Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Raises the Stakes, Slightly

Any respectable franchise knows how to grow with its audience. Five Nights at Freddy’s, the original film based on the beloved horror game, was a solid starter for newcomers to the genre, offering scares that were easy to spot for seasoned scary movie fans but that could also serve as a jumping-off point for the uninitiated. The sequel, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, ramps up the stakes and scares, resulting in something sure to delight fans of the game and original film while continuing to leave those unfamiliar with the game series in the dark. 

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 begins with the reveal of another atrocity that happened at the hands of William Afton (Matthew Lillard), the founder of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Years before the bloodshed in the original film, there was the death of Charlotte (Audrey Lynn-Marie) in 1982. After getting into the backstage area of the pizza parlor, Charlotte was killed, her body brought up on stage by a horrifying new animatronic: the Marionette, in a haunting visual that serves as one of the many impressive uses of practical puppetry throughout the film. Charlotte’s awful end was swept under the rug as the restaurant began to expand and become a franchised chain, leaving the original location forgotten. Years later, the original pizza place eventually catches the attention of a group of young ghost hunters. The group gets into the abandoned flagship with the aid of Michael (Freddy Carter), a morbidly fascinated security guard.

Meanwhile, Mike (Josh Hutcherson), Abby (Piper Rubio), and Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) are picking up the pieces after the events of the first film. Mike and Vanessa are straddling the line between friends and something more, with everyone around them cheering on their perceived coupling. Hutcherson and Lail play this well with a sweet and tentative chemistry, even if their story gets sidelined for the larger plot of the film. Abby is struggling with the loss of her friends from the first film, the iconic animatronics that make up so much of the iconography of the franchise. Rubio does a great job inhabiting Abby’s loneliness and desperation for connection—she’s a smart kid who’s been through a lot, and her affection for killer robots is believable thanks to Rubio’s work here. 

Speaking of the animatronics, the puppetry that the Five Nights films use is by far the best part of either entry. Brought to life by the talented artists at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the giant puppets of Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Bonnie, and the Marionette are imposing and impressive. Here, there is a slight variant in the animatronic design that makes them mobile (an important plot point later in the film), with the designs of the classic puppets being altered slightly to make way for a big, toy-winding mechanism at their backs. The Marionette, however, is  especially upsetting. An animatronic from the original location, it has spindly features and a comedy/tragedy mask with painted markings as its face. It’s a haunting sight, almost beautiful in a tragic way at the beginning of the film when it is cradling Charlotte’s dead body. Later on, it turns into an avenging angel of sorts when Charlotte’s angry spirit possesses the Marionette, imbuing the already creepy puppet with righteous fury. 

The craftsmanship and thoughtful performances here aren’t enough to carry Five Nights 2 through to the end, however. The film suffers a lot of the same issues as the first: predictable outcomes and not-too-scary frights are peppered throughout the movie. To be fair, Five Nights is a franchise that has served as a launchpad for horror newbies, and this installment in the series does kick things up a notch. The stakes here feel higher, the kills more serious, and the scares more convincing than in part one. If you’re already invested in the lore of the games, you’ll probably have a great time with the latest installment of the series. For the uninitiated (or those who didn’t check out the first film), it might be a bit of a slog. That being said, it’s nice to think that there are folks who will enjoy this series, and horror newbies who will continue on their journey in the genre through this latest entry. Here’s hoping the Fazbear crew can keep the scares coming in their future endeavors.

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