Imagine this: you’re seven feet tall, work at a fast food restaurant that’s on the brink of bankruptcy, and have become a staple of meme culture throughout the entire planet, much to your dismay.  This is the life of Freddy Fazbear, a resident mascot of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.  

But in all seriousness, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a videogame franchise that first debuted in 2014 and grabbed the attention of the entire world.  It started as an indie game developed by one person, and has exploded out of its original creator’s control, turning into nearly ten full games, merchandise of many kinds, novels, and two theatrical movies.  And speak of the devil, the recently-released Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 movie takes the metaphorical stage that is this article.  

Now, this movie has received a lot of attention since it was released.  Of course it did, right?  It’s the sequel to the first theatrical film based on one of the most famous game franchises ever concocted.  And of course, the hyper-fans of this game were more than a little upset that the movie didn’t meet their expectations.  But on the other hand, I’ve seen critics and enthusiasts of the film medium say this movie was a massive improvement on the first movie, and is actually a very enjoyable watch.  So, people are clearly very divided on this movie.  But that, in itself, is the name of today’s game.  I’d love to dive into what makes this movie so divisive, and where all this backlash came from.

Chapter 1: Why this Movie STINKS

First and foremost, this movie handles horror very poorly.  And that’s pretty important, considering Five Nights at Freddy’s is a horror franchise at its core. This movie fumbles the package really hard in that regard.  Most of the scares are either predictable, or are trying way too hard to come out of nowhere.  For example, there’s a jump scare about midway through the movie where Balloon Boy, an infamous antagonist from the second Five Nights at Freddy’s game, sneaks up on someone in the sewers.  But the problem with it is that they show Balloon Boy’s propellor hat surfaced above the water, spinning as it approaches the victim.  I get it was an intentional decision, and it’s supposed to build tension, but it just doesn’t work because it leaves nothing up in the air.  It would be a much better scary moment if it didn’t show who or what it was in the water at first, and it let the audience hastily connect those dots in their head before the big reveal.  Horror works best when it hones in on the unknown, and this scene leaves nothing unknown at all, which makes the scare factor fall completely flat.  But maybe this scene wasn’t supposed to be scary, and was instead supposed to be fanservice?  Balloon Boy is a very popular character in the franchise, after all, so maybe this moment was supposed to be hype?  But that just makes it even worse, because when the movie focuses way too much on fanservice rather than standing on its own two feet.  It doesn’t leave anything original or memorable for the audience to walk out of the theater with.

I think that is a massive detriment to the movie as a whole; it relies way too much on trying to please the ravenous fandom that is the Five Nights at Freddy’s community, and doesn’t really stand alone as its own movie.  I get that this movie is heavily based off of the second Five Nights at Freddy’s game, but it can pay tribute to that game and still do original things.  And it’s clearly trying to tell an original story, but it just doesn’t work because the screenwriters clearly have no idea what to do without the series creator, Scott Cawthon’s original vision.  It tries to do new things with established characters in the Five Nights at Freddy’s timeline, but it just doesn’t work.  There’s a twist at the very end of the movie that takes the movie completely off the rails, but I unfortunately can’t share it because of spoiler reasons.  But if you watch the movie, you’ll know which twist I’m talking about.  

“I didn’t like it,” Olivia Irizarry, a junior at EI, said. “It had some elements that followed the FNAF lore correctly, and some that didn’t.”  I think this summarizes most of the negative public reception that this movie has received.

Also, strangest of all, this movie doesn’t really have an ending.  No exaggeration, it has a climax, but no resolution after it.  I think it’s supposed to be a cliffhanger twist ending, but there’s no call to action at the end of the movie.  All the characters just kinda look around nervously at the incoming problem and the movie just kinda… stops.

Now, that was a lot of trash, right?  You’re probably reading this and thinking “wow, that looks like the worst movie I could ever see in my life!  How could anyone ever love this movie when it’s made so poorly?!”  However, hear me out for a second…

Chapter 2: Why I LOVE this Movie

This movie is such a loving tribute to the Five Nights at Freddy’s community.  It’s full to the brim with niche references to things only true fans of the source material will get.  They even reference the FNAF beatbox guy, and it’s really funny!

But this movie overall has a lot of fun moments, and some of the ideas and set pieces it has are really cool as well.  I think the number one best used animatronic from the original games in this movie is the Mangle.  I can’t say any of her scenes were in poor taste, and they really understood what made her design work.  And there’s an action set piece in this movie that I think is really fast-paced and tense as well.  It had me clenching the arms of my seat just a little bit!

Additionally, Toy Bonnie, another somewhat popular animatronic from the second game, is voiced by one of the most influential internet icons of the Five Nights at Freddy’s community, Matthew “MatPat” Patrick.  And it’s cool that they got him in the movie and all, but I can’t say he really sold the character.  But what’s funny about that is that it is not a detriment to the movie at all that MatPat gave such a campy performance, because it made me laugh.  Every single one of his lines made me laugh, but also slightly grimace from secondhand embarrassment.  And that, in a way, is exactly the kind of reaction I was expecting from this movie.  

But the thing is, all of these positives aren’t actual merits to the thought put into the movie.  Most of them are just byproducts of the carelessness in the movie’s production coming across as funny or indirectly enjoyable.  Does that mean I have bad taste?  Am I supposed to hate this movie?  No.  Not at all.

Chapter 3: Tangent City

You see, I saw this movie in theaters.  And that might not sound all that exciting on its own, but I’m not finished.  This movie acted as a first date with my awesome girlfriend, Alina Uzzi.  By that first step into the theater, our relationship had blossomed into something deeper than just friends, largely because of the movie-going experience.  In the nearly two months since we’ve seen the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 movie, we have only developed more and more as a couple, and I now see her as nothing more than the love of my life.  In fact, I interviewed this wonderful person on what she thought of the movie, and she said the following:

“I think the FNAF movie was overall a good movie.  I think the ending was a little weird but I liked it anyways.  I feel like they picked good voice actors for [the animatronics] though I couldn’t stop giggling at Toy Bonnie’s voice and the fact you could hear MatPat in it.”

All in all, this movie may not be perfect, or even that good, but it means a lot to me nonetheless.  And the thing is, movies aren’t meant to serve as an objective example of what to do right; movies are supposed to be a work of love, passion, and emotion.  Five Nights at Freddy’s, I believe, is made with at least the tiniest bit of love, and that’s becoming harder and harder to find in big blockbuster movies these days.  So, a unique movie like this is something that I need to appreciate while I turn to the more creative-oriented facets of the art world.  In fact, I’m feeling inspired by this movie’s lack of an ending, so I’m not going to write a conclusion to this article!  I’m just going to stop writing!