You Don't Go Into the Same Water Twice, Right? RIGHT?!

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Today, I decided to watch the second installment of the series that has become something of a cult favorite among younger audiences: “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”

I promised myself I wouldn’t watch the sequel, but my depression won the battle and I eventually pressed play. So, was it better than the first movie? Let’s find out.

A New Life After the Massacre

The second movie takes place some time after the events of the first one. The main characters survived the finale and are now trying to live a peaceful life in their new home.

The movie attempts to introduce a new villain: a young girl who tried to save someone but ended up dying herself. Her backstory is, to put it mildly, pretty weak. Since she died in the greatest pizzeria of all time, she somehow returned to the world of the living as… a mime.

Or whatever the hell she was actually called in the movie. For simplicity's sake, let's just call her “the Mime.” Her dream is to escape the pizzeria and cause as much chaos as possible.

The first half of the movie is actually… somewhat interesting. We get to see the characters trying to adjust to their new “lives” after the massacre at Freddy’s.

While the returning characters from the first movie haven't changed all that much personality-wise, the police officer is still fighting her own demons. As we know from the first movie, she had to confront them before, but this time she has to do it inside her own mind.

And I have to admit, the dream sequences are actually pretty interesting.

She has to free herself from a tyrant (don't worry, no spoilers), while knowing that she's really just delaying something inevitable. After watching a few of these dream sequences, I actually started becoming more interested in what would happen to her.

Act Two: Absolute Chaos

Unfortunately, the second act is where things start getting messy.

Our young heroine from the first movie still believes that the animatronics actually like her, so she tries to repair them in the old pizzeria. Naturally, things don't go according to plan, and she eventually becomes bait for something much more serious.

At the same time, she's also working on a little robot for a competition.

And what about our main hero?

Well… not much.

He has already dealt with his trauma from the first movie, so this time he's basically rebuilding his life by… renovating his house.

His aggression from the first movie is gone, he's become a good brother to his sister, and, of course, he's also romancing the police officer. ;)

As a character, though, he's basically just background decoration for everyone else. He doesn't say much and usually just does whatever needs to be done at the moment.

This time, the entire story isn't resting on his shoulders, which means his role is considerably smaller.

The Finale: Well… It's Something

In the third act, we finally get the big finale, complete with another reference to the games and the familiar computer-related mechanics.

The finale is… well… something.

It's not particularly good, mostly because the Mime's motivation is incredibly poorly written. She's there, she does her thing, and that's pretty much it.

What's even more bizarre is that the main thing needed to defeat her isn't a weapon, but something completely ridiculous — especially when you remember the beginning of the movie.

Familiar Faces

Several actors return from the first movie, including Matthew Lillard (“Scream”).

But there's also a new addition to the series: Skeet Ulrich, another familiar face from “Scream.”

I have to admit, it's a pretty fun little wink to viewers who know and enjoy that franchise.

The Most Predictable Plot Twist

The movie also features one of the worst-prepared final plot twists I've seen in a while.

After the first ten minutes, you can already start guessing who else might turn out to be the villain.

That doesn't make the actual reveal any less hilarious, though.

We get a villain who spends the entire movie hiding their identity, only to reveal themselves in a scene that feels like something straight out of one of those squirrel memes.

And moments like this make it really difficult to take the movie completely seriously.

So, Are We Getting a Third Movie?

Of course, because there are approximately a billion games in the franchise, the ending heavily suggests that another movie is coming.

We'll probably return to our main characters once again, and they'll have to deal with yet another collection of problems in their lives.

And you know what?

If this movie had been made as a comedy from the very beginning, I would probably have accepted it.

It would be stupid, but at least it would be funny.

The problem is that “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” constantly tries to present itself as a serious horror movie, while the characters behave as if all of this is perfectly normal in their universe — basically as normal as eating bread.

Final Verdict

On one hand, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is slightly better than the first movie.

On the other hand, it's still a pretty problematic production that suffers from plot holes and weak writing. Because of that, the whole thing can feel rather strange at times.

The special effects? They might be pretty bad, but I've seen worse recently, so I'm not going to complain about them too much.

50/100 — and I think that's a fair score.

The movie isn't disastrously bad. It has a few interesting moments, some fun references, and a couple of scenes that genuinely managed to keep me interested.

The problem is that everything feels a little chaotic, the screenplay has plenty of holes, and the movie itself never seems to decide whether it wants to be a serious horror film or an absurd comedy.

And after watching it, I still have one question:

You don't go into the same water twice, right? RIGHT?!

Rating: 50/100