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- [00:00]
NPR Announcer
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Stephen Thompson
Pod Club Awards are coming up and you get to crown the winner of the People's Choice Award. We know there are a lot of great shows at npr, but we all know who's the best. Vote for Pop Culture Happy hour@NPR.org PeoplesChoice we'll have a link in our episode Description May the best POD win us.
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The movie Five Nights at Freddy's became a gigantic horror hit. In that film, Gen Z nostalgia for a hit video game met Gen X nostalgia for children's restaurants like Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese. Two years later, a sequel has all those creepy animatronics come blinking ominously back to life in a sequel that takes us back to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and beyond. I'm Stephen Thompson. Joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour to talk about five nights at Freddy's 2 is freelance music and culture journalist Rhianna Cruz. Hey, Rhianna.
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Rhianna Cruz
Hey Steven. It's just you and me today, buddy.
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Stephen Thompson
I know, I know. It's good to have you. So the Five Nights at Freddy's movies are spun off from an enormously success series in the games and in the first movie, our protagonist has to survive nights spent in a haunted children's restaurant called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The villains, as you might imagine, are murderous animatronic robots. The films star Josh Hutcherson as a down on his luck security guard who's raising his younger sister, played by Piper Rubio. The first movie introduces us to the haunted animatronics, the serial killer who helped birth them, and the serial killer's daughter, a policewoman played by Elizabeth Lail. And it gives a fair bit of lore about missing and murdered children. The new film adds fresh lore here and there, but it mostly focuses on extending the action beyond the abandoned restaurant that gave the first film its spooky setting, and it introduces a few new characters, including one so obviously doomed he might as well be wearing a giant bullseye. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 was directed by Emma Tommy, who did the first movie, and it was written by Scott Cawthon, who created the video games. It's in theaters now. Rihanna, you and I talked about the Nights at Freddy's movie on this show when it came out. What did you think of this one?
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Rhianna Cruz
So much like the first one, I did not enjoy this movie. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is held together by cardboard twine and fan service. And fan service does not a movie make. Famously. I was watching it. I didn't think there was much of a plot. The characters weren't exciting. I'm a horror guy myself, and I think the PG13 rating definitely gets in the way of a lot of the horror this movie. But also at the same time, this is a movie catered to children. And I think, like ages like 8 to 15 who played the video games and are obsessed with the video games. And judging by the amount of kids that were in my theater, like literal.
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Stephen Thompson
Children, little children, it's not a not scary movie.
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Rhianna Cruz
There are some terrifying visages if I was a younger kid, but the kids were, like, ripping and roaring. I heard cackles, I heard screams. And I think for them this is a good movie. But for me, who is into horror movies and isn't necessarily totally familiar with the game, you know, I'm tangentially familiar as someone in Gen Z, but it did not land for me. I'm curious to hear what you thought, Steven.
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Stephen Thompson
I will say, Rhianna. When I think back on the first movie, I have some pretty fond memories of it, in part because these games and these movies are trying to split the difference between, as I said in the intro, Gen Z nostalgia for the. And Gen X nostalgia for these restaurants. And I think I even said on the show something along the lines of, I want to hang out at this haunted pizzeria, even though there are murderous animatronics there. This is giving me nostalgia for restaurants where I had a great time as a kid and I'm a Chuck E. Cheese grownup. I would go to Chuck E. Cheese for enjoyment today. And I'm 53 years old. And so the first film did a ton of world building and a ton of just like, strung together tons and tons of lore and did a lot of work kind of building this world. And I remember saying to you in the discussion of that first film, I'm not sure I'm totally down with where this story is going. I'm not sure that all the lore about these dead kids is really my jam. The good news is there's less of that in this movie. The bad news is it's replaced by nothing.
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Rhianna Cruz
Yeah, that's the issue.
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Stephen Thompson
There is almost no story here in lieu of this, like, beautifully designed and beautifully conceived restaurant with These characters that are homages to showbiz pizza and Chuck E. Cheese while being their own original new thing. All that is replaced by these dimly lit spaces. Just these, like, cobwebby gray corridors. And you're not really getting to, like, play around in this new world. You're just rehashing. These are your murderers. These characters are trying to escape the murderers. And what it has in lieu of a story or kind of snappy dialogue or jokes or any kind of real energy attached, what it has is jump scares. And the jump scares, Rhianna, the jump scares don't pay off anything. When a jump scare works, you think about the best jump scares you've seen in horror movies. And you just said you're a horror guy.
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Rhianna Cruz
Yeah.
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Stephen Thompson
If you've seen the movie, wait until dark.
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Rhianna Cruz
Ooh. No, I haven't.
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Stephen Thompson
Oh, my gosh, Rhianna. It's so good.
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Rhianna Cruz
Okay, I'll peep.
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Stephen Thompson
And there is a jump scare in that movie that is probably the best jump scare in the history of cinema.
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Rhianna Cruz
Awesome.
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Stephen Thompson
And part of what makes it work is that it's paying off the fear that has been building over the course of the film. It is a culminating scene where somebody's kind of jumping out of the darkness and it's so, so scary. Here. Rihanna. The jump scares are literally just like the movie just goes.
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Rhianna Cruz
Exactly. I don't enjoy those.
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Stephen Thompson
There's a difference between scary and startling.
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Rhianna Cruz
Yeah.
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Stephen Thompson
And this movie is not interested in that difference. It just startles you in lieu of scaring you.
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Rhianna Cruz
Well, on the note of paying off, there's a lot of things in this movie that don't pay off. They're, like, introduced and then never fully explored. I think the trailer and the general conceit of the movie brings up this festival. Right. Faz Fest this, Freddy fazbear Street Festival that everyone in the town is obsessed with that everybody dresses up and goes. And there's very minimal payoff. We don't really see much of that festival. It's like, we know it's there. Right. There's a scene where, like, one of the animatronics interacts at the festival, and then that's it. Like, we get nothing from that. And that was one of the more interesting things that, like, this movie was promising to offer. I think the horror similarly. Right. It's like there's this character introduced in this movie called the Marionette, which, yes, I have gathered, is pretty big in the lore. Question mark. Not super familiar, but I've done some reading. I've read up on the. On the FNAF lore, it's a character, but the purpose of the character seems to be solely setting up five nights at Freddy's 3.
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Stephen Thompson
It really. This movie feels like an interstitial between two more interesting movies.
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Rhianna Cruz
Yeah. Like, nothing really happens. These characters are simply introduced, but not. There's no real conclusion. Right. To any of their storylines. They kind of just exist. Character motivations are, like, not fully warranted. There's a scene where, like, Josh Hutcherson, at the end of the movie tells one of the other characters, stay away. I don't want you in my life. And I was like, what? Like, that's kind of random, right?
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Stephen Thompson
There is a reason for it. Like, that character has kind of kept something from him, but that fact isn't that big a reveal. Exactly. Yeah. So it suddenly feels like there are a bunch of scenes in this film, and this is a famous kind of horror movie trope, where characters are making bad decisions for inexplicable reasons, in part to get them in a position to be murdered. And this film, what it feels like is lazy. It just feels like we need to get from point A to point B, and then there's kind of a lot of hand waving to get them there. And the marionette. Yes, the marionette is a big part of the games, but the way it's kind of executed here, it's like, ah, yes, the famous children's character, the haunted spider monster.
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Rhianna Cruz
Right.
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Stephen Thompson
It's so weird.
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Rhianna Cruz
That has no visual similarity with the marionette to the rest of the animatronics either. Like, it's very odd, this character that just suddenly appears. And we're all supp. Take it at face value. Like, in the. In the prologue, I would say the character shows up for the first time, and I was confused. You know, I hear people in my theater, like, no way. But, like, I'm sitting there, I'm like, what is this? You know, like. Like, there's no, like, visual reference point in the Five Nights at Freddy's, like, iconography that it could relate to. So it's a weird character design at that, and it kind of loses some of the, like, oomph and power, you know? Cause it mostly just like, why was this character even designed? Which is perhaps thinking too much into the animatronics, but.
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Stephen Thompson
But you still wanna tether it to some kind of reality. And Rihanna. You watch a lot of horror movies. I mean, horror movies are kind of designed to take some element of real life and twist it and kind of bring out the things about it. That ping our neuroses, kind of ping our fears. And certainly, you know, the first film is really doing that kind of with miss and kind of how tenuous childhood can be. And this just feels like it's checking a lot of horror movie boxes of, like, the Marionette comes in and it's just another haunted doll.
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Rhianna Cruz
Right.
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Stephen Thompson
And that's different from having these kind of hulking animatronic robots that feel coded to childhood memories of Chuck E. Cheese animatronics kind of milling around clunkily. Those characters, such as they are characters, are tapping into childhood memories. And for me, the Marionette. And that's not tapping into anything. And it's not tapping in to what's fun and lively and silly about the first movie where, like, you're taking this, for me, beloved childhood memory and making it terrifying.
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Rhianna Cruz
Totally. And I think the first movie with the main character, Mike, feels like he's responsible for his brother getting kidnapped when he was a kid. That is an interesting emotional hook and it does ground the movie. And Five Nights at Freddy's one is. Is memorable, if nothing else, you know, and there's scenes in that movie that, like, I don't particularly connect to or, like, even, but I remember them. Like, I remember the scenes, the dream scenes with the missing kids. I remember the animatronics. I remember the toy cupcake chasing somebody through the hallway. You know, like. Like these images that, like, stick with you. Even though I didn't like the movie, this movie doesn't really give any of those. Right. I think, like, I like the movies a similar amount, but I don't think there's any memorable scenes from this movie that I will recall a year from now, even six months from now. You know, that's right. So there's two Freddy Fazbear pizzas in this movie. Right.
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Stephen Thompson
They introduce a new location that has sat for decades.
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Rhianna Cruz
Exactly. And they have this throwaway line that I can't stop thinking about that makes me laugh where they're like, well, the other one, AKA the one from the first movie, is just the franchisee. This is the real deal. And it's like, it's not memorable. You're kind of just confused. You're like, there's a second Freddy Fazbear pizza, ostensibly 10 minutes from the first one that nobody has ever talked about.
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Stephen Thompson
And it has, like, a river, like a. Like a lazy river in it.
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Rhianna Cruz
For some reason, it was giving. Like. Have you ever been to Casa Bonita in Denver?
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Stephen Thompson
No.
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Rhianna Cruz
Oh, my God. Massive restaurant with, like, cliff diver and magic shows and things like that. And I was like, oh, okay. Like they're doing kind of like Casa Bonita, right, where there's like a river running through the restaurant. But even then, it's like it doesn't really deliver on that more than characters being like, wow, there's a river. And then everybody inexplicably falling in the river.
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Stephen Thompson
You know, it just keeps toppling into the river.
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Rhianna Cruz
It doesn't really, again, like, it doesn't deliver on these promises that, like they set up. You know, there's really no payoff. It's five nights at Freddy's 1.5.
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NPR Announcer
Yeah.
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Stephen Thompson
All right, well, we want to know what you think about Five Nights at Freddy's too. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com PCHH and on Letterboxd@letterboxd.com NPRPopCulture we'll have a link in our episode description up next, what is making us happy this week?
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NPR Announcer
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Fernando Madera
I have kids under 18, so like time is very limited. That's why at BetterHelp, our therapists try to have sessions sometimes at night, depending on the therapist or during the weekend. So I think that's what we need to tell the parents. You're not alone. We can help you out.
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NPR Announcer
If a flexible schedule would help you, visit betterhelp.com NPR for 10% off your first month of online therapy. This message comes from Schwab. Everyone has moments when they could have done better, like cutting their own hair or forgetting sunscreen. So now you look like a tomato. Same goes for where you invest. Level up and invest smarter with Schwab. Get market insights, education and human help when you need it. Learn more@schwab.com this message comes from Dell. It's time for Cyber Monday, one of Dell technologies biggest sales of the year. Enjoy huge savings on gift worthy accessories and select PCs like the Dell 16 plus featuring Intel Core Ultra processors. Shop now@dell.com deals now it's time for.
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Stephen Thompson
Our favorite segment of this week and every week. What's making us Happy this week, Rihanna. Cruz, what's making you happy this week, buddy?
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Rhianna Cruz
So I was listening to LA NPR member station kcrw and I get a lot of music recommendations from Morning Becomes Eclectic, the morning show here.
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Stephen Thompson
Yeah, great show.
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Rhianna Cruz
One of the songs that they were playing, I really tapped into, it's from the band Gliders. It's off of the album Forever, which came out a couple weeks ago. And I think a lot of these late year releases kind of get swallowed by like the end of the year list deluge and there's not really much bandwidth, frankly to like pay them their due, but. Chicago Trio Gliders, three people, kinda swampy rock, psychedelic rock. I've been really into the song Stepin, Tell Me about the Rabbit. It's eight minutes long. Turning.
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To Another Way.
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Losing Child.
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It's really good. It kind of scratches the like, what if King Gizzard and the Lizard wizard was like paired back to just three people and kind of chugging, you know, it's a little bluesy. I dig it a lot. So that's an album that I've been listening to a lot this week. Forever by the Chicago trio Gliders, Rihanna.
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Stephen Thompson
I host new music Friday every week on npr and I have not heard that record, so I'm gonna check it out.
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Rhianna Cruz
Sweet.
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Stephen Thompson
Thank you for the heads up.
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Rhianna Cruz
Absolutely.
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Stephen Thompson
Rhianna, what is making me happy, uncharacteristically is a piece of news.
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Rhianna Cruz
You know, I'm curious.
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Stephen Thompson
That doesn't necessarily happen very much. It feels like the news can sort of be this deluge of trouble and division and conflict and can't we come together as a nation and bond over one news story that makes everybody happy? Well, my friends, I have found that news story. I'm gonna quote the AP headline, raccoon goes on drunken rampage in Virginia liquor store and passes out on bathroom floor. Oh, yeah. Other than a few broken liquor bottles at this Virginia liquor store, this is a victimless crime. This is a story we can all get behind. Basically, a raccoon fell through a ceiling tile in a liquor store in Ashland, Virginia. It was kind of scurrying around trying to find something. Ended up SM a bunch of bottles of scotch and whiskey and getting plowed. And the photo of this poor little buddy just flattened on the bathroom floor, literally next to a toilet.
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Rhianna Cruz
Been there, brother.
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Stephen Thompson
Been there, brother. Who among us, who among us at some point in their one wild and precious life has a moment where they drink too much and wind up passed out like this sweet little buddy next to the toilet? Like, everybody. I saw the headline was like, oh, click. I have to know more about the raccoon that got trashed at a liquor store. My immediate thought was, is the raccoon okay? My friends? The raccoon is okay.
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Rhianna Cruz
Amazing.
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Stephen Thompson
My only complaint is I wish this had happened like two weeks ago so people could talk about it with their families at Thanksgiving.
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Rhianna Cruz
So true.
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Stephen Thompson
And have something to agree on in this desolate world.
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Rhianna Cruz
And that story, the raccoon getting drunk is more compelling to bring it back around than five nights at Freddy's. 2.
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Stephen Thompson
Oh, you just had to bring us down, didn't you? If you have not heard about the drunk raccoon, do yourself a favor. Just google the words drunk raccoon. You'll find it awesome. That is what is making me happy this week. If you want links for what we recommended, for example, stories about drunk raccoons, plus more recommendations, sign sign up for our newsletter@npr.org popculturenewsletter that brings us to the end of our show. Rihanna Cruz, thank you so much for being here.
- [19:16]
Rhianna Cruz
Always a pleasure. Thank you for having me, Steven.
- [19:18]
Stephen Thompson
This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Kayla Latimore, Mike Katsif and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello. Come in. Provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from npr. I'm Stephen Thompson and we will see you all next week.
- [19:38]
Siyavash Madani
This message comes from the Council for Interior Design Qualification. Interior designer and CIDQ President Siyavash Madani discusses why certified professionals know that good design is more than just how something looks.
- [19:51]
NCIDQ Representative
Being NCIDQ certified means you've qualified to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public in the spaces that you design. Good design is never just about aesthetics. It's about intention, safety and impact. So an NCIDQ certified interior designer must complete a minimum of six years of specialized education and work experience and pass the three part NCIDQ exam. All three exams emphasize and focus on health, safety and welfare of the occupants. Being NCIDQ certified means that you've proven your knowledge and skills through rigorous exams and are recognized as a qualified interior design professional.
- [20:33]
Siyavash Madani
Learn more@cidq.org NPR this message comes from NPR sponsor Shopify. Start selling with Shopify today. Whether you're a garage entrepreneur or IPO ready, Shopify is the only tool you need to start, run and grow your business without the struggle. Go to shopify.com npr.