“The Empire Strikes Again.” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” “The Godfather Half II.” “Aliens.”
Suffice it to say that “5 Nights at Freddy’s 2” received’t be a part of the ranks of Hollywood’s greatest sequels.
The horror movie has one factor in its favor. The primary “Freddy’s” wasn’t superb, leveraging its supply materials and animatronic beasts to juice its field workplace fortunes.
By comparability, “Freddy’s 2” can’t get a lot proper, from its bland characters to nonexistent frights. This sequel is horrifying for all of the unsuitable causes, together with a closing scene begging for a 3rd “Night time.”
The horror, the horror.
A creepy prologue – the movie’s greatest sequence – units the story in movement. A shy woman is murdered throughout a kids’s celebration at, the place else, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza circa 1982. Her dying haunts the kiddie franchise, which ultimately shuttered over time.
We knew the latter half already, however why does a lot of the expertise inside nonetheless work like new?
It’s virtually as if there’s treasured little thought given to this wing of Blumhouse Manor.
The primary movie’s unlikely hero, safety guard Mike (Josh Hutcherson), is again. He’s tasked with caring for his sister Abby (Piper Rubio), who longs to reunite with the animatronic critters inhabited by the souls of lifeless kids.
Awww. Ewww.
Which means she’ll slip away sooner or later and enter Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, the place whoever owns the place didn’t know locks had been invented centuries in the past.
It doesn’t take lengthy earlier than Bonnie, Chica and the gang are introduced again to life, together with a brand new risk dubbed the “Marionette.” The latter is the sequel’s huge wrinkle and the closest the movie involves invoking any chills.
The opposite saving grace, a time period loosely utilized right here? Wayne Knight does his unctuous routine as a neighborhood faculty trainer. He’s a professional who is aware of precisely the right way to course of this sub-par materials – along with his dignity intact.
The remainder is a crush of fuzzy subplots, odd character motivations and again tales that simply don’t add up. Director Emma Tammi depends on low-cost soar scares to maintain us awake, and as soon as once more she will be able to’t maximize the creep issue constructed into these robotic goons.
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No matter spark existed between Mike and his frenemy Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) within the first “Freddy” goes POOF! throughout spherical two. The movie additionally wastes Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich, the dueling “Scream” connections.
An early sequence involving “ghost hunters” is equally underwhelming however ripe with potential. That’s a sample right here.
What’s left? Presumably, some fan service tied to the supply materials and the notion that this IP will rake in money it doesn’t matter what’s seen on display screen.
HiT or Miss: “5 Nights at Freddy’s 2” retains the franchise alive, however that’s about the perfect we are able to say about this sloppy sequel.