The Stream: A silly and pointless story with dumb characters doing dumb things.

The Big Screen: An extremely creepy new character haunts throughout.

The Final Bill: Another unnecessary sequel continues the silly plot from the first movie, but at least there’s a new creepy character here.

– Trip Fontaine
Director: Emma Tammi
Writers: Scott Cawthon
Stars: Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Matthew Lillard, Wayne Knight, Mckenna Grace
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: PG-13 for violent content, terror and some language.
Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes
Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Scott Cawthon Productions, Mind Hive Films
Platform: In theaters December 5, 2025
Notable Trailers: Send Help, Obsession, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, The Bride

Hey, Streamers! Inexplicably, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was released this weekend during holiday season instead of in October during spooky season. Anyway, the first movie ended signaling that there would be more, so here it is fulfilling that promise. In Five Nights 2, the main action of the movie picks up a year after the events from the first movie with Mike (Josh Hutcherson), Abby (Piper Rubio), and Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) dealing with those events becoming mothing more than urban legends. Meanwhile, a new threat emerges from the original Freddy’s involving a murder and a marionette. Creepy animatronic hijinks ensue.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 suffers from a pointless plot that is a retread of the storyline of the first film. We learn nothing new about the main characters, and the new characters are not very interesting. Everyone is doing something stupid in order to further the plot, and that’s very annoying. Furthermore, the motivation of the murderous animatronics is so convoluted and silly that it’s hard to be scared by anything in this movie. There are a few jump scares that aren’t very scary; however, there is a new character, the Marionette, that is very creepy even though it doesn’t fit the aesthetic of the other Fazbear characters. Despite that, the design of the Marionette and the original Fazbear animatronics are good. I would assume that fans of the source material may be more entertained by the references and callbacks than the uninitiated. For me, it lacked dramatic tension, scary moments or sense, and it peters out in the end.

Ultimately, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 does not do enough to differentiate itself for the original movie. The plot is a meandering and stale continuation of the first movie. This movie’s only saving graces are the introduction of a creepy new monster and the fun design of the animatronic characters because, otherwise, it is still lacking in scares and humor. Only fans of the videogame will really be into this sequel, so for all others, this is only worth a handful of popcorn.