No one expected Five Nights at Freddy’s, the live-action adaptation of the harrowing survival horror games, to break the box office the way it did. PG-13 horror films occupy a bizarre space within the genre, but here it helped catapult an unnerving game adaptation into the realm of “Baby’s First Horror.” It was just spooky enough to provide some entry-level scares; even if its supernatural twists were too convoluted for even an expert of the genre to follow, its pitch-black humor filled in the gaps. Whatever its flaws, a sequel felt inevitable. Blumhouse wasted little time greenlighting Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, and director Emma Tammi, reteaming with game creator Scott Cawthon, holds back even less in the follow-up.
At least, that’s what it seems like at first glance. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is your classic sequel in that it gives us more whether it needs it or not: more ghosts, more creepy possessed animatronics, and more cameos from horror royalty. But it balances it all on a premise so thin and airless that it seems to be saying both everything and nothing.
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