Five Nights At Freddy's 2 Review: Scott Cawthon's Convoluted Lore Is The Sequel's Scariest Villain

When the film adaptation of "Five Nights at Freddy's" was first announced, I was absolutely elated. The popular video game series created by Scott Cawthon had become an absolute sensation, and did so without the assistance of any major studio support. Playing the game (or, more honestly, watching YouTubers scream through it) cracked open the horror genre for an entire generation, and I've long defended its place in horror history against the old guard who simply "didn't get it." The first film was a rousing success for Blumhouse and Universal, and solidified to any naysayers that Freddy Fazbear and the gang were here to stay, whether they "got it" or not.

Director Emma Tammi worked wonders with the needlessly complicated lore that is unfortunately vital to appeasing the passionately vocal fandom in the first film, carving out a new canon with new human characters and some of the most gobsmackingly impressive animatronics to ever come out of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. A sequel was inevitable, and on paper, it sounded promising. Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich were having a mini "Scream" reunion as William Afton and Henry Emily! They're introducing the Toy models of the animatronics, and they talk! The Marionette, Balloon Boy, and Circus Baby are being properly introduced! And "FNaF" superfan, actress Mckenna Grace, found her way into the franchise!

Fortunately, "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" delivers about 15 minutes of genuinely terrific thrills that feel ripped straight from the games, but they're flanked by baffling plot threads that are somehow even more tangled than the source material. Unapologetic fan service masquerades as exposition, setups go nowhere, and yet the fandom will undoubtedly devour it all without hesitation. 

Kids, you deserve better-tasting slop.

"Five Nights at Freddy's 2" kicks off in 1982 with Charlotte (Audrey Lynn-Marie), a lonely girl who insists she has some spiritual connection with The Marionette — a legitimately creepy animatronic that has never aesthetically fit in the world of "FNaF." She spots Spring Bonnie (Matthew Lillard as William Afton inside a suit) dragging off a boy and saves him before he becomes Afton's latest victim. Alas, no good deed goes unpunished, and she is murdered onstage at the pizzeria. Her corpse collapses into the arms of the Marionette, her soul fuses with it, giving us the origin story of the film's big bad. The fact that she "felt connected" to the puppet before she died doesn't make a lick of sense, but with anything from the pen of Scott Cawthon, logic is optional.

Jump to 2002. Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and Abby (Piper Rubio) are doing their best to move on from the events of the last film. Abby's into robotics, which would be cool if her teacher, Mr. Berg (Wayne Knight), didn't treat her like a cartoon villain substitute with the same subtlety George Lopez brought to "Sharkboy and Lava Girl." Meanwhile, Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) is attempting to process the whole "my dad was a serial killer" thing by confronting him in her dreams. Or healing? Or... something? The movie doesn't bother to explain. At least Lillard made the most of his limited screen time. Abby's real mission is to reconnect with her old friends, aka the child ghosts inside the animatronics from the first film. She's willing to do anything to have them back in her life, making her a target for the Marionette, who is capable of wireless control over every animatronic thanks to convenient plot technology.

Cawthon, who single-handedly penned this stopgap slog, is poisoning his own creation. Tammi's direction is swallowed up by baked-in pacing issues and storytelling logic on the same level as a 2nd grader trying to improvise an explanation for why they didn't bring their homework. But that's exactly what made the games so popular in the first place, because the ludicrous lore allowed for fans to fill in the blanks and build community in the process. "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" plays out like a movie written by Reddit fan theories that will only make sense to people who were forged in the discourse mines. "FNaF 2" fails to deliver on anything cool promised in the trailer (FazFest is shown for like, 5 minutes max), and well-placed Easter eggs, cameos, and one-liners does not a good movie make.

It's a shame that "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" is such a bloated mess, because it has all of the elements to be a truly special gateway horror film franchise. The new animatronics are genuinely jaw-dropping, Megan Fox voicing Chica is a real delight, the jump scares are effective, the Easter eggs are well-placed, and for a brief moment, when we finally get Mike in the security office (essentially bringing the video game into beat-by-beat live action), the movie absolutely soars. But Cawthon's script is a disaster, and it's one that I cannot in good conscience defend, even as someone who shockingly could make sense of it, having consumed hours of fan theories over the years. The fandom was right when they pushed him out of his own game the first time, and if Blumhouse has any sense, they'll do the same and hire an actual screenwriter for the inevitable third installment.

/Film Rating: 4 out of 10.

"Five Nights at Freddy's 2" hits theaters on December 5, 2025.