Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (2025): It's not even fun, anymore

I don't think anyone seriously goes into a Five Nights at Freddy's film expecting a well-written plot, or even effective scares. But the first movie was a fun experience and a guilty pleasure movie - read the review here. So much so, that I brought along Bingo cards for my group to tick off throughout the sequel.

Much like many my card, Five Night's at Freddy's 2 (directed by Emma Tammi) doesn't tick many boxes. (For better or worse, though, my friends got a Bingo line.)

The movie starts promisingly enough; with a flashback to a different Freddy's location, and an unfortunate accident with the Marionette puppet. This bread and butter for a FNAF story, and not only has a shot with haunting imagery, but captures the tongue in cheek carelessness of the Freddy's staff from the games.

Unfortunately, this is the most engaging part of the film. We switch back to Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and Abby (Piper Rubio), who seem to have no further guardianship issues. Mike is still struggling to date Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), who's recovered from her injuries from the first movie; ridding a lot of tension about our Freddy's expert being in a coma. (Especially as dreams have become a key aspect of the film series.)

The plot is both contrived and empty. A somewhat tension filled scene of podscasters in the old Freddy's location becomes comical when Balloon Boy, a joke character from the first film, is framed as a threat. Abby's robotics teacher is comically awful in a way that worked well with non-characters, like Doug in the first, but becomes ludicrous as a driving point of the plot.

Whilst the animatronics were hardly menacing in the first film, the use of a 'good/bad' switch gave them moments to be a somewhat threat. In the second, any attempt at this is abandoned, with a possession more fitting of a homemade horror from the early 2010s. They are once again designed by the Jim Henson Company, look beautiful and are a delight to watch onscreen - but they would be more delightful if they were scary. The film fails at capturing any of the tension or dread that the games became viral for.

Perhaps this is because the Freddy's brand has become rather diluted. Countless toy lines and middlegrade novels has skewed the franchise to a much younger audience and left Freddy as menacing as, well, a teddy bear. Unfortunately, instead of rejuvenating the horror of the brand, the films have opted to play into its younger fanbase and meme status.

After the set-up, the plot falls apart, focusing on science fairs and empty scenes. So much so that the final twist and scene had my row asking "is that it?" Just as the story begins to come together, it slams on the breaks. It's bizarre that the marketing focused so heavily on Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard's reunion, when they have one scene each, and none with each other. Devoted fans of The Lore will recognise the character names and get excited, but for what? Five Night's at Freddy's 2 spends so long teasing that it forgets to tell its own story.

This isn't helped by the lack of characterization; something the games skate by on due to their simplistic, jump-scare based nature and the approach to the lore as a puzzle.

Overall, where the first FNAF film was enough of a nostalgic and fun popcorn film to skate by, the second one falls entirely flat.

At this point, the only ray of hope for the franchise is the teaser for the third film, corresponding to the third game, and may see Springtrap as a horror villain to be feared.

Five Night's at Freddy's 2 Bingo Cards