FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S 2 (2025)

Studio:   Universal/Blumhouse
Director: Emma Tammi
Writer:   Scott Cawthon
Producer: Scott Cawthon, Jason Blum
Stars:    Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mckenna Grace, Freddy Carter, Theodus Crane, Teo Briones, Wayne Knight, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard

Review Score:

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Summary:

A decades-old secret reanimates the murderous animatronics of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza for another deadly robot rampage.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

While attending a classmate’s birthday party at the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza location in 1982, young misfit Charlotte Emily witnesses animatronic creator William Afton, disguised as the yellow rabbit character Springtrap, luring a little boy into an off-limits area backstage. With all of the adults in attendance unwilling to listen to her, Charlotte personally rescues the boy only to be stabbed to death by Afton. Charlotte collapses on the main stage in front of horrified patrons who watch her sink into trapdoors. Charlotte’s dead body reemerges being cradled by The Marionette, a character with whom Charlotte always felt a personal kinship. Following an investigation that clears the restaurant of wrongdoing, this location permanently closes, although new pizzerias open in its place.

20 years later, traumatized police officer Vanessa Shelly, who was present at Charlotte’s death and who is also the daughter of William Afton, checks in with former security guard Mike Schmidt regarding a dinner date they arrange for later. Meanwhile, Mike sees his younger sister Abby off to East Lake Middle School where she has become popular for telling tales of her previous experiences with the Freddy Fazbear animatronics.

At school, Abby anxiously prepares for an upcoming Science Fair with the intention of “fixing” her animatronic Freddy “friends” as her project. Abby’s Robotics teacher, Mr. Berg, expresses anger that the Science Fair conflicts with a local “FazFest” event planned to celebrate Freddy’s pop culture popularity.

At home, Abby asks her brother if she can visit Chica and her other Freddy friends. Mike warns that it isn’t safe until he fixes them, which makes Abby despondent.

When he returns home from his dinner with Vanessa, Mike discovers his sister went to the abandoned restaurant where he briefly worked. Mike goes to Abby to comfort her. Abby brings home a FazTalker speaker toy that allows for realistic voice interaction with the Freddy characters.

Amateur ghost hunters Lisa, Rob, and Alex, who create content for their online show “Spectral Scoopers,” arrive at the original Freddy Fazbear’s location to record footage for their latest episode. There, they are met by an odd man named Michael who claims to be the security guard. After the trio separates, an animatronic creature kills Alex while Rob is attacked and drowned in the boat ride’s water. The Marionette attacks and possesses Lisa, inspiring Michael to say through a wicked grin, “Welcome back, Charlotte.”

Haunted by visions of her murderous father, Vanessa meditates to confront William Afton in a dream state. Vanessa relives memories of Afton tormenting her during the creation of his animatronics, including “Toy” versions that render the Freddy characters with hard plastic instead of soft fur.

Over the FazTalker device, Chica’s voice lures Abby to the original Freddy’s restaurant. Abby is greeted by Chica in her Toy form, although she is secretly The Marionette in disguise.

At Mike’s house, Abby shows Vanessa a small Chica robot she constructed for the Science Fair. Vanessa becomes alarmed when Abby tells her Freddy and Chica showed her how to build it in their “old house” with a river. Vanessa tries warning Mike about what Abby said, but he expresses more concern about an anti-FazFest protest being led by Charlotte’s father Henry, and that Vanessa never told him she was there when Charlotte died.

Vanessa investigates the original Freddy’s location alone. At the abandoned restaurant, Vanessa confronts the Charlotte-possessed Marionette about wanting to hurt people. Vanessa refuses The Marionette’s request to disable the perimeter box that would allow the animatronics to leave the restaurant. The Marionette indicates she has another way to disable the system before taking Vanessa prisoner.

At the Science Fair, Mr. Berg intentionally breaks Abby’s small Chica robot under the guise of it being an accident. Upset, Abby bikes back to the restaurant to reunite with Chica. The Marionette tortures Vanessa into giving up the security code, which Chica then recites to Abby. Abby enters the code into a computer, freeing the Toy versions of the Freddy characters.

Mike visits Charlotte’s hermit father Henry. The two men bond over having family members killed by William Afton’s creations. From newspaper articles Henry collected, Mike learns there was an original Freddy Fazbear’s location with a river ride and realizes he needs to find his sister immediately. Henry gives Mike a music box that he asks him to leave for his daughter Charlotte at the restaurant.

Abby and Chica take a cab back to the Science Fair. Abby presents Chica as her new project. Mr. Berg insults Abby for seemingly putting a person in a suit. Chica follows Mr. Berg to a private room afterward and crushes his head. Abby goes on to win the Science Fair.

Mike sneaks into the original Freddy’s location and finds Withered prototypes of the Freddy characters in a cellar storeroom. He then frees Vanessa from captivity. Vanessa warns that Charlotte is behind everything that is happening and Abby is in danger because she is with the animatronics. Vanessa further explains that Charlotte’s ghost is trapped there in a state of rage, blaming unresponsive parents for her murder, and she can only be calmed by a music box.

Balloon Boy chases Mike and Vanessa into the security office. Vanessa informs Mike that The Marionette can control the other animatronics wirelessly. Worried that Abby could be its next target, Vanessa adds that The Marionette needs something to bond with in order to move around. Vanessa drives into town to search for Abby while Mike stays behind to try disconnecting the animatronic control signal through the restaurant’s computer.

Mike’s security breach allows Chica to remotely activate Afton’s Withered prototypes. Mike alerts Vanessa to the location where he traced Toy Freddy’s signal, but Vanessa’s car is suddenly attacked by Mangle, a spider-like mechanical monster. Vanessa fights through the attack to race to a home where she rescues a couple from Toy Freddy’s attack.

The Withered animatronics attack Mike in the security office. Mike protects himself by wearing a Freddy mask that fools the characters into thinking he is one of them. Mike deactivates all of the escaped animatronics except for The Marionette, ending an attack by Toy Bonnie on another suburban family.

Mike traces The Marionette to his house, where The Marionette bursts out of Chica to possess Abby. The Marionette reactivates the signal Mike disabled, which turns on the animatronics again.

Mike goes to the Freddy’s location where he briefly worked to appeal to the original animatronics to once again protect his sister. Meanwhile, Mike’s friend Jeremiah picks up Vanessa and drives her to Mike’s house for a confrontation with Charlotte, who has now possessed Abby into morphing with The Marionette.

Mike returns home in time to rescue Vanessa and repel The Marionette by playing Henry’s music box. Abby returns to normal. The Toy animatronics surround everyone. Revealing himself as Vanessa’s brother, Michael arrives to gloat that he will continue their father’s legacy by helping the animatronics slaughter half the town at FazFest.

Heeding Mike’s plea, the original Freddy animatronics arrive and defeat the Toy animatronics. Michael flees outside, but Jeremiah stops him.

The original animatronics lose power because they weren’t built to be outside the restaurant. Representing the other murdered children haunting the animatronics, a blonde ghost boy appears and explains to Mike and Vanessa that the children must move on because their spirits can’t stay in those bodies anymore. The boy warns that once they are gone, they will no longer be able to hold off William Afton.

Mike leaves the house with Abby and Jeremiah. Mike warns Vanessa to stay away from them because she cannot be trusted. Once she’s left alone, The Marionette possesses Vanessa. Later, a trio of souvenir hunters sneaks into a Freddy’s restaurant where William Afton’s Springtrap is seen flickering to life.

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Review:

People responsible for films they know are going to be poorly received sometimes get in front of the flak by preemptively proclaiming, “We didn’t make this for the critics.” It’s a dumb defense for a number of reasons. For one thing, everyone knows this is code for, “You’re going to hear a lot about how much this movie sucks, but that’s just elitists being elite.” For another thing, of course no one makes movies for critics. Not a single person has ever gone to film school or developed a project under the pretense of, “I hope one day Richard Roeper appreciates the work I’m doing specifically to appeal to him.”

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” director Emma Tammi, returning for a second stab at adapting the video game phenomenon, took this cringey tactic a step further by clarifying exactly for whom this sequel was made. As usual, it “wasn’t for the critics.” Instead, the movie consciously chose “to really put fan service first and foremost,” warning “that fan service doesn’t always translate to a more general audience.” Justifying this decision to home in on the core fanbase, Tammi added, “at the end of the day, the joy of the fans is so much more important … than reading a kind of mean movie review headline.”

There you have it. Should you find yourself surprised by “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’s” out-of-the-blue introductions to new characters and concepts, bored by a noticeable dearth of exciting action, or confused by forced references to game-related Easter eggs and backstory bits, understand that those issues aren’t the film’s fault. The problem is you. Evidently, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” was actually made for TruFans™ who would rather spend the movie repeatedly reenacting the Leonardo pointing meme, not ordinary audiences who expect to be immersed in an escapist fantasy built on substantial storytelling.

In looking ahead to this inevitable sequel, I concluded my review of the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” (review here) by musing, “now that the movie's mythology is firmly established, maybe the creators can let loose for the freaky fun folks expected to see explode in this one.” That wait will have to continue for at least one more chapter, because “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is even more hellbent on worldbuilding than its predecessor, never mind if the world being built has any bearing at all on current events.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” starts with a flashback where we meet Charlotte, a misfit loner who somehow still got an invite to a birthday party at the original Freddy Fazbear’s location in 1982. Charlotte feels a special connection to The Marionette, a previously unseen animatronic with the power to puppeteer Freddy and his friends. This connection becomes literal when evil engineer William Afton murders Charlotte and her vengeful spirit merges with The Marionette. Despite their apparent importance, Charlotte and The Marionette go on ice for the next 20 years, so hold that loose end.

It just so happens that Vanessa, the police officer and secret daughter of William Afton, was present when Charlotte died. In 2002, not 202X like one might believe, Vanessa remains haunted by this experience while maintaining a romantic tie to Mike, the former security guard whose sister Abby was at the center of the first film’s ordeal. Mike becomes upset when he later learns Vanessa never told him about Charlotte, which is rich considering “Five Nights at Freddy’s” never told us about her until now either.

We catch up with Mike as he does home repairs with Jeremiah, an unspecified friend who spontaneously appears during this opening, then serendipitously returns during the climax to suddenly rescue Vanessa while Mike is indisposed. Meanwhile, a despondent Abby longs to be reunited with her murderous Freddy “friends,” despite Mike insisting they have to be “fixed” first, as does Abby’s selective memory that seemingly forgot about the horrible things they were responsible for last time.

Also returning for this sequel is Matthew Lillard as William Afton, although he only pops up in a few of Vanessa’s disturbing visions. Infrequent appearances are a trend among the movie’s main names, including both Wayne Knight and Skeet Ulrich.

Wayne Knight plays Mr. Berg, the Robotics teacher at Abby’s middle school. I could have sworn I heard Knight’s voice on the restaurant loudspeaker in the 1982 flashback, possibly hinting he had some hidden connection to the nefarious inner workings of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Or, maybe not. Every time Abby shows up for his Science Fair with some variation of a mechanical Chica creation, Mr. Berg flips his lid, further indicating a suspicious hatred of all things Freddy, until Chica puts an abrupt end to his existence in what seems like a total waste of establishing an ultimately irrelevant personality. It’s at least a waste of Wayne Knight in what amounts to an inconsequential role.

Skeet Ulrich sees even less screentime in his single scene as Charlotte’s distraught father Henry. His primary purpose is to facilitate exposition through a cliched collection of newspaper clippings that alert Mike to Abby’s obvious danger at the hands of the manipulative Marionette, and to hand off a music box capable of magically repelling the creature. If you hope to see the fan favorite “Scream” star do anything more than that, hope for something else.

Ordinarily, I’d take these truncated threads that hit dead ends as evidence that the movie might have been edited to within an inch of its life, perhaps to whittle down side stories that weren’t working with the main plot. Except with “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” shoehorned setups are a feature, not a bug. The movie appears intentionally constructed not as a follow-up feature or standalone entry, but as a 100-minute first act for a future film, hopefully one that includes a complete story populated by people with immediate purpose, none of which “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” has.

The main “Five Nights at Freddy’s” game series started as a quintet of point-and-click quickies whose thin fiction was chiefly dreamt up by speculating fans connecting imaginary dots after the fact. It’s little surprise then that Scott Cawthon, FNAF’s creator and the sole writer credited with “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’s” script, treats scenes like he’s creating content instead of a consistent narrative, allowing those aforementioned fans to fill in more blanks when they’re not busy geeking out over things like Mike wearing a Freddy face to ward off attacking animatronics, “just like in the second game!”

I’d hate to think what happens if this trend continues with upcoming installments, and fans realize they’ve been given unpaid jobs to find their own fun in films that don’t make much of it on their own. Then again, I’ve already been told that’s precisely what the intent is, to make movies that aren’t movies so much as patchworks of in-jokes, winks, and nods that make obsessive FNAF fans feel seen while us plainclothes philistines simply wish for something more memorable. Looks like that’s too much to ask for, and it’s apparently wrong to even ask in the first place.

NOTE: There is a mid-credits scene.

Review Score: 45

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