Five Nights At Freddy's 2 (2025)

I didn’t like Five Nights At Freddy’s. I knew I would still watch the sequel though. And I will watch any other instalment that comes along. I have started, my k mind won’t allow me to stop.

Set some time after the events of the first film, this has Mike (Josh Hutcherson) worrying about his little sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), as she spends her time wishing to be back with some of her friends. Those friends being dead children trapped in a restaurant is a bit of a problem, but maybe some supernatural force can help them wander further afield. And maybe more animatronic mayhem can ensue. Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) is also dealing with spirits, but that is often specifically tied to the dark legacy of her father (Matthew Lillard).

Director Emma Tammi returns, but has left the screenplay fully in the hands of Scott Cawthon this time around. That might have been a bad decision. I am sure there are a lot of details and imagery here that will please fans of the game series, which (lest we forget) was created by Cawthon, but there’s not enough here to please anyone else. Despite my dislike for the first film, it at least felt like a decent enough gateway horror for younger movie viewers who had already been experiencing a number of the scares via the games. This, on the other hand, is just a mess. It often needs the characters to act like idiots. And, worst of all, it’s horrible dull.

Even the cast seem resigned to the fact that their presence is only getting in the way of the animatronics that everyone paid to see. Hutcherson has no energy in his performance, Lail feels one eye-roll away from just sidling her way towards the exit, and it’s only Rubio who does decent work, benefiting from the fact that she is a young child who doesn’t necessarily recognise the danger in her actions. Lillard isn’t used enough, which is understandable, but Freddy Carter, Wayne Knight, and McKenna Grace also feel sorely wasted.

I assume that those who loved the first film will at least enjoy this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if even the most die-hard FNAFers didn’t at least wonder why they were given something that feels so lazy and more like a place-holder than a fully-developed feature. This doesn’t even feel like a videogame, which might not have been so bad. It feels like a hurried trial/patch, thrown out to keep the IP at the forefront of gamers who might soon start to outgrow the series, if they haven’t already.

3/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

Five Nights At Freddy's (2023)

No Mubi Monday this week. I hope this shiny new film being reviewed will make up for it, especially when Mubi has a lot less horror movie content than most of the other big streaming services.

Based on the popular videogame series by Scott Cawthon, something I have very limited knowledge of (having seen it in passing during a time when my youngest daughter was a fan), Five Nights At Freddy's feels like it has been a long time coming. In fact, it took so long to be turned into a movie that we've already had a couple of films covering similar territory (one, Willy's Wonderland, more directly than the other, The Banana Splits Movie).

The main plot here is quite simple, as you might expect from a screenplay adapting a simple videogame. Josh Hutcherson plays Mike, a young man who ends up taking a job as a security guard at the long-abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant. The place used to be a popular venue for children wanting to eat some food while enjoying the impressive animatronics. And then the horrible event happened, something that viewers find out as the film plays out, and as Mike starts to find himself in increasing danger. It's not just Mike that Mike wants to keep safe though. It's also his much younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio). But there maybe something in Freddy's that wants Abby to join in with the fun and games.

Directed by Emma Tammi, who also helped to co-write the screenplay with Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback, I am sure of two things about Five Nights At Freddy's. First of all, it should please fans of the game series. Second, it's not very good. I didn't hate it, largely because I like Hutcherson (and I am also a fan of Matthew Lillard and Mary Stuart Masterson, both here in enjoyable supporting roles), but I never once felt properly drawn into the onscreen world. I know enough about the source material to recognise various details transplanted from game to film, and I am sure that there were many extra touches that went completely over my head, and staying faithful enough to the videogames (which, and please correct me if I am wrong, involve people spending a lot of time toggling between security cameras to keep enemies at bay) seems to have been a stumbling block when it comes to making a satisfying movie. 

As well as those already mentioned, the other main character here is Vanessa, played by Elizabeth Lail. For as much as I liked everyone else, some more than others, Lail is sadly unable to do much with a character that feels more awkwardly shoehorned in than anyone else. She delivers some exposition, offers potential friendship to Hutcherson's character, and becomes increasingly involved in the second half of the movie in a way that makes her feel more like an interloper than someone worth rooting for. There are also supporting turns from Kat Conner Sterling, Michael P. Sullivan, David Lind, and Christian Stokes, but none of them are as memorable as the animatronics. Which is probably an extra way to keep fans happy.

As for the character and production design, all seems well. I know how recognisable and iconic the main characters are, they're enjoyably creepy and believable, and the film knows that the most important element is getting them exactly right. Tammi, working on something that's quite a change in direction from the other film I have seen helmed by her (The Wind, 2018), doesn't get much else right though, sadly. Things aren't bloody enough to make up for a lack of fun, nor are they fun enough to make up for a lack of blood. And someone forgot to tell people to make sure that the lighting levels are right, resulting in a number of scenes that will leave viewers squinting at murky, and almost impenetrable, visuals. 

The other big problem here is the runtime. It's not wildly excessive, but 109 minutes feels a bit too long. Things aren't helped by the backstory for Mike, all to do with a younger brother who went missing years ago, when the film would be greatly improved by keeping things more streamlined and simple.

A lot of people will enjoy Five Nights At Freddy's. There's a huge fanbase already looking forward to welcoming it into their lives with open arms. I thought it was okay. The central idea, buried here under a lot of extraneous material, is a very good one, and the familiar faces in the cast helped to make it easier to sit through as I waited for the underwhelming third act to finish up. You know a horror movie isn't great when you find yourself wishing it had contained a few more jump scares.

4/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share

Countdown (2019)

The theatrical feature debut of writer-director Justin Dec, Countdown is the kind of slick teen horror that will either make you roll your eyes or grin and go along with the main premise. I chose the latter option, and am glad I did. One or two notably weak moments aside, this is much better than so many other films released to the same target demographic.

Things start with some partying young 'uns downloading an app, and that app is called Countdown. Countdown tells you when you're going to die. Which is all well and good for those who are given a fairly normal life expectancy. It's not so good for those who are given days, or even hours. And when the clock reaches zero, there's no avoiding your fate. A chain of events lead to a young nurse named Quinn (Elizabeth Lail) downloading the app, being given a very short amount of time left on this mortal coil, and trying to stop whatever force is going to help her shuffle off it. She joins forces with a young man named Matt Monroe (Jordan Calloway), attempting to save both their own lives and that of her younger sister, Jordan (Talitha Bateman).

Okay, it's not very atmospheric. It's not got any decent bloodshed or gore. It adds some comedy into the mix when maybe it was best to leave it out. And it's about an app. The separate ingredients aren't that good. But Dec does enough to give viewers what they want from this kind of thing, a fun time with some decent deaths. Rules are established, but in a way that allows for some ambiguity while the leads figure out the full extent of the danger that they're in, and everything is played out in a way that is, for this kind of thing, surprisingly plausible. Movie plausible, of course, not real-world plausible.

Lail is a decent lead, if a little bit lacking in anything to make her truly memorable, and the same can be said of Calloway and Bateman. Peter Facinelli is a doctor working alongside our lead, and you just know that he's going to either be trouble or get himself caught up in the situation at some point, or both. Then there's P. J. Byrne, almost unbalancing things as a young priest all too ready to believe the killer app, although there's more fun to be had with Tom Segura, playing a phone shop worker treating everyone he encounters with disdain.

There are a number of ways in which this could have been more enjoyable (a bit more nastiness in the deaths, some more twists and turns in the build-up a la Final Destination), and an attempt to play a set-piece in which some characters take shelter within a circle of protection is undone by one character being written to be stupid enough to allow things to be drawn out for even longer, but there are also so many ways in which this could have been worse.

Not one to recommend to hardened horror fans, but an amusing enough distraction for those who don't mind a bit of lighter fare.

6/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy the movie here.