The horror genre is widely known for its extremely high returns compared to its budget, becoming a favorite classic for many studio makers on a way to growing a steady budget with not much challenge. When the first Five Night At Freddy’s film rolled out in 2023, its budget of $20 million got overwhelming results of almost a $300 million box office and opened the doors to the trilogy based on the popular videogame to continue being a staple of young generations and social media.
FNAF 2 continues the story of Michael, a young men who lost his younger brother to the main villain of the series, William Afton, the co-owner of the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant, with the supporting characters of Vanessa who is William’s daughter who distanced herself away from him and Abbey, the sister of Michael who created a strong friendship with the animatronics from the first film.
This second delivery introduces many new characters, ideas and concepts that open the doors and follows the steps to proceed with the story showcased in the video game FNAF 2. Some of the most interesting additions are the toy animatronics, cuter and shinier versions of the characters we have loved from the first development, as well as The Puppet, the first victim and the most vengeful spirit until now. While it is always fun to see new gigantic metal monsters, the film takes them and transforms them into secondary villains, with an incredibly weird and absurd fight between old and new animatronics, resembling more a movie about the power of friendship and kindness, over the horrible origins and themes the franchise is known to have.
The tone change happening between the story and even between a few minutes in a same scene makes for a not extremely engaging film, with the horror not being really scary and the comedy not being really funny, apart from some older jokes from the iconic franchise. Some of the most thrilling sections of the videogames are all about these very narrow and dark alleys, with the fear of what could be hiding in this large child entertainment buildings, which becomes even more heart-bumping when the real story is revealed to the player. The films are able to replicate none of the magic of what made the videogame so special for so many years.
Introductions of characters like Henry, the other co-owner of the Fazbear franchise, or Michael Afton, the son of William Afton, were big steps that needed to be taken and that were very exciting to see for many of the long-time fans of the series, but they felt overshadowed by the not great side-plotlines and the less than smart characters. The setup for the end of this trilogy has been laid down, but it does not feel ready for what’s about to come as well as feeling rushed or dragged in many of its aspects.
Creating a movie from one of the most confusing lores in videogames is a very hard task, but also has large awards for the productor house Blumhouse, which has hit jackpot from fans and viewers alike. The debate about the differentiation between these two have been very prominent, with the term “for fans movies” becoming more popular meaning a piece of media that is not destined for critics or general audiences, but for the fanatics. This has been utilized as an excuse to not deliver quality material, and the fans should be the first to note where films of such nature lack the pieces they so love.
