I sometimes wonder if the universe is trying to humble me. Maybe I have gotten too comfortable sleeping through the night without worrying about animatronic animals attempting to rearrange my spinal column. Maybe life has gotten too peaceful, too quiet, too free of homicidal mascots lurking in the shadows of a derelict pizzeria. But then a movie like Five Nights at Freddys 2 shows up and says, “No, Jason, you have not suffered nearly enough. Please enjoy this buffet of mechanical trauma.”

And honestly, I respect the commitment.

The first film was a weird little beast. It was half YA trauma tale and half nostalgia-fueled haunted Chuck E. Cheese nightmare, the cinematic equivalent of mixing cotton candy with a ghost pepper and hoping for the best. The sequel takes all of that energy and pushes it even further. The movie looks at everything the first film tried and says, “Interesting idea, but what if the trauma gets bigger, the lore gets denser, and the robots become even more likely to violate several OSHA regulations.”

It is louder, stranger and somehow even more emotionally complicated than a movie about killer birthday party animals has any right to be.

This time the story picks up after the events of part one, and the emotional fallout is still very much alive. Abby (Piper Rubio) is older now, but age has not made the burden any lighter. She still misses her ghostly friends from Freddy Fazbear’s, and that longing hangs over her like a storm cloud. Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) are attempting something incredibly difficult: They are trying to build a romantic relationship, while each of them is carrying the emotional equivalent of a haunted refrigerator on their backs.

Vanessa especially struggles as she is still tormented by the memories of her father (Matthew Lillard) and everything he did. It is the kind of relationship where you want to gently pat them on the shoulder and say, “Maybe therapy first, and romance second.”

But therapy is not on the menu at Freddy Fazbear’s. Instead, things take a much darker turn when a murdered child named Charlotte (Audrey Lynn Marie) returns in the form of the Marionette. She is a sinister entity with real purpose and intelligence, and she can control the animatronics, as well as possess living people. Charlotte is not a background threat. She is a full supernatural force, and she knows exactly what she wants.

When Abby is manipulated into helping her, Mike and Vanessa have to push their emotions aside and race into rescue mode before Abby becomes the latest permanent resident of Freddy Fazbear’s ever-growing ghost club. It gives the film a surprising emotional core. It becomes a story about broken people trying desperately to protect what little good they have left.

The movie explores more of the FNAF mythos without overwhelming the viewer. Emma Tammi directs with a better grip on pacing most of the time. She sharpens the tension and gives the animatronics a much creepier physicality. They move like something that has watched humans closely, but never truly understood how we work. Their motions are jerky, slightly slow, slightly too fast and always unsettling. Every time the camera lingers on one of them, you cannot help but think, “That thing could absolutely bite my face off.”

The set design adds to that feeling. The pizzeria looks like a place where health inspectors simply give up, and every corner feels like it holds a secret or a malfunctioning metal monster waiting to strike.

Josh Hutcherson once again sells the look of a man who has not slept since the Obama administration. Elizabeth Lail gets far more dramatic weight to carry as Vanessa tries to untangle her past from her present. Theodus Crane, who plays Mike’s former security guard-partner Jeremiah, gets a much bigger role this time. He brings a surprising amount of fun and warmth to the movie. His scenes lighten the tension just enough without breaking the mood, coming across as the rare FNAF character who might survive on charisma alone.

Matthew Lillard is not in the film very much. He appears mainly in childhood flashbacks and in Vanessa’s nightmares. Even with his limited screen time, every one of his moments lands with force. He is not a large presence, but he is a heavy one and he casts a long shadow over the entire story.

Now for the nitpicks. The film does feel a little clunky at times. There are stretches where the plot slows down for scenes that feel like unnecessary padding or moments that could have been streamlined. A big part of that comes from the large number of Easter eggs hidden throughout the movie. Diehard FNAF fans will absolutely love every reference, every visual clue and every deep-cut lore nugget scattered across the screen.

Casual viewers will likely wonder if they are supposed to understand any of it. The movie spends a little too much time winking at the audience instead of advancing the story, and that adds to the padded runtime.

Even with its flaws, I give Five Nights at Freddys 2 four out of five stars. This sequel is not trying to rewrite horror as a genre. It is a neon-drenched fever dream of animatronic chaos, childhood trauma and ghost-powered vengeance. It hits harder than the first film in nearly every department. Some rough spots still exist, and the storytelling gets tangled here and there, but when this movie cooks, it cooks.

My daughter informs me that this means it is good.

Tonight, I will sleep with one eye open. And by sleep, I mean lie perfectly still while listening for robotic footsteps in the dark.