"Bad pizza is still pizza, and for die-hard fans of Scott Cawthon's viral horror video games, "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" should be satisfying enough. Still, swapping empty calories for real artistic fuel (something the film industry desperately needs right now), Blumhouse's fine-enough follow-up to its hit adaptation from 2023 looks and feels like a kind of imitation cheese. "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" isn't mimicking the earlier movie so much as it is parroting the idea of genre storytelling itself."
"Cawthon tackles the script solo this time, mostly to his haunted animatronics' detriment. Director Emma Tammi returns as well, steering the star-studded cast - including returners Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, and Piper Rubio - like a fleet of bumper cars traveling a road full of plot holes. Clever winks to the games and the digital culture that's erupted around them since ("Freddy's" is particularly popular on social media live streams) can't account for the disconnect between the story's vexing supernatural mechanics and weak human heart."
Five Nights at Freddy's 2 returns to Freddy Fazbear Pizza with familiar haunted animatronics and a returning cast, blending ghosts and engineering-based scares. The screenplay by Scott Cawthon leans on genre conventions and callbacks, producing paint-by-numbers terror that entertains franchise devotees while offering little artistic innovation. Emma Tammi's direction provides slick moments and fan-pleasing references, but plot holes and thin human characterization undermine emotional stakes. The film trades deeper storytelling and imaginative risk for crowd-pleasing familiarity and digital-culture easter eggs, resulting in a sequel that satisfies loyal fans more than cinephiles seeking originality.
Read at IndieWire
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