Five Nights at Freddy's 2

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Much like it was with the first film, I still haven't dabbled in the 'Five Nights at Freddy's' game franchise in the slightest. For one, I feel like the idea has been played out, going from fun, creepy, suspenseful mystery horror to a pop culture icon. That may be the kind of thing that, by definition, drags most people in, but the idea of it being something mysterious, as it was upon its release, was far more intriguing. I'd argue the same sort of thing happened with 'Slenderman,' and it all just causes any initial intrigue I have to promptly vanish.

The first film was already kind of rough, suggesting it had no idea what it was supposed to be. It felt like it should have been a horror flick that played with suspense and tension more than anything else, but what you really got was what could be considered a mere toe-dip into the horror genre, where it's creepy, but not necessarily scary, and even somewhat caters to the kids who may be watching. While it certainly suggests gory things happening to people, we never really see any of it and just get a rough idea of what's happening. Still, I felt like I could be an odd man out on my opinion, with my unfamiliarity with the property working against me.

Regardless of the mixed bag the first film may have been, however, I can say with all sincerity that this chapter managed to shake any remaining intrigue I may have had in the franchise. I may not know its parallels to the games it's based on, but it was enough of a speedbump in this day and age, when horror films have been undergoing a resurrection. Once again, this feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be, and once again, it seems to cater more to the youth watching. I'm okay with that idea, but it should come with something of substance. All this film really said to me was "look how much our animatronics look like the game!"

Set in 2002, a couple of years after the events of the first film, the previous film's lead, Mike (Josh Hutcherson), is constantly reminding his young sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), that the former friends she made at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza who inhabited the animatronics there have since moved on. Abby is of the belief that if Mike repairs the animatronics, her old friends may come back, and she may be able to spend time with her, but Mike, believing them to be dangerous, keeps insisting things are over and she should move on, which leads her to return to the Freddy Fazbear's of the last film to wallow in self-pity.

Finding Abby at Freddy's, he has a moment of pity for her and promises to take something home with them to make up for the way she feels. That "something" turns out to be a talking toy called the "FazTalker," which she desperately tries to use to talk to the Fazbear crew, to no avail. Abby is obsessed enough with trying to communicate with her old ghost friends that the viewer might have a hard time sympathizing with her, as she seemingly makes no attempts at gaining real, human friendships and keeps to herself enough that even the deepest introvert would look at her and suggest she might need some kind of help.

Meanwhile, at the first Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant, which has been shut down following a fatal incident in 1982, involving a girl named Charlotte (Audrey Lynn-Marie), possessive evil begins to stir, claiming three exploring ghost hunters. One, a girl named Lisa (McKenna Grace), becomes possessed by the spirit of Charlotte, manages to connect to Abby through her FazTalker, and soon enough, the vengeful spirit of Charlotte uses Abby as a pawn in order to release the animatronics from Freddy's and attack parental units, whom she understandably considers ignorant, following the way they acted before she was murdered.

Between Abby's somewhat troubling character and just a fair share of bad writing, this is yet another video game-based movie I find ultimately skippable, and I might add, even moreso than the first. A main character from the first film, Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), even returns here to unfold her story a bit further, but there's sincerely nothing here that anyone will be surprised by about her. At best, this ends up being a one-time carnival ride, just for giggles, as the thrills are so few, and it almost leans on comedy a bit more, but not in a fun, farcical way so much as just trying a little too hard.

1/5

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