FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Emma Tammi
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Matthew Lillard
Release : December 5, 2025
Platform: Theatrical
Rating: 1.5/5
By Karl Simpson Jr.
“The problem isn’t just with the characters; it’s the world itself.”
I hate to use the word boring because it feels like such a lazy criticism, but that’s precisely what FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2is: boring. It wants to be a story about guilt, grief, and redemption, but it never fully commits to any of those ideas. You can see what it’s trying to do, but honestly, none of it lands. The film is constantly reaching for something deeper, while refusing to take the risks needed to get there.
The sequel picks up a year after the horrors at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mike is trying to move on and protect his younger sister, Abby, from the truth about what really happened and what became of her animatronic friends. But when Abby sneaks out to find Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, she accidentally reopens a nightmare that should’ve stayed buried. On paper, it’s a solid setup. In execution, though, it feels forced. Characters are doing things not because they make sense, but because the story needs them to.
So much of FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2depends on convenience, rather than character. People act in unrealistic ways to push the plot forward. The emotional stakes are supposed to come from the characters’ guilt and grief, but those feelings never feel earned. Vanessa, in particular, is one of the most significant casualties of this. The film wants her to be this morally conflicted figure haunted by her father’s crimes, but that doesn’t align with the version we met before. She’s rewritten into someone completely different; more a device than a person. The change doesn’t feel like growth; it feels like a rewrite.
The problem isn’t just with the characters; it’s the world itself. Logic bends and breaks constantly. Things that should matter are brushed off, while new elements appear out of nowhere. The movie keeps introducing new lore and side characters but never follows through on what’s already been established. Even the tension between Mike and Vanessa, which could’ve carried real emotional weight, turns repetitive. Every major reveal depends on someone conveniently “forgetting” to say something important. Instead of building suspense, it just wears you down.
If there’s one thing holding this sequel back, it’s that it never fully commits to anything. It wants to be scary, but it plays it safe. It wants to be emotional, but it doesn’t trust its characters enough to reach that level. It wants to expand its mythology, but the storytelling feels scattered and uncertain. Everything feels half-measured, like the movie keeps second-guessing itself. You can feel the intention behind certain moments, but because it never goes all in, none of them land with any real weight.
The rating doesn’t do the film any favors either. You can feel it straining against the boundaries of PG-13. There are moments where you can sense it wanting to go darker, but it constantly pulls back. That hesitation drains it of energy. The violence lacks bite, the scares lack edge, and the emotional beats never feel dangerous enough to stick. It’s like the movie is tiptoeing around itself, afraid to fully become what it’s meant to be.
The jump scares start off strong, but they quickly lose their impact. They become mechanical, predictable beats instead of real moments of tension. You start to sense when each one is coming before it happens. It’s not that they’re poorly executed; they just feel disconnected from the story. Instead of growing naturally out of the film’s atmosphere, they feel manufactured, as if someone is checking boxes on a horror checklist. Without emotional investment, even the loudest scare feels hollow.
All in all, FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2is a film that could’ve been so much more, if it had just trusted itself. It’s caught between tones, between audiences, and between the story it wants to tell and the one it’s too afraid to. The scares are there, but they’re empty. The emotions are there, but they’re underdeveloped. It’s not scary enough for horror fans and not daring enough to stand out on its own. You walk away, not angry, just disappointed, because you can see the potential buried beneath all that hesitation.
