'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' review: Killer animatronics return in tepid sequel

Courtesy of Universal

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At least “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” has one thing going for it: it’s better than the original. But considering 2023’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was already not great to begin with, that’s a low bar. Outside of the impressively accurate video game animatronics, that first film evaporated from the cultural memory the second audiences walked out of the theater. This sequel, arriving two years later, tries to course-correct by returning to what made the games effective in the first place: it actually makes the animatronics scary.

And to its credit, it mostly succeeds. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” leans into the mechanics of the games, builds suspense through control, confinement, and limited visibility, and dangles just enough lore and easter eggs to keep the fanbase satisfied. It also shamelessly sets up multiple sequel hooks by the time the credits roll. There is even a pseudo “Scream” reunion with brief appearances by Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard, though the fact that they never share a scene together feels like a borderline cinematic crime.

The problem, once again, is that none of this makes any logical sense. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” operates on a dream logic that feels less like intentional surrealism and more like basic storytelling negligence. Characters make decisions that defy common sense, people exist solely to deliver exposition or wander into frame so a giant animatronic can drag them into a room and slaughter them, and the film never even attempts to explain how these massive, roaming machines move freely without anyone noticing.

Still, by PG-13 horror standards, the kills are passable, and director Emma Tammi, alongside series creator Scott Cawthon, occasionally finds real tension by simply letting the animatronics exist in a space. When they’re stalking, lurking, or emerging from the walls of the pizzeria, the movie briefly becomes what it should have been all along. The core idea remains unbeatable: Chuck E. Cheese, but haunted. It’s a perfect premise. The film just can’t stop overexplaining it.

Whenever characters start talking, the movie collapses under the weight of its own lore. Cawthon seems trapped between servicing diehard fans and onboarding newcomers, and instead of committing to a clean story, he threads together several half-baked ones. The result is a movie that constantly gestures toward bigger mythology without ever grounding itself in anything emotionally or narratively coherent.

The opening 1982 prologue introduces new mythology while digging deeper into Vanessa, played by Elizabeth Lail, the daughter of child-murdering franchise boogeyman William Afton, played again by Matthew Lillard. We’re introduced to the Marionette and another fan favorite character before the film jumps twenty years ahead, where Mike, played by Josh Hutcherson, is still caring for his somehow decades-younger sister Abby, played by Piper Rubio, who now deeply misses the murderous possessed animatronics. Yes, really.

Virtually no one in this film behaves like an actual human being. There’s a cartoonishly snobbish science teacher, amusingly played by Wayne Knight, whose entire personality revolves around winning a robotics competition because the school is on a three-year winning streak. This competition is scheduled for a Saturday night, at the exact same time as a massive carnival called “Fazzfest,” and he threatens his students with academic failure if they don’t prioritize the robot contest. It’s the kind of plotting that feels less like heightened reality and more like total narrative laziness.

That said, when the movie works, it really works. The moments where the animatronics break free from the pizzeria and invade the outside world are genuinely effective, giving Tammi the space to create real suspense and sustained dread. But just like the first film, those moments are brief and surrounded by clunky dialogue and lifeless human interactions. Cawthon still cannot write believable people, and the film remains more interested in references than in making us care who lives or dies.

You can feel the movie constantly bending itself around fan service, while also strangely deviating from established lore in ways that will probably thrill some fans and enrage others. But none of that really matters. These films are cheap to make and reliably explode at the box office, often clearing hundreds of millions of dollars with ease.

On some level, it’s hard not to respect what this franchise represents. Like “Saw” and “Paranormal Activity,” “Five Nights at Freddy’s” has become a gateway horror series for a generation. It trains teenagers to show up for movies and experience communal fear in a theater. 

Well, they can have this franchise. 

Grade: C

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2 is now playing in theaters.