There’s a big difference between what makes for a good video game and what makes for a good movie, and too many of the people behind video-game movies fail to account for that difference. That’s a big reason why most movies based on video games — even the wildly successful ones — aren’t very good.
Sitting in the movie theater watching a preview screening of “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” I heard people around me cheering for what were clearly references to elements from the mega-popular video games. But just showing fans something that they recognize isn’t the same as telling an effective, engrossing story.
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‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ incoherently expands the franchise mythology
The core concept of “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” both as a video game and as a movie, has an obvious, immediate appeal: What if Chuck E. Cheese-like animatronic characters came to life and started murdering people?
The first movie did an admittedly mediocre job at exploring that concept (and was easily bested by the Nicolas Cage film “Willy’s Wonderland”), but at least it kept the focus on the central hook. Josh Hutcherson’s security guard, Mike Schmidt, was stuck overnight at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, attempting to escape from the possessed, homicidal robot entertainers.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 | Official Trailer – YouTube
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Despite its title, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” amounts to something like 15 minutes at Freddy’s, spending most of its time elsewhere, piling on even more convoluted and unnecessary backstory, only some of it drawn from the extensive video-game lore. An opening flashback to 1982 reveals the existence of an earlier Freddy Fazbear’s location, where previously unmentioned murders were committed by serial killer William Afton (Matthew Lillard, returning for an extended cameo).
That sets the stage for new spirits haunting new animatronic characters, targeting Mike, Mike’s young sister Abby (Piper Rubio), and William’s adult daughter Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), a former police officer who helped Mike in the first movie. The animatronics are all slight variations on the same big-eyed design, aside from a creepy puppet known as the Marionette, which becomes the main villain after possessing a TV ghost-hunter (Mckenna Grace).
The character motivations are as muddled as the plot
Following the events of the first movie, the now-11-year-old Abby still misses her “friends,” the spirits of Afton’s child victims that originally possessed the animatronics. Her supposedly deep attachment to those nebulous ghosts makes her seem delusional, but the movie positions that attachment as its emotional core, even more so than the relationship between Mike and Abby that anchored the first movie.
Mike is now sullen and rude, and Hutcherson gives a listless performance that comes off like he’s annoyed to be starring in another “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie. Vanessa’s PTSD is inconsistent, and her dynamic with Mike shifts from romantic to antagonistic seemingly at random. Lillard’s former “Scream” co-star Skeet Ulrich shows up for one scene as an exposition-delivering parent and is then never seen again, and various video game-adjacent figures make superfluous cameos.
(Image credit: Universal Pictures)
Even the main villain has unconvincing motivations, and is not nearly as menacing or intense as Lillard’s William was in the first movie. There’s no one worth caring or rooting for in this installment, which may be why I heard far more enthusiasm in the theater for the appearance of each new, slightly tweaked animatronic than for any of the main characters’ triumphs.
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‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ is a misfire on all levels
Video-game creator Scott Cawthon takes over as the sole screenwriter this time, and his skills in one medium do not translate to another. Returning director Emma Tammi struggles to stage genuinely scary set pieces, and it doesn’t help that the movie has to adhere to a teen-friendly PG-13 rating and avoid showing any explicit violence.
Tammi relies on cheap jump scares rather than immersive dread, with no memorable kills or confrontations. The characters make consistently dumb choices that place them in pointless danger, but that never generates any real suspense.
For some fans, none of this may matter as long as they see elements of the games they loved brought to life on the big screen. But for anyone hoping for a movie that succeeds on its own merits, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is a complete waste of time. By the end, it’s clear that the plot isn’t even going to reach a conclusion, simply setting up for the inevitable third installment. Better to just play one of the games again instead.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” opens December 5 in theaters
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