In another blow to the local economy, the Formula One United States Grand Prix has been canceled due to COVID-19. The race weekend, hosted at Circuit of The Americas, was originally scheduled for October 23-25.
"The cancellation is prudent, but painful," said COTA chain Bobby Epstein in a statement. "We had secured blockbuster performers for the evening shows, and the racing this year is fantastic. I'm disappointed for the fans, COTA employees, our community, and everyone in the Formula One Paddock."
F1 has hosted its annual United States Grand Prix in Austin since 2012; this is the first time the COTA race has been canceled.
In his statement, Epstein said that after last year's sold-out event, advanced ticket sales for 2020 were up 250 percent. "Our staff was preparing for our biggest year ever," he said.
F1 hitting the brakes is the second in a series of blows for COTA. On July 10, organizers announced that the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas was also off due to the novel coronavirus.
The race's cancellation is yet another massive economic blow to the local hospitality industry. According to COTA, events like F1 and the Red Bull Grand Prix pump more than $420 million directly into the local economy. According to Forbes, the three-day race weekend in 2018 brought $45 million into the Austin economy, $20 million of which went to hotels.
As for next year's grand prix, those dates have yet to be revealed, but Epstein said he's hopeful F1 will return in 2021.
"It is my hope that the pandemic will soon pass and we will celebrate 2021 with the greatest Formula One United States Grand Prix ever!"
Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films like M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).
A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.
Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.
Unfortunately, more often than not, they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.
It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.
Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.
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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.
