Director: Emma Tammi
Year: 2025
Country: USA/Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Trying to move on with their lives, the security guard and his sister, attempting to start over after the previous events, find themselves brought back to the pizzeria when they become convinced the creatures are being brought back to life and returning to their bloodthirsty ways.
Review:
Generally, this was an okay if somewhat flawed sequel effort. Among the better elements here are those based on the established lore and backstory of the various characters that help to bring everything together a bit further. Learning much more about the establishment’s background and the history of the franchise, carrying on their robotics experiments over the years, with the way it brings about the characters involved in the creation of the animatronic creatures and what’s gone on around the town following the original massacre and resulting scandal, is a great way to go about this. With the sister still obsessing over the creatures and determined to reunite with them again as a solid secondary function alongside the idea of trying to restore the idea of the pizzeria to its past glories as others keep giving more evidence to the dark nature of the original creations, this storyline works incredibly well at giving off some great extra pieces to what’s gone on before.
As well, there’s also quite a lot of fun to be had with this one, going through the motions of bringing the animatronics to life. The creatures and suits for this one look great, with their sleek, shiny appearance and generally imposing height make for great villains long before making good use of their design functions. The sweet voices of the different robots are fantastic false alarms to their vicious attitudes, especially with the bright, icy blue glowing eyes that signal something is about to happen in the best way possible when the creatures are out and about to cause trouble. From the opening stalking scene with the robots targeting a stray party guest in the background of the facility, or a later scene involving urban explorers looking into the truth about the location, only to find the creatures are still alive, serves to generate some solid impact on the animatronics so that the race to stop them in the final half gives everything quite a lot to like.
There are some flaws here that bring this one down. The biggest drawback to the film is the insistence on making sure the human villains remain at the forefront of the storyline, oftentimes coming at the expense of the genuinely intriguing work it’s set up elsewhere. The whole idea of the demonic spirit that trapped the souls of the children in the dolls to begin with and setting up new ways to ensure the robots can operate outside the confines of the pizzeria through their connection with the previous survivors is a wholly effective and enjoyable one, yet this one tries to offer up more tips and setpieces showing the girl being manipulated by someone else involved in their original creation. This continually undermines the far more intriguing subplot about the dolls coming to life on their own and working out how to operate beyond their means to keep things focused on providing the same grounded response from the original.
The other big issue here is the fact that, despite offering all the lore expanding the role of the characters from the series into the film, the way this unfolds as a general film leaves a lot to be desired. Relying on huge info dumps at several points to bring the action together means the overall story here is a messy one, where it could’ve provided a lot of the same info in a better way, as this one feels like it’s filled with illogical contrivances to move things along instead of bringing the lore together in a more cohesive manner. The behavior of the robots makes little sense when it’s not relying on the expansive series lore to bring everything together, and with the whole thing feeling like the pace is a bit sluggish as a result of this bizarrely structured plot, it can come off somewhat overlong. These are what really bring this one down overall.
Overview: **.5/5
An intriguing if somewhat flawed follow-up, this one comes together well enough for fans of the franchise while struggling elsewhere due to some big issues. Those who enjoyed the original or who are hardcore followers of the franchise will have the most to like here, while others, turned off by the original, are turned off by these factors, or don’t follow the franchise, will want to heed extreme caution.
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