Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (2025) Universal/Horror RT: 104 minutes Rated PG-13 (violent content, terror, some language) Director: Emma Tammi Screenplay: Scott Cawthon Music: The Newton Brothers Cinematography: Lyn Moncrief Release date: December 5, 2025 (US) Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Freddy Carter, Theodus Crane, Wayne Knight, Teo Briones, Mckenna Grace, David Andrew Calvillo, Audrey Lynn Marie, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard.
Rating: ***
I can’t believe I’m about to say this. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is a pretty good movie. The sequel to the 2023 adaptation of the same-named video game, it’s an improvement over its predecessor. Returning director Emma Tammi seems to have a clearer idea of what she’s going for this time. Also, she leans a bit more into the horror, favoring thrills over paying service to the fanboys and gamers making up most of the audience. Oh, they’ll still love it, only now the non-players can enjoy it too.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 opens with a bang. In the 1982-set prologue, a young girl named Charlotte (Marie) attending a birthday party at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza takes it on herself to rescue a little boy from child killer William Afton’s clutches after her pleas for help are ignored by every adult in the joint. She gets him to safety, but gets stabbed to death in the process. Nobody notices much of anything until an animatronic marionette emerges from the floor holding her corpse. The place is immediately and permanently shut down.
Twenty years later and two years after the original Five Nights, the principal characters are still dealing with the trauma of their ordeal at Freddy’s. Mike (Hutcherson, The Beekeeper) wants to move on with his life, but little sister Abby (Rubio) still misses her animatronic friends. She lives with the hope that Mike will someday keep his promise and fix them for her. Vanessa (Lail, Dead of Summer), the local cop revealed to be William’s daughter, is angry and guilt-ridden. She too wants to put the whole thing behind her, but she knows she can’t. There’s more to the story than she told Mike.
It’s a team of paranormal hunters that stir things up again. They go to the original location to look around and inadvertently wake up “The Marionette”, the animatronic controlling the others, a more polished batch of robotic mascots. One of them manages to contact Abby through a talking toy in her possession. They need her help escaping from Freddy’s. It, of course, would be a very bad thing if they managed to get out.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt a little out of place at the Thursday night preview of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. The theater was packed with gamer geeks of all ages (mostly teens), some of them in costume. I smiled at their enthusiasm. If I was 15, I’d probably be one of them. At 57, I was merely an observer. At the very least, I’m one of the few that quietly said “Hello, Newman!” when Wayne Knight showed up as Abby’s a**hole robotics teacher.
In any event, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first Five Nights. While marginally better than most film adaptations of video games, it’s still just that. It left me with a feeling of indifference. It was more for the fans than general audiences. I didn’t feel that way this time. It’s still for the fans, but it’s a bit more interesting for the uninitiated.
In no way, shape or form does Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 reinvent the wheel or anything else. Tammi uses what she has to put together the best Five Nights movie possible. She gives it an atmosphere that’s genuinely creepy. The abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s (the original location, btw), a one-time hot spot for early 80s kids, is like a weird funhouse with the discarded FF artifacts and a water ride not too unlike the It’s a Small World attraction at Disney World. Its main inhabitant is The Marionette, a freaky character that resembles a demented harlequin with pupil-less eyes and tentacle-like arms. True to Five Nights form, it’s alive and not friendly. It wants to kill. It’s what nightmares are made of. We’ve encountered such creations in other horror movies, some more effective than others. The Marionette is one for the win column. I can see where it would get under the skin of tweens and young teens.
In a strange and warped way, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 plays out like a Spielberg-produced teen horror from the 80s. It has thrills and scares, but always stays within the bounds of PG-13. It’s dark, but in a fun way. It’s similar to Gremlins that way.
Every critic knows that acting isn’t a high priority in movies like Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. You certainly won’t find any Oscar-worthy performances here. The cast does a serviceable job. This one is something of a mini Scream reunion with both Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich on board. Rubio is a good little actress; she doesn’t overplay the cute kid card. Other than that, there’s really not a lot to say on this subject.
Look, we all know that Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will NEVER be regarded as a film classic. Neither will the first one for that matter. It will, however, do well at the box office. The fans will show up. Also, a third movie is guaranteed. Tammi leaves the door WIDE open. So parents, be warned. You haven’t seen the last of the Freddy’s gang. Let’s just hope they’re as good as this installment.
