Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
December 4th, 2025
MOVIE: FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2
STARRING: JOSH HUTCHERSON, PIPER RUBIO, ELIZABETH LAIL, MATTHEW LILLARD, MCKENNA GRACE, SKEET ULRICH
DIRECTED BY: EMMA TAMMI
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 2 STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 104 MINUTES
It still shocks me that the first Five Nights at Freddy’s became a massive hit. Despite originally premiering on Paramount Plus, it went on to earn about $291 million in theaters- enough to guarantee a sequel. Clearly, there’s an audience for it: fans of the video game with its baked-in fanbase, eager for a mediocre slice of teen gateway horror. This weekend brings the sequel, once again directed by Emma Tammi, with the principal cast returning and the energy turned up. Unfortunately, it delivers something so incoherent that audiences may find themselves Googling, “What did I just watch?” Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than its predecessor simply because it’s livelier, but it leaves logic completely behind.
The film opens with a flashback to the original Freddy Fazbear’s, a Chuck E. Cheese–style establishment, where a young girl is murdered by a new character called the Marionette. After that history lesson, the story picks up where the first film left off: child kidnapper William Afton (Matthew Lillard) is dead, while his police-officer daughter Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), struggling security guard Mike (Josh Hutcherson), and Mike’s young sister Abby (Piper Rubio) are all coping with the trauma of being hunted by an animatronic bear, bunny, fox, and chicken. The trio believes the Fazbear killings are over — until a group of ghost hunters, led by McKenna Grace, revisit the original restaurant and mysteriously vanish, awakening the killer animatronics once again.
To its credit, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is a significant improvement over the first. With the trauma backstory already established, writer Scott Cawthon wastes no time unleashing the robotic killers. But this faster pace leads to a level of stupidity not often seen in modern horror. Characters miss glaringly obvious threats for the sake of cheap jump scares, new characters are introduced without explanation and forgotten just as quickly, and the plot leans even harder on video-game lore — something only hardcore fans will appreciate. As a result, the film alienates many viewers while sacrificing coherence and basic logic.
There are a few standout set pieces, including Vanessa’s tense escape from a robot fox attacking her car, and the Marionette’s eerie presence adds a fresh jolt… even if it feels disconnected from the rest of the Fazbear gang. As gateway horror, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 works more often than not, but with generic writing, thin motivations, and a virtually nonexistent third act, it still leaves plenty to be desired.
Audiences will almost certainly flock to see it, especially teenagers seeking something mindless over the holiday break. But viewers deserve more from their horror films. The premise- animatronic robots on a killing spree- is a fun throwback to ’80s classics like Chopping Mall and fits comfortably alongside recent hits like M3GAN or Christmas Bloody Christmas. The problem is that all of those movies did it far better. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 may be a step up, but it’s a very small one.
2 STARS
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S IS PLAYING IN THEATERS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5TH, 2025.
Written by: Leo Brady
