After two years of waiting since the success of the first movie, the second “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie has been released, and honestly, it’s disappointing how rushed and crammed the plot is.
The only information you do need to know from the first movie that’s relevant in the second is that Abby is friends with the animatronics and wants to visit them to fix them after they broke down in the first movie. Mike and Vanessa are now friends and have been hinting at something more, and the animatronics are able to move because William Afton, the antagonist killed in the end of the last movie, murdered children and stuffed them inside these animatronic suits, haunting them. With that information you should be able to understand the second movie. However, there are issues with that too.
First, the plot felt shallow and all of the characters were a lot less complex than in the first film. The audience’s attention was split between things like Vanessa’s multiple internal and external conflicts, Abby’s relationship with the animatronics and her conflict with her brother because of it, the festival in the town trying to worldbuild more, and Henry’s own storyline. The issue is the movie treats all subplots as if they are equally important, taking attention away from the plotlines that are actually crucial to the story. Consequently, the characters appear shallow and the audience is unable to connect with them.
The other issue with this film is it is trying to appeal to multiple different audiences and ends up being a disappointment to all. It tries to appeal to fans of the franchise by cramming easter eggs and lore from the games. It also tries to appeal to casual horror movie watchers by simplifying the lore and making the genre more oriented towards a “mystery-drama.” The issue with this is the attempt to please both diehard fans and casual watchers ends up letting down both. The casual watchers get confused by the movie’s references to the games they haven’t played, and the diehard fans get annoyed at the oversimplification of the lore and the genre inconsistency. In the end, both parties are disappointed.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” had a lot of potential especially with the success of the first movie, however in an attempt to please everyone and fit the lore into the plot, it turned out messy, inconsistent, and disappointing. I don’t recommend watching it if you are a casual fan looking for a good horror movie as you will just be confused and likely disappointed.
