While Five Nights at Freddy’s was a huge hit, its sequel, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, must bring back the main element that made the video game series such a success in the first place. It is easy to see why the movie adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s stayed in development hell for almost a decade. The successful indie game is a simple first-person survival horror wherein the player is a hapless security guard who must watch both security cameras and a faulty door to avoid being attacked by killer animatronics. Soon, a deluge of convoluted lore complicated this straightforward setup.
However, the original appeal of Five Nights at Freddy’s was this simple premise. While it is nail-biting fun in video game form, the tension and terror of the gameplay have proven tricky to translate on-screen. This might be why even the ending of 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s adaptation doesn’t feature any of the game’s terrifying chase sequences. The movie version of the game loosely adapts its story, incorporating most of its major characters and some of the franchise’s lore. However, 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s doesn’t replicate the game’s uniquely intense, frightening gameplay, which the sequel must prioritize.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Must Bring The Game To Life On-Screen
The Five Nights at Freddy’s sequel needs a sequence where the protagonist must maneuver between the cameras and door in the tiny security room to ensure their survival. This setup has provided the scariest moments in the games and could be terrifying on-screen, even if viewers aren’t controlling the POV character. Since Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 has been confirmed, the sequel must do justice to the main appeal of the game series. A scene where the hero uses the cameras and doors to avoid the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise’s animatronics is necessary to capture the atmosphere of the games.
While the Five Nights at Freddy’s series does feature plenty of plot, the survival horror series is most famous for its sheer intensity. While some critics have claimed that the games are too difficult or too reliant on jump scares, the chase sequences are what made Five Nights at Freddy’s great. As such, it was a jarring surprise to see the 2023 movie offer no scenes that replicated the gameplay and only a few brief vignettes set within the control room of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Meanwhile, only a single short mid-movie sequence featured the animatronics stalking people through the restaurant.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Can Prioritize The Original Adaptation’s Missing Element
By focusing on scares over the story, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 can recapture the feel of the games. The 2023 adaptation did an admirable job of setting up the franchise’s premise but abandoned the trademark chase sequences almost entirely. Even if Mike is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’s hero, the sequel still must include a scene where a character uses the control room to evade the animatronics. Otherwise, the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise will have realized the plot of the series onscreen, but Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will still miss out on the real appeal of the games.
Five Nights at Freddy’s
- Release Date
- October 27, 2023
- Director
- Emma Tammi
- Cast
- Josh Hutcherson , Matthew Lillard , Elizabeth Lail , Piper Rubio , Mary Stuart Masterson , Kevin Foster , Jade Kindar-Martin , Jessica Weiss , Roger Joseph Manning Jr.
- Runtime
- 109 Minutes
- Budget
- $25 Million
- Distributor(s)
- Universal Pictures
- Franchise(s)
- Five Nights at Freddy’s
