The Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) games are some of the most iconic games on the internet, with a massive fanbase and countless memes stemming from the original 2014 indie horror hit game. In 2023, the FNAF movie came out, which was received poorly by critics but was beloved by fans and made millions in the box office. As a result, a second FNAF movie was released this winter. The film follows security guard Mike Schmidt and his younger sister Abby after the events of the first movie as they try to move past the events that took place at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.
There are many things that I both love and hate about this movie. Probably one of the things it does best, however, is staying true to the source material. Most movies based off of video games end up changing so much of the original plot of the source material that they feel foreign or underwhelming. FNAF 2 never strayed too far away from the atmosphere of the games, which is something I can appreciate. There are many references to inside jokes and memes in the community as well, like the Freddy Fazbear plushie that played an iconic meme originating from the games. The animatronic designs were all very accurate to the games as well, and one scene in particular that replicated the gameplay of the games was extremely entertaining to see. There were references and connections to the games throughout, which really helped make the otherwise mundane experience much better. The set design and music were also quite good. The most iconic track from the games, which is based off a classical piece, is used in most of the score for the movie, which was nice to hear throughout.
The plot of the movie is very similar to its predecessor: the plot revolves around an incident at a mysterious pizza place involving the death of a child. The overall story is pretty solid, though there were some subplots that felt out of place, like a side story revolving around a science fair that had little impact to the overall storyline. The movie does a good job of creating an unsettling atmosphere inside of the abandoned pizza place, but that atmosphere falls apart whenever the pizza place isn’t the focus; scenes were a lot more tense there, and any potentially scary scenes that took place outside of the pizza place just never landed. The movie also relied on jumpscares way too much, with almost all of them being completely predictable. The inconsistent atmosphere isn’t helped by the equally inconsistent acting. The kids in this movie do not talk or act like kids, which is a problem I see in a lot of media. Josh Hutcherson, who plays the security guard Mike Schmidt, didn’t have the best performance in this movie. It felt to me that most of his lines were devoid of emotion and very one-note. What he said rarely matched the situation he was in, leading to even more inconsistencies in the atmosphere.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was an enjoyable experience with all of the references and obvious passion put into it; I could tell this movie was made by fans of the game for fans of the game. However, it doesn’t have much appeal to people who aren’t familiar with the games, and looking past all of the references shows a flawed movie with issues in the acting and atmosphere. Overall, it was a fun time watching it, though it was by no means a cinematic masterpiece.
