. Because of that success, we now have a sequel with Emma Tammi (The Wind) returning to direct and Josh Hutcherson (Zathura, Bridge to Terabithia, The Hunger Games franchise) and Elizabeth Lail (You, Ordinary Joe, Mack & Rita) reprising their roles as Mike Schmidt and Vanessa Shelly. 

            Despite my feelings towards the first movie, I was somewhat open to a sequel and hopeful that it would either be a massive improvement over its predecessor or at the very least help me understand where the fans are coming from. There had been times before where crappy horror movies received surprisingly decent follow-ups like with 2016’s Ouija: Origin of Evil and the 2017 Conjuring Universe movie, Annabelle: Creation so maybe Five Nights at Freddy’s 2would be that franchise’s version of those films. 

            Well, I have to admit Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 surprised me quite a bit…oh, not because it’s good or anything like that, but because it is so bad and so incredibly stupid that it’s hilarious. Technically, I found Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 to be a lot more fun and entertaining than the first, but not in the ways the filmmakers probably intended. 

             The film is set a year after the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and follows former security guard, Mike Schmidt (Hutcherson) and police officer, Vanessa Shelly (Lail) keeping the truth from Mike’s 11-year-old sister, Abby (Piper Rubio reprising her role from the first movie) concerning the fate of her animatronic friends. But when Abby sneaks out to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, it sets into motion a series of terrifying events, revealing dark secrets about the true origins of Freddy’s, and awakening a horror that’s been hidden away for decades. 

            The film also stars Freddy Carter (Shadow and Bone, Free Rein, American Carnage) as Michael, Theodus Crane (The Walking Dead, Underground, Black as Night) reprising his role as Jeremiah, Wayne Knight (Seinfeld, Jurassic Park, 3^rd Rock from the Sun) as Mr. Berg, Teo Briones (Pretty Little Liars, Chucky, Final Destination: Bloodlines) as Alex, Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters franchise, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, Scream 7) as Lisa, Skeet Ulrich (The Craft, Scream, Riverdale) as Henry Emily, and Matthew Lillard (Scream, Scooby-Doo 1 and 2, The Life of Chuck) reprising his role as serial killer William Afton; and features the voices of Kellen Goff (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, My Hero Academia, Shin Ultraman) as Toy Freddy, Megan Fox (Transformers franchise, Jennifer’s Body, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014-2016)) as Toy Chica, and YouTuber Matthew “MatPat” Patrick as Toy Bonnie. 

            Overall, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 may satisfy fans of the games (I can’t speak for them), but fans of movies that are so bad they’re good will surely have a great time with this film. This movie is bad in all the best ways from the terrible dialogue to bizarre choices made that left me laughing and puzzled in a way that reminded me of the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. 

            I shit you not, there is a sequence where a Freddy animatronic is walking towards Josh Hutcherson and he simply covers his face with a Freddy face plate in order to make it think he’s an animatronic…and it works. I laughed hard during this scene because it takes effort to put something this stupid in a movie, there is no scene that idiotic in the first movie. 

            There’s another scene in the beginning of the film where this little girl sees a boy being taken into a back room of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and she’s trying to warn the parents that he needs help, not only are they not paying attention to her, but they’re saying shit like “Quiet kid, the adults are talking!”. Unless there’s some kind of Pennywise from It-like curse put on the adults, no adult especially a parent would ever talk like this. 

            The movie actually does fix my biggest issue with the first, not enough crazy sequences involving the animatronics because this shit goes bonkers. There’s a scene where a bunch of animatronics are chasing Elizabeth Lail in a car, Toy Chica squeezing Newman from Seinfeld’s head open is great (The film is PG-13 though), and a climax where the original animatronics fight the Toy animatronics, the rare times where I was unironically having fun with the film. 

            The script is terrible and filled with laughably cheesy dialogue, but I will give credit that Josh Hutcherson still does a fine enough job as the lead despite the lousy material, he’s not phoning his performance in and it seems like he is trying to be a likable protagonist for these films. Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa is better here and is given more to do in the story, had the films themselves been better, I can see her and Hutcherson having great onscreen chemistry. 

            Where the first Five Nights at Freddy’s was simply bad and bland, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is the reverse Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (A video game movie sequel that improved upon the first) where it’s even worse and ends up being more entertaining and fun because of it. With the exception of the Marionette (Which is legitimately creepy), the animatronics are about as scary as the giant Grinch head that scared the Who teens off the mountain in the Jim Carrey version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the script is hilariously awful, and the film is filled with so many awkward and bizarre scenes that I just had a blast with FNAF 2. 

            I can’t believe I’m saying this, but filmmakers…don’t listen to any criticisms people had with this movie, give us more entertaining and hilariously bad garbage for Five Nights at Freddy’s 3. This is a beautifully awful film and you should go see it now!