SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points for “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” currently playing in theaters.
Costume designer Whitney Anne Adams’ first order of business for “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2”? A deep dive into the cult-classic video game’s animatronic filled world, and an even deeper one into its dedicated fandom.
“I literally pulled every photo I could find on the internet,” said Adams. “I got every book that existed. I scrolled all the posts and stories and joined the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Reddit community. I wanted to immerse myself in people who love the game. I really gave myself a crash course.”
The blood-soaked sequel, released on Dec. 5, picks up one year since Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) and Vanessa Shelly (Elizabeth Lail) survived their brush with the killer animatronics at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. But when Abby attempts to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy, a new series of terrifying events begin to unfold — including the awakening of the Marionette, a puppet-inspired animatronic possessed by the spirit of Charlotte Emily, a young girl murdered by William Afton (Matthew Lillard) in the early 1980s.
In order to carry out her revenge and leave Freddy Fazbear’s, she takes over the bodies of her victims. The first is Lisa (McKenna Grace), a paranormal documentary host, and, later, Abby. Both characters become haunting part-marionette, part-human hybrids in the process (described aptly as the Lisaonette and the Abbionette by Adams), their limbs lengthening and eyes glowing.
While these transformations have shocked audiences, eagle-eyed fans of the video game will notice the two iconic elements of the Marionette’s design within Lisa and Abby’s costumes that hint at their fates: buttons and stripes.
Courtesy of Whitney Anne Adams/Universal Pictures
In the second half of the film, ahead of becoming possessed, Abby wears a purple striped sweater that calls on the stripes on the arms and legs of the animatronic puppet.
“That’s why I put Abby in that sweater,” said Adams. “If we’re going to foreshadow this moment, I wanted her to echo the Marionette.”
Three white buttons, the other key design aspect of the Marionette, then served as inspiration for Lisa’s pre-transformation costume.
“I found this gray waffle henley from Old Navy,” said Adams. “I was like, ‘That’s the one.’ [We can] change the buttons out, and then we can dye them and make it perfect. Then I added three more tiers of the fabric at the bottom to also echo stripes.”
Courtesy of Whitney Anne Adams/Universal Pictures
In order to create the costumes worn by the Lisaonette and the Abbionette puppets, Adams collaborated with both the visual effects department and the Jim Henson Creature Shop, who created the animatronics for the film.
“When we were starting this process, I thought it was going to be fully visual effects,” explained Adams. “Then visual effects came to me and [said they] wanted there to be a real element — a blending of what they were wearing.”
Because Abby’s costume had already been designed, conceptualizing how it would transition for the towering puppet was a challenge, said Adams.
“We had to get the proportions right so it feels like a sweater and not like a dress,” explained Adams. “But it also needed to cover the torso, so [Abby] would just be legs and so visual effects wouldn’t have a super hard job with that transition. It was definitely a big challenge to get that exactly right.”
Because of how specific the fit needed to be, the greyscale version of Abby’s sweater the Abbionette wears — and the three others Adams had made — were all hand-knit over the course of a month.
Conversely, because Adams costumed the Lisaonette first, she was able to work backwards when adapting the costume for the character.
“What I love about working with actors is that they bring so much of themselves into the role, and they need to feel like the character,” said Adams. “But it was also quite fun to have a fitting with a really cool puppet.”
