“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2”

When a little movie comes out of nowhere and grosses close to $300 million dollars, it’s a given that a sequel will be forthcoming. Thanks to the Blumhouse team, part two of the saga of a haunted family entertainment center has arrived in the form of “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” a bizarre and clunky attempt at growing a movie franchise. While fans of the popular game and the first installment may get a kick out of the film, I can’t imagine mainstream audiences who either wander (or are dragged by friends or family) into the theater are going to find a lot to like.

The story picks up a year after the paranormal chaos at the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, and the town has already turned the whole ordeal into a goofy urban legend. Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) are doing everything they can to shield Mike’s younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio) from what really happened that night. Still clinging to her bond with Freddy and the others, Abby sneaks out to track them down. That’s all it takes to kick the nightmare back into gear, and her little trip ends up triggering a whole series of events that uncovers the pizzeria’s darker past.

The movie expands the lore by introducing Charlotte’s (Audrey Lynn-Marie) backstory, which serves as the film’s surprisingly dark and disturbing opening scene. It’s revealed that Charlotte was murdered by the evil William Afton (Matthew Lillard), which causes her soul to fuse with a menacing figure known as the Marionette. The vengeful spirit inside the Marionette ultimately unleashes both new and old animatronics on the town, causing a potential bloodbath of epic proportions. 

As far as tone goes, the movie is definitely weird. The animatronics swing between cartoonishly goofy and legitimately scary. One moment they look like mascots from a Saturday morning kids’ show, and the next they’re lunging out of the shadows with surprisingly intense menace. This happens often in the same scene, which makes it hard to get a read on what the film wants to be. It’s clearly aimed at younger horror fans (especially with its PG-13 rating), and there are some classic genre elements including effective jump scares, ominous moments, and even fun kills. Even so, I just didn’t “get” the movie in the way that diehard fans most certainly will.     

The biggest distraction is, unfortunately, Rubio’s performance. While I never want to single out a younger performer, she clearly struggles in the role. Rubio’s work here feels stiff and noticeably out of sync with the professionalism of her co-stars (the movie partially works simply because Hutcherson and Lail take their roles so seriously). This issue is compounded by the screenplay, which writes Abby with a level of immaturity more fitting for a much younger child. Although she is presented as an 11-year-old, her behavior and dialogue frequently align with a 7-year-old, resulting in a character who feels inconsistent, underdeveloped, and difficult to fully invest in.

The film ends with what you could say is a sort of cliffhanger, and it’s definitely left wide open for yet another sequel. If this one does well, I’m sure the studio will give the greenlight quickly. As an outsider to the Freddy’s world, I’m certainly no expert on the characters or universe. That’s why it will be interesting to see how those initiated into the pop culture will react to this movie.

While rife with problems, I was never too bored with “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.” It has its moments and energy, but it’s also too uneven to recommend. It’s the type of genre movie that’s not quite good enough to recommend, but also not amusingly bad enough to be a full-blown cult classic in the making. 

By: Louisa Moore