Rating: 8/10
“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” a franchise with 11 games in its main series and millions of loyal fans, has once again gone from gaming PCs to the big screen.
Directed by Emma Tammi, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” follows Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) and his struggle to stop his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio) from interacting with the spirit-filled animatronics. The film’s fusion of horror and comedy effectively creates an enjoyable viewer experience for a wide range of audiences. It is understood and appreciated by fans, which is what makes it special.
Mike and Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), daughter of one of the creators of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, team up to navigate the old and new locations of the children’s pizza parlor to track down the human-killing robots. Young fans gathered on the opening night at the Savoy 16 theater, dressed as their favorite characters and holding their stuffed plushies close by.
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Although the concept of haunted robots murdering innocent people is abstract, the film had an underlying message of letting go of the past and setting things free. It also offered moments of comedy appropriate for younger audiences.
Since the animatronics have children’s spirits within, it is easier for Abby to connect with them without seeing them as threats to society. Through their relationship, the audience gets a sense of what it’s like to judge people by the content of their character through naivety.
The character design is presented with great accuracy and detail. With glowing eyes and mangled body parts, the animatronics successfully delivered scares that paralleled the video games and frightened the audience in real time.
The movie introduces new characters such as Marionette, also known as The Puppet, and Balloon Boy, who wreaked havoc on side characters. Marionette was a key feature within the plot because she could control every animatronic wirelessly, sending them to cause chaos outside of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
Megan Fox voices Toy Chica, the yellow chick with an evil pink cupcake by her side. Known as Abby’s favorite animatronic friend, she effectively delivered a sense of friendliness with undertones of malice.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” seamlessly inserts cameos that were also in the first movie, which were heavily connected to the game’s popularity. CoryxKenshin, who plays a taxi driver in the film, has made numerous gameplay videos over the years, reaching millions of views and gaining the franchise’s traction. Matpat, also known as GameTheory, and the voice of Toy Bonnie, also created videos dissecting the sequential lore behind the franchise.
The inclusion of niche references allows many “Aha!” moments, further bringing the fandom together.
In the final scene, Vanessa became hated by the crowd because of her dishonesty with her involvement with the robots; one fan even yelled “Slime her out” at the screen while on the edge of their seat. The atmosphere of the theater elevated the quality of the film, keeping everyone excited and longing for more even after the cliffhanger.
Although the film does not offer Oscar-winning performances, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” does a good job at catering to its cult fanbase and keeps them engaged with niche references. It is right on par with the first film regarding humor, costume design and accuracy to the original plot of the video games and is definitely a fun watch regardless of your knowledge of the franchise.
