Five Nights At Freddy’s

We sit down and review Five Nights At Freddy’s 2. The next film in the line of killer animatronics is finally here. Here is our review of the Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 movie

The next chapter of the FNaF IP is out there, as Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 has hit theaters to keep the story flowing out there. Given how popular the IP is and how much they made with the last film, Blumhouse would have been insane not to try and give the fans another experience. Not that they do not have so much Five Nights At Freddy’s content out there in the wild already. But they needed to have more, and give us some fun resolutions to story beats, more cameos from creators, new characters added into the mix, and maybe build up to another film in the line. We had a chance to see the film a bit early, so here is our review of it all just before you head out to see it today, December 5^th. Let us see if it is holding up out there…

Story

As one would have expected, Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 picks up shortly after the events of the last film. At least far enough down the path to explain some of the child actors aging, but still keeping things close to the events of the last film. Some of those events left the animatronics in the local Fazbear Pizza a little worse for wear, and Abby wanted to help fix that issue. Unfortunately for her and Mike, it sounds like they have been moved to the original location and where the stabbing of '82 went down. Not something that is in the Five Nights At Freddy’s that I know of, but it keeps in line with things, and gives us a reason to see The Marionette show up in the films going forward.

Hated

Walking into Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, I was expecting something along the lines of the first film, but expanded and with a bit more of a budget. Especially with the runtimes being about the same, and the first one being so engaging that it seemed to fly by. In this one, though, there is a massive pacing issue with many of the scenes and actions. Almost like they went on too long, or had to be filler with nothing much to add, so this was not an hour-long film. This left me bored on nodding off quite a few times as we heard the same dialogue and similar story beats hit, when fans of the IP or those who watched the first film would have heard/seen this umpteen times already. Not to mention, so many of these scenes meant nothing to those who somehow chose to go see Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 without any knowledge whatsoever. Instead of watching the screen, I was watching my watch, which is never a good sign, and felt like I was missing out on things that could have been inserted into the film instead.

Next, many of the actions and story elements of Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 felt like they would have been more akin to a video game script instead of a feature film script. Almost as if they needed to hit so many items on a checklist to make sure we knew we were watching a video game film, instead of a film inspired by the video games. Character choices, actions, and story beats felt clunky and as if they needed to happen instead of as a result of character actions. That includes some that are taken by the major villains in the story. They fit the Five Nights At Freddy’s universe, sure, but they never flowed naturally in this film or felt like there were hours of missing gameplay to help get us all to the leaps in logic that the characters were taking. Given that the script was written by the game director, this makes sense, but for a movie-going audience, it was a bit weird. I was in the mood for a film and not in the mindset of video game logic. I will just do that at home.

Lastly, I am going to have to strike on a few events in Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 that felt bigger in the scheme of marketing or the story, but were there just for fan service and nothing more. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the marketing and story talk about Fazfest quite a bit. Something that almost feels like it is going to be a massive part of the story, even as the film carries on. But becomes a throwaway thing in the film, outside of giving a good laugh and a few extra cameos and cosplays in the mix. This was something that could have led to a massive element in the story and some amazing scenes in Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, but was quickly forgotten so we could get back into the closed spaces of the pizzeria and other warehouse settings. It could have been a fun gag if it had been left just as that, but instead, it left many walking out of the theater I was in, questioning what the point was and why we saw so little of it. Take that as a warning not to build much hype around that.

Loved

One of the fun things that it looked like Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 was going to do was bring in many new characters and actors into the mix to not only give us some great performances, but other fun nods to so many other bits of work out there. The film definitely did that, even if many of the new characters only had a chance to shine for a limited time on the screen. Wayne Knight and Skeet Ulrich are the top billed, but the others added some extra fun into it all. That includes the voice actors that they had in the film, too. All while we had a chance to see not only Skeet bring Henry Emily to life for the Five Nights At Freddy’s fans, but also watching Matthew Lillard nail the William Afton role even further. Bringing the creepiness and terror that the character should bring to us all perfectly to life. It is exactly what many of us would want to see for the characters in the IP, and the actors did not let any of us down in that regard.

Next, we have a slew of new animatronics to look at as the evolution of the characters in Five Nights At Freddy’s carried on. We had the originals that were crafted for the first film back in action, but the newer and cleaner ones also brought the same level of terror we should have all expected out there in the IP. Even if some of them looked a little more CGI than practical, the ones that were fully practical were what Five Nights At Freddy’s fans have been losing their minds over since we had the teasers of them for the first film. In fact, you can see some of those suits in the images around this review, so you can get a better idea of the level of detail that the team put into it all. They truly made it feel like these were real things we could interact with or go and see if the locations were more than just sets for the film. All are things that a fan of the IP will be impressed by for sure.

Lastly, as this is a little bit of a spoiler for Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, the look and feel of The Marionette in the film was spectacular, along with how it was shown to be manipulating others. Mix that in with a very tragic backstory that was crafted and put on display in the center stage, and it was another amazing entry into the Five Nights At Freddy’s lore. It was one of the few parts that kept bringing me back into the film, along with the various jump scares that were not performed by Matthew Lillard in the film. If you needed to have a creepy thing follow you home and make sure you were decently creeped out in the film, this design and character will do that. I wanted more, and I am hoping that we will get more when the third movie inevitably comes out. Yes, there is a buildup to a third film with this character and the events of the film, so do expect that, as long as it does well.

In the end Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 was about as good as the first film. It had some weird pacing issues that could have cut the movie down to about a 75-minute film, but the actors and character designs could bring you back into it all. Do not go in thinking you will have a whole lot to see in the Fazfest, no matter what the marketing shows, and I am sure you will have a solid time with this film. It is going to be a delight for all of the hardcore Five Nights At Freddy’s fans, for sure. As a general audience member, just make sure you have plenty of snacks, or maybe just wait until you can watch it at home, so you have something to do during the lulls. Now, if only they would take the sets and the characters built for the film on a tour so we can all have the real-life experience of it all. Just so we can walk around the sets and see the costumes in the flesh.

Overview

I give Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 3 Dead Kids on the Dead Kid scale.

Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 was produced by Blumhouse and in theaters on December 5^th, 2026. I was invited to an early screening of the film for the media as well as the general audience for this review.