Here at The A.V. Club, we’ve been discussing the apparent video game adaptation renaissance. In 2023, we got The Last Of Us, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Five Nights At Freddy’s, an adaptation that became Blumhouse’s highest-grossing film ever. Those successes proved, at long last, that video game adaptations are viable. Now director Emma Tammi and star Josh Hutcherson are back for a victory lap with the Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 trailer, ahead of the film’s premiere on December 5.
“One year has passed since the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. The stories about what transpired there have been twisted into a campy local legend, inspiring the town’s first ever Fazfest. Former security guard Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) have kept the truth from Mike’s 11-year-old sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), concerning the fate of her animatronic friends,” the synopsis for the film reads. “But when Abby sneaks out to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, it will set into motion a terrifying series of events, revealing dark secrets about the true origin of Freddy’s, and unleashing a long-forgotten horror hidden away for decades.”
The Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 trailer introduces yet more haunted lore as franchise newcomer Mckenna Grace visits the chain’s original location where a little girl was murdered. But the action is not limited to the defunct pizzeria; as the tagline goes, “Evil has left the building,” and the animatronics appear to be stalking the streets for their next victim(s). Much like his role in the Scream movies, Matthew Lillard is somehow set to return in the new movie despite dying in the first installment, and also like Scream, he’ll be joined by Skeet Ulrich. Freddy Carter (Shadow And Bone) and Wayne Knight (Seinfeld) will also star.
In his C+ review for The A.V. Club, Luke Y. Thompson noted there are kills in Five Nights At Freddy’s, “but they’re often as comical as they are scary, and deliberately so. It’s a fun gateway horror movie for kids—and the easily scared who want to test their limits lightly.” Last year, Hutcherson promised that they’re stepping up their game for the sequel. “It’s much bigger; the stakes are higher,” he told Esquire. “There’s more animatronics being brought in, different animatronics being brought in, and the world just opens up in a big way. We’re finding the balance right now of building this world and expanding it in a really cool way but also making sure the characters stay really grounded. That’s something that I really think that we all fought for in the first film, because this world that was created in Five Nights At Freddy’s, it’s so out-there. It’s so over-the-top and wacky, in a way, that to find the emotional truth of the characters was gonna be what was gonna work. I think the fans are gonna flip for it. It’s gonna be a lot of fun with the source. It’s gonna be scarier, too, actually.”
