‘Five Nights At Freddy’s 2’ review: Maniacal mascots remain star attraction of dull horror sequel

Dir: Emma Tammi. US. 2025. 104mins

With 5 Nights At Freddy’s 2, Jim Henson’s Creature Store stays the franchise’s star attraction, the corporate as soon as once more doing spectacular work bringing the menacing robotic creatures to life. Sadly, this horror sequel is in any other case as inanimate as its predecessor, failing to be sufficiently scary or dramatic. As soon as once more, Josh Hutcherson does battle with a gaggle of life-size killer animatronics, who this time escape Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza to put waste to the skin world. However whether or not trivialising childhood trauma or delivering nonsensical plot twists, Freddy’s 2 looks like a rushed try and capitalise on the unique movie’s shock success.

By no means breaks freed from its personal conventionality

Common launches this Blumhouse manufacturing globally on December 5, catering to an underserved horror viewers searching for scares. Just like the 2023 movie, which was primarily based on the favored video video games collection and introduced in $292 million worldwide, Freddy’s 2 avoids extreme gore or swearing, permitting for a wider viewership. The follow-up might not be capable to match the primary image’s business efficiency however, contemplating that 5 Nights At Freddy’s concurrently streamed on Peacock, Freddy’s 2 may gain advantage from a extra unique theatrical window. Regardless, the brand new movie units the stage for an inevitable Freddy’s 3, and profitability appears assured for this modestly-budgeted image.

Hutcherson returns as Mike, who takes care of his 11-year-old sister Abby (Piper Rubio), retaining from her the darkish secrets and techniques of the animatronic mascots she befriended within the first movie. In the meantime, his potential love curiosity Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) is on depart from the police pressure after reckoning with the truth that her serial-killer father William (Matthew Lillard) murdered the youngsters whose spirits now reside in these creepy creatures. However Mike and Vanessa should confront their fears as soon as Abby is summoned by the animatronics — and a second deserted Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant begins to deal with unusual occurrences.

Returning director Emma Tammi reunites with author Scott Cawthon, who created the online game, for this new instalment, which is barely scarier than the unique. That mentioned, the filmmakers once more spend an excessive amount of time on tiresome soar scares, which they apparently consider they have to use instead of graphic violence or ugly bloodshed. That lack of modern considering is felt all through Freddy’s 2, which vainly tries to deepen our understanding of its central characters. However the horror Mike and Vanessa have skilled results in treasured few new developments, and their tentative makes an attempt at a relationship fail to supply romantic sparks.

The unique movie benefited from its intelligent incorporation of the animatronics, which recalled the unsettlingly cheery robotic figures designed to entertain youngsters at tacky US pizza chains akin to Chuck E. Cheese. Jim Henson’s Creature Store emphasised what was at all times so petrifying about these lumbering metallic mascots, and the inhuman robotic animals are equally unnerving in Freddy’s 2. At its greatest, the sequel has enjoyable with the creatures’ lifeless eyes and depraved expressions though, as a result of they transfer so slowly, any actual pressure comes from their human prey conveniently falling down once they’re attempting to flee.

Freddy’s 2 will get some mileage out of the reveal of a brand new terror, referred to as The Marionette, which might invade the physique of its victims, resulting in a number of the movie’s most annoying scenes. However what finally turns into clear is that this villain’s temporary introduction is generally meant to tease its presumably bigger position within the subsequent chapter, making the narrative really feel much more underwhelming.

The performances, which are supposed to convey the emotional fallout from 5 Nights At Freddy’s, endure from a script that favours awkwardly on-the-nose dialogue. Even worse, Freddy’s 2 asks its characters to behave foolishly in an effort to additional the plot. Abby manages to elude Mike’s supervision surprisingly simply to search out her animatronic mates, whereas Vanessa decides to not inform Mike essential info that may later come to gentle on the most completely inopportune second. Hutcherson’s superficial brooding and Lail’s one-note despair can’t start to embody the grief and guilt these troubled characters are imagined to be riddled with.

The primary movie confined the murderous animatronics to the restaurant however in Freddy’s 2 they escape their digital shackles, creating the potential for humorous and scary encounters with on a regular basis individuals. However Tammi and Cawthon by no means efficiently exploit the state of affairs, conjuring up solely boring horror sequences and uninspired comedic bits. The killer mascots might spring the coop, however this sequel by no means breaks freed from its personal conventionality.