The Wasteland Reviewer

Five Night’s At Freddy’s 2 (2025) Written Review

Have you ever been afraid of animatronics at a kids’ restaurant/arcade before? Chuck E. Cheese was a place, for sure…and Pasqually was the devil. No defense can be found. Terrifying. But this is such a visceral feeling which has made the Five Nights at Freddy’s video game franchise so relatable and why so many people have connected with this wild horror game series. The first film swooped in and made a massive killing at the box office. Naturally, a sequel was going to be flying into theaters sooner rather than not. Trading in October’s Halloween season for December’s holiday season, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is here!

Does Emma Tammi offer up some engaging PG-13 horror with this sequel? This series boasts a good sense of humor and some good scares as well. This film struggles to accomplish either of these. There are a few fleeting laughs along the way (with one or two truly inspired moments of humor) but otherwise, this film just lacks the fun it should have. Then you have the horror aspect, and this just isn’t as scary as it is trying to be. The rating of the film should not have anything to do with that, but this sequel leans fully into cheap jump scares with only a couple garnering some legitimate jumps. One of the new characters (The Marionet) is quite terrifying but otherwise this film just lacks the needed scares to make this a truly effective horror film. The filmmaking has some inspired moments of framing, blocking, and camera movements (again, related to The Marionet) but the rest is quite straight forward. The animatronic designs work just fine and will certainly make fans of the series happy. One of the main saving graces is that this film moves a lot quicker than the first film (which felt quite long). The uneven pacing makes this aspect flawed but at least it is an improvement.

Does the sequel offer up a compelling story?  There is some good potential here with the newly introduced The Marionet character which has a richer backstory even if its motivations are too broad to be as interesting. But much of the rest of this script is just so ineffective. The first act is stuffed with prolonged sequences of set up then the second and third acts are so truncated leaving all the film’s climax and resolutions feel so anti-climactic. Mike and Abby are the brother/sister duo introduced in the first film who are truly the heart of the film. Mike is quite insufferable and overly broad this time around. His developing dynamic with Vanessa (a potential love interest from the first film) feels forced with conflict this time making this aspect of the film fall flat. Abby feels so uninteresting this time around just doing the same exact things from the first film. Vanessa is an interesting case as her trauma and connection to the new antagonist makes her a much more interesting protagonist this time around. But her penchant for willfully lying to anyone around her undercuts a lot of what makes her arc effective in this film. The Marionet is set up as a terrifying antagonist who is unceremoniously defeated so quickly in the third (only to miraculously reappear for an insanely clunky and desperate tease for the third film. There are so many elements rushed in the third act that come into play that are underdeveloped. These feel like they are forced into the film for sequel baiting or getting cheap pops from fans of the games. There are so many inconsistencies in logic and timing in this film which makes the overall experience so eye-roll-inducing.

Can the cast salvage anything? Josh Hutcherson is so flat and uninteresting in this film, and his few one-liners fail to launch as well. The combination of bad writing and this uninspired performance leaves Mike such a boring protagonist this time. Piper Rubio does a lot of the same as Abby, but it is hard to blame a child actor when they are given so little to work with. Elizabeth Lail gives the strongest central performance in the film as she is forced to sell a lot of trauma and emotion, and her translation is quite solid and works for the film. Matthew Lillard pops up as the big bad, William Afton, in a few specific ways and he is just acting to the sky with how big his choices are (which are at least a lot of fun). Wayne Knight (of Seinfeld and Jurassic Park fame) gets some moments to chew it up as the sleazy science teacher who does Abby wrong. A big shout out to Megan Fox’s voice performance as Chica, who is obviously having a blast with it. McKenna Grace is wasted in her smaller role, but she does have some creepy moments. Freddy Carter is introduced as a significant character, but his performance is so one note and ridiculous which undercuts the impact of his introduction.

Is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 a good sequel swooping into theaters for the holiday season? The first film was not considered too good from overall sentiments. This one? This was quite terrible and a huge let down. This is a poorly written sequel with clunky structure, execution, and tone. This is never enough in any genres it is leaning into. The annoying sequel baiting and anti-climactic ending makes this film reek of “Part 1” for a future sequel. This just isn’t fun or scary…and that is a true sin for such a film.