Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 – REVIEW & COCKTAIL – GenMovi

People have asked me, “Brandon, why do you bother re-watching movies that you know you don’t think you’re going to like?” » Well, there could be several reasons. I might want to support a particular actor or director, the premise might intrigue me, or I might have just a little hope that maybe, just maybe, he will learn from previous films, look at what works and what doesn’t, and try something different in order to perfectly bring his idea to life.

None of this applies to Five Nights at Freddy’s 2; I just thought I’d give you a little insight.

But why would be Are you trying something new with this franchise? The former became Blumhouse’s highest-grossing film despite receiving fairly negative reviews from critics. But that’s not what interests Blumhouse; These are the fans. The ones who will show up no matter what to see their favorite characters on screen. And if that’s how you choose to engage with these films, then keep doing it. You probably won’t care much about my opinion. But, as someone fairly familiar with these games and the lore surrounding them, I think you can set your standards a little higher.

Every problem I had with the previous film comes back in spades in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2which forgoes trying to be a horror film and instead tries to be a gigantic lore dump, filled with as many winks and nods to the video game franchise as possible. For this reason, the film finds very little meaningful things for our main characters to do. Meanwhile, the second film seems to do away with most, if not all attempts to scare with much weaker jumpscares and general atmosphere. This smacks of a film willing to get by on fan loyalty, thinking it will be seen on brand recognition while leaving you with no meaningful memories to take with you. So without an intriguing story, characters, or scares, I struggle to see why anyone would want to watch this.

Picking up after the first movie, Mike, Vanessa, and Abby are all just trying to move on with their lives. Well, maybe not Abby, because she misses her animatronic ghost friends, so much so that she’s drawn to the very first Five Nights at Freddy’s, where a whole new threat begins to take shape. The characters are more or less those from the first film; a kid with a connection to the paranormal, a knowledge machine included to explain every little thing, and a guy. It doesn’t really use the events of the first film to push toward any meaningful development, even though we’re repeatedly told how stressed everyone is. Abby is obviously the heart of the film, wanting to reunite with the animatronics, but the film doesn’t do anything deeper with that. She shows her ability to make real living friends early in the film, so her sadness at not being able to see her dead just seems odd. This could have been used as a tool to inscribe a message about making peace with your grief and moving forward, but there’s not even an attempt to try and say anything here.

The only real new characters of note are the new animatronics. Like the last film, they look incredible; Truly impressive individual recreations of the games. They are not exactly scarybut the first movie didn’t even really try to convince you of that anyway. I love the imagery and use of the puppet, who is sort of the de facto villain of the film. There are actually some really cool effects and makeup that come from possessing people, which is probably the closest thing to a horror movie. There’s even a halfway decent motivation for the villain this time around, being much more vengeful than the mindless evil of the first film. It’s not that convincing and ultimately goes nowhere, but it’s as close to a compliment as I can get for that.

While it may be cool to see these characters brought to the screen, the plot ends up being a jumbled mess and a difficult task to get past. It’s nothing more than exposure, convenience, and little nods to the franchise that amount to nothing of value. The plot just feels like something to rush through so we can get to more Easter eggs rather than something that has had a lot of thought put into it. I have to prolong your disbelief for films like this, but the film takes its time imposing new rules that it doesn’t even seem content to follow. For example, Abby is lured to the old location by a voice machine she finds there in the first film. The ghost from the old location uses her to communicate with her and trick her into coming to the old location, but the film makes it clear that the ghost’s influence can extend outside the location without Abby’s help. For example, I suppose they could have established Abby’s connection to the dead which could explain this, but that seems like a random convenience to move the plot forward.

And aside from the plot issues, the rest of the writing is so bland and trite. There’s no charm or sense of humor, with every attempt to be sincere or funny falling completely flat. It reads like a first draft, which I wouldn’t doubt because you just know it’s not an interesting story that moves people. A weak story and convoluted story can be more easily forgiven in a video game, because that’s the interactivity you’re there for. You can fill in the gaps with your own mind and interpretations, because it’s easier to insert yourself into what’s happening. When you try to translate that directly to cinema, it just doesn’t work. There’s a scene basically recreating the game mechanics from the first one, and it’s the biggest example of what I’m talking about. The translation of this from game to screen ends up being laughable and misguided, not even attempting to capture the same scares from the game and instead making it a fun little wink for fans. Yeah, like I said, the horror is pretty much non-existent. These games aren’t exactly known for their gore or intense violence; they build their fears with tension and surprise. But every jumpscare is either highly telegraphed or just plain poorly set up, and the only thing that will make you jump are the loud sound effects playing alongside them.

I’m struggling to find anything new to add to this review, as it just repeats all the problems I had with the first film. It didn’t even try to improve because it made all its money by appealing to people who just want to see recognizable characters on the big screen. I’m not even a big fan of Five Nights at Freddy’s, but this seems like a huge disservice to the fan base. Maybe I’m out of touch and fans have moved away from the horror and focused more on the ever-expanding story and colorful characters, but none of what made those games appealing, at least to me, is present here. The film knows it’s not trying to convince you; it already brought you here. That’s why he’s content to give you a half-baked story that feels intentionally incomplete in order to bait you, scares that don’t actually try to scare you, and enough jingling keys to keep your attention because he thinks you’ll equate recognition with pleasure. Did people like the original video game because it had recognizable characters, winks and nods? Hell no, but the movie seems to think that’s all you really want without realizing what made it popular in the first place. Ultimately, if you took away all the intellectual property and let it survive on the merits of its story, characters, and horror, this thing wouldn’t make it out of the deepest depths of Tubi. I can’t say I’m disappointed because my hopes were already underground, but if you’re a fan of the games or even the first movie, I certainly would be.

RATING

THE PUPPET

If you’ve already read my review, you know this one is going to be strong. The Puppet is inspired by the puppet of the same name from the film and will include much of its color palette, with the addition of two bright red cherries to replicate the puppet’s rosy cheeks. It will be dark and heavy but nice and sweet with the chocolate and raspberry mixture, while having a nice foamy body from an egg white. No conditions for this cocktail.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5 oz dark rum
• 1/2 oz raspberry liqueur
• 1/4oz of cocoa cream
• 1/2 ounce maple syrup
• 1 egg white
• Pinch of black sugar (optional)
• Garnish: 2 cherries

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake dry (without ice) for about 15 seconds.
2. Add ice to shake and shake to chill.
3. Strain into a chilled coup d’état glass.
4. Garnish with 2 cherry skewers.