BlumhouseNo 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. Five Nights 2 opens by turning the clock back to the early ‘80s, when Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza was still in its heyday. Rather than return to the franchise location from Five Nights, we’re back at the location that started it all, and has a whole lot more to recommend it. Freddy’s flagship store is akin to a miniature theme park, complete with an indoor lazy river and an animatronic unique to its location, the Marionette. A cross between a mime and the Other Mother from Coraline, it doesn’t exactly fit into Freddy’s Chuck E. Cheese-esque branding. The Marionette is pretty overtly unsettling, but no one partying at Freddy’s in 1983 seems to notice or care that something is amiss. That is, until a child is abducted and nearly murdered by William Afton (Matthew Lillard), the antagonist of the first Five Nights film. His dastardly backstage deeds are thwarted by an observant young girl, Charlotte (Audrey Lynn-Marie) — but her frustration and eventual murder at Afton’s hands sets off the chain of events for another ghost story.This opening sequence starts Five Nights off on a promising note, but the film that follows never fully lives up to it. The introduction of a bigger, better Freddy’s locale brings plenty of intrigue to the proceedings. The problem is, Tammi and Cawthon don’t know just what to do with it. Aside from a spooky sequence in the “present day,” in which a group of teen ghost hunters stumble into the original Freddy’s, Five Nights is more keen to bring its murderous robots into the real world, robbing the film of the atmosphere that made its predecessor so compelling.Five Nights works best when focusing on the horrors in the minds of its heroes. | BlumhouseTwenty years after its cold open, in the vaguely defined early 2000s, Five Nights catches up with Mike (Josh Hutcherson), his 11-year-old sister Abby (Piper Rubio), and Afton’s daughter Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail). While the grown-ups struggle to move on from their harrowing experience at Freddy’s, Abby is actively mourning the demise of her “friends,” the five ghost children who used Freddy’s animatronic mascots to settle their unfinished business. Abby is convinced they’re still out there, that they still need her help — and when she’s lured to Freddy’s original restaurant, it’d seem like her hunch is correct. Abby’s friends have found new, improved metal bodies to occupy... at least, that’s what she thinks. In truth, Charlotte’s ghost — who has not only somehow fused with Freddy’s Marionette, but can also “possess” other animatronics at will — is pulling the strings in the shadows. She’s returned to get vengeance on the adults who let Afton run wild in the dark hallways of Freddy’s, and she’s determined to unleash a small army of mascots onto the world to get it.Clunky ghost conceits keeps this sequel from reaching new heights. | BlumhouseSo begins a horror story that’s bigger in scope, but less intriguing in its execution. Five Nights is best when to confines itself to dark, cloistered spaces — not just the new Freddy Fazbear location, but also the minds of its protagonists. The first Five Nights used dreams and memory to unspool its mysteries, and though its sequel mostly abandons that conceit, it does call on it occasionally to deepen our connection to its characters. Following the demise of her serial murderer dad, Vanessa is plagued by nightmares, and her efforts to untangle herself from his legacy culminate in an expertly crafted dream sequence. It’s when Five Nights ventures out into the wider world, tacking on distracting backstories and motives, that it really loses its way.Adding insult to injury is the film’s misplaced focus where its antagonists are concerned. In the first Five Nights, Afton promised to return to haunt our heroes. Lillard certainly reprises his chilling role as Afton, but only in flashbacks and dream sequences. Still, the promise of a better villain is haunting enough. Not only is Afton more compelling than the animatronics taking center stage — as the film uses them for jump scares and very little else — but so is his unfinished business. This saga will continue with Five Nights at Freddy’s 3, as a mid-credits tease confirms, so there’s another chance to get it right. But after so many wrong turns in Five Nights 2, fans of the original games and entry-level audiences might not find the effort worth it.Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is playing in theaters now.