FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2 Is “Full Of Big, Horror Movie Scares”

If there’s any video game franchise that’s dominated fan spaces both in the gaming world and on the big screen, it’s Five Nights at Freddy’s. Adapting such a successful game is no easy thing, but the folks at Blumhouse seemed to hit the jackpot, taking an uncanny valley concept and turning it into an uber-successful film, with its sequel bringing Freddy and his haunted friends back for more when it hits theaters this week. 

Five Nights at Freddy’s began its journey to cult success in 2014, when creator Scott Cawthon released the first game in the series on PC in 2014, followed quickly by a sequel mere months later. Two more sequels followed the next year, and if you’re anything like me, you remember how quickly the zeitgeist built around the games, with popular streamers like Markiplier attempting to play the games and scaring the pants off themselves (and their audiences) in the process. 

Seven more games, multiple spin-offs, and numerous tie-in novels later, and the series is beloved the world over, not only by video game fans, but moviegoers as well, as the first installment, starring Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard, hit theaters in 2023 and terrified everyone with its haunting animatronics, created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. (Are they Gen Alpha’s version of the Dark Crystal skeksis puppets? Who’s to say.)

Hutcherson took to the screen as Mike, a version of the player character from the first game, a security guard tasked with overseeing nighttime operations at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a job that very quickly takes a turn into the supernatural. According to producer Jason Blum, Cawthon’s involvement in the franchise, including writing both films and serving as producer, was the key to its success, which they hope to continue with the release of the sequel.