Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Wayne Knight, Mckenna Grace, Matthew Lillard
Director: Emma Tammi
Rating: ★.5
When the first Five Nights at Freddy’s landed in 2023, it became an unlikely phenomenon—part nostalgia trip, part carefully packaged PG-13 horror that allowed younger fans to feel like they were touching something dangerous without actually being scared. Built on the cult success of Scott Cawthon’s video-game universe, the film stitched together haunted animatronics, missing children, and internet-fueled mythology into something that audiences devoured regardless of its shortcomings. A sequel was inevitable.
The second instalment opens with a flashback to 1982, where a young girl named Charlotte witnesses a kidnapping during a party at the original Freddy’s location and is murdered while adults inexplicably stand by. Her spirit fuses with a new animatronic—Marionette—setting the stage for another cycle of vengeful horror two decades later. Mike (Josh Hutcherson), his sister Abby (Piper Rubio), and Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) return to confront yet another supernatural spiral, while the possessed mascots resurface to wreak havoc across multiple locations that blur together.
The good
There are glimmers of charm, even if accidental. Watching the animatronics stomp around in real-world environments initially offers a novelty the first film lacked, even if the tone drifts into unintentional comedy. Piper Rubio once again brings genuine emotion to material that rarely supports her, and Wayne Knight wrings every ounce of ridiculousness from his role as an obnoxious teacher who becomes monster fodder. Matthew Lillard’s brief nightmare-sequence appearance will probably remind everyone how much personality the franchise loses without him, and fans of the game will find comfort in the easter-egg callbacks and universe-building ambition.
The bad
Everything else, feels painfully undercooked. The film moves awkwardly from scene to scene, as if mimicking the lumbering animatronics it features, struggling with basic transitions and narrative momentum. Emma Tammi sidesteps tension at every turn, leaning instead on ear-splitting audio spikes and endless exposition. The script is suffocated by a lore that refuses to translate into emotional or cinematic coherence. Motivations shift without logic, characters disappear for long stretches, and conveniences arrive with laughable ease—most notably a storyline hinging on ultra-powerful Wi-Fi in a derelict building during 2002.
The tonal confusion is staggering. Nods to Scream, Jurassic Park, A Nightmare on Elm Street and even Willy’s Wonderland surface, but none of the craft or bite that made those references worthy ever materializes. The violence is sanitised to the point of parody, the scares nonexistent, and the pacing so slack that even die-hard fans may check their watches.
The verdict
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 plays like brand maintenance rather than filmmaking—an endurance exercise built to serve franchise loyalty instead of storytelling. It’s not scary, not thrilling, and not even entertaining in the so-bad-it’s-good way. Younger fans may still cheer, but viewers craving actual horror may walk away wondering how something with killer robots and childhood trauma manages to feel this lifeless. The harshest truth? The commemorative popcorn bucket offers more satisfaction than the movie it accompanies.
