Josh Hutcherson’s Horror Sequel Isn’t Perfect, but It's a Sillier, Fun Improvement - Sunburst Viral- Latest News on Celebrities, gossip, TV, music and movies

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The 2020s are the era when video game adaptations finally found their footing in film and television. The latter has certainly become the most fruitful of the two mediums, at least from a quality standpoint, with critically acclaimed animated shows like Arcane and Castlevania, along with Emmy-nominated live-action projects like The Last of Us and Fallout. As for movies, their quality is up for debate, but financially, they’ve become some of the biggest winners of the last few years, with Sonic the Hedgehog, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and A Minecraft Movie kickstarting billion-dollar franchises. While those IPs come from some of the biggest video game developers in the world, Five Nights at Freddy’s came from much more meager means.

The horror series began as a micro-budget indie game that became a viral megahit thanks to YouTube coverage and viral videos, spawning several sequels and a dedicated fan base that includes a surprising number of younger viewers, despite being firmly rooted in the horror genre. Thus, after years of gestation, horror hitmaker Blumhouse finally released its own live-action adaptation. Despite debuting to abysmal reviews, Five Nights at Freddy’s clearly hooked its core target audience as it became one of the 15 highest-grossing video game adaptations ever made, which is made even more impressive by the fact that it debuted the same day on Peacock (where it also shattered streaming records). After success like that, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was quickly announced afterward with a bigger budget, a bigger cast, and bigger practical effects, but are those enough to launch the series past the critically poorly received original?

What Is ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ About?

The original movie saw struggling security guard Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) as he took on a job of watching over an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese knock-off restaurant called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. However, he soon discovered he was being groomed as a sacrifice for ghost-possessed animatronics by a vindictive serial killer named William Afton (Matthew Lillard). Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 picks things up shortly after, with Mike, his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio), and the accomplice-turned-ally Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) all trying to live a normal life after what they experienced. However, Abby misses her animatronic friends, and the trio soon find themselves uncovering the origins of William Afton’s reign of terror at the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.

The biggest triumph of the original Five Nights at Freddy’s was also the source of some of its biggest issues: the practical animatronics and costumes. It’s an absolute treat for fans to see these popular characters practically leap off the screen with their detailed and accurate appearances, but their bulky size and undeniable amount of moving parts make for pretty slow horror villains that might look cool, but aren’t exactly intimidating. It’s what can only be described as Walking Dead syndrome, and it’s a trend that continues with the second movie. The puppets, costumes, and production design really deserve to be commended, as they all feel like they fit in this world, not to mention look exactly like how they do in the games. They’re all impressive to look at, but it doesn’t really make a ton of sense how these giant, hulking, loud animatronics can kill everyone.

Another problem that remains from the first one that doesn’t have quite the same silver lining is the dialogue and the writing for the human characters. Josh Hutcherson’s Mike and Elizabeth Lail’s Vanessa both feel like cookie-cutter horror protagonists who could be played by pretty much anyone, and they’re easily the least interesting part of the whole movie, even when the ending starts to take them in more interesting directions. The supporting cast members do fair quite a bit better, with voice actors Megan Fox and Matthew Patrick being decently unrecognizable in the movie, plus Wayne Knight as a downright despicable bully is a nice throwback to the ’90s icon’s best roles. Fans shouldn’t expect too much Matthew Lillard in the movie, but the small role his Scream partner Skeet Ulrich sees the star give his all in a surprisingly convincing scene for the absurdity of the actual movie, giving a sort of Steve Buscemi in Spy Kids 2 energy.

‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ Is Scarier and More Entertaining Than the Original in Practically Every Way

The core issues of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s can all be traced back to one defining problem: It’s just kind of boring, with no real attempts to be truly scary and with a plot that takes itself far too seriously for its own good. Those two things were the biggest aspects needed for a course correction, and thankfully, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 does exactly that. This may not be saying all that much, but the sequel is trying to pack in a lot more scares than the morose first movie, with admittedly the large bulk of them being loud, deafening jump scares. Those are an acquired taste for most horror fans, but in fairness, jump scares have always been in the franchise’s DNA. Complaining about jump scares in a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie is like complaining about gore in a Hellraiser movie, and the sheer absence of them was a part of why the first film felt like such an odd direction for an adaptation. Even the second film’s main villain is often a genuinely creepy presence, which, like the more iconic animatronics, is brought to life with some pretty darn good special effects.

The concept of Five Nights at Freddy’s is a ridiculous one, so it’s great to see the second movie loosen its gears a bit and have a bit more fun. There are quite a few fun visual gags and attempts at humor to make this idea not seem nearly as grim and serious. Granted, sometimes it’s ironic humor, given the movie still has its fair share of plot holes and inconsistencies, but even that is a step up from the tedious melodrama of its predecessor.

So is Five Nights at Freddy’s one of the all-time great horror sequels that blows a lackluster original out of the water like Annabelle: Creation or Ouija: Origin of Evil? That would be a stretch too far, but what Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 does succeed in doing is fulfilling its role as a genuinely earnest improvement on what came before. Where the first movie left fans satisfied with the bare minimum, and non-fans bewildered with boredom, the second installment will likely leave fans even happier and non-fans satisfied with a solidly entertaining robot slasher. It’s also a sequel that genuinely starts to chart a path towards an interesting direction for an inevitable third chapter, and if Blumhouse and director Emma Tammi‘s saga continues this trend of upward momentum, another trip to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria might not be the worst idea.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is now playing in theaters.