Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, 2025.
Directed by Emma Tammi.
Starring Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich, Wayne Knight, Mckenna Grace, Teo Briones, Freddy Carter, Kellen Goff and Megan Fox.
SYNOPSIS:
One year since the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, the stories about what transpired there have been twisted into a campy local legend, inspiring the town’s first ever Fazfest. With the truth about what transpired kept from her, Abby sneaks out to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, setting into motion a terrifying series of events that will reveal dark secrets about the true origin of Freddy’s, and unleash a long-forgotten horror hidden away for decades.
The premise of Scott Cawthon’s hit gaming series, Five Nights at Freddy’s, is already limited for a cinematic adaptation. At the very least, the first film (which was a snoozefest despite whatever backhanded compliment others gave it as a “gateway horror” for younger viewers) spanned five nights. Here, with Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, returning director Emma Tammi is dealing with that fallout in a sequel that has almost nothing to do and nowhere to go beyond shoehorning in lore references, what are presumably key items from the games, more incomprehensibly dumb character twists, and another murderous legend, this time involving the original Freddy Fazbear pizzeria.
With young Abby (Piper Rubio) missing her misunderstood murderous animatronic friends (which were revealed to hold the souls of children murdered at the hands of pizza franchise owner William Afton, played by Matthew Lillard, who briefly returns here in a completely superfluous and pointless nightmare sequence that solely exists to give him a cameo and pop the crowd of diehard fans) and her older brother and legal guardian Mike (Josh Hutcherson) easing into dating into Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), there simply isn’t much to do with any of these characters aside from generic storylines regarding struggling to move on. Fascinatingly, Abby isn’t necessarily traumatized by the events of the first film; she entertains herself by recounting stories of the danger to her school bus peers, who mostly just think she is weird. Even robotics teacher Mr. Berg (a slightly amusing Wayne Knight) has a grudge against her for being strange.
For what is ostensibly a horror movie, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 drifts along as a limp drama with a dash of new mystery, sagging and boring the mind to the point of wondering if this pizzeria chain is similar to Pizza Hut, with one located every ten minutes of driving. And please don’t write to me with corrections and facts on how many of these pizzerias there are; that is irrelevant. The point is to demonstrate how damn dull these movies are.
After having set up the death of a young girl at the original pizzeria sometime in the early 1980s (involving a marionette), this sequel (which is notably written only by Scott Cawthon this time around, which checks out given some of the out of place religious touches towards the end) introduces a ghost hunting team led by Mckenna Grace (having a very busy year as a rising star) seemingly existing to be killed off, albeit in disappointingly bloodless, family-friendly fashion, giving audiences a taste of alleged terror. The problem with that is Emma Tammi still doesn’t know how to make any of this frightening; her go-to tactics are cheap jump scares, animatronics ambling toward the screen, and characters falling into the moat of an underground cove.
Meanwhile, Mike, unsure what to do about the unique grief Abby is dealing with, takes her to the burned-down pizzeria where the events of the first film took place, in an attempt to make peace and move on. It is there that she finds and brings home a Fazbear talking device, which eventually begins relaying messages, although they might not be from the animatronics/dead souls she saved and who now protect her. For whatever reason, there is also now a Fazbear Festival set to take place soon, because what’s more festive than celebrating murdered children from various pizzeria chain locations?
There is a brief moment when Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 dances with being fun, as Abby brings a special guest to her science fair. The possibilities for chaos here are practically endless, and yet all the film comes up with is a semi-decent kill that mostly only works due to a dark punchline (a style of humor these movies desperately need more of). With Mike also back at the pizzeria, it also momentarily turns into something resembling the games, which admittedly works. However, therein lies the problem: it only works for about five minutes because these video games do not translate well to other media, especially movies.
From there, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 gets stupider by the minute, introducing a music box that Mike hilariously draws and wields like a firearm. Somehow, that’s not even the most preposterous element here. That’s also what happens when there is no real story to tell beyond cramming in as much fan service as possible, only to set up a third installment of even more dumbfounding nonsense.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★
Robert Kojder
