Five Nights at Freddie’s 2: When Fan Service Replaces Film Making.
Let me be blunt. I did not really care for the first movie in this series, but I understood what it was trying to be and who it was made for. It was by no means a great film, but it also was not terrible. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the sequel, which may be one of the weakest movies I have seen last year.
I have never been deeply involved in the games or the lore the way many fans are, though I was familiar with it back in my school days. Watching MatPat’s Game Theory videos and breaking down the story with friends was genuinely fun, so I know there is a rich world here with plenty of material to explore. Because of that, I do not take any pleasure in tearing into this film. I can only imagine the amount of work that goes into a production like this, and I have a lot of respect for the people who made it.
That said, I also have to be honest about my experience. While fans of the franchise will likely enjoy the heavy amount of fan service, the movie feels overly tailored to that audience alone. Making a film that primarily speaks to existing fans can be a double-edged sword, and in this case, there is very little in the way of standout production, cinematography, or visual spectacle to pull in casual moviegoers as well.
The story opens in 1982 at the very first Freddy Fazbear’s location, where a children’s party is in full swing. We’re introduced to Charlotte Emily, a young girl who witnesses serial killer William Afton luring a boy into the back rooms. Panicked, she tries to alert the adults at the party, only to be brushed aside by every single one of them.
And at that moment, I knew the rest of the movie was going to be terrible. There is absolutely no reality where parents would be so consumed by casual conversation that they would all ignore a child clearly asking for urgent help. It’s an incredibly forced scenario, written purely to move the plot forward, and it immediately exposes the film’s weak storytelling.
Despite being ignored, Charlotte chases after William in an attempt to save the boy and she meets a tragic end. She is murdered, her body falling through a trapdoor below the building, where it is discovered by the animatronic known as The Marionette. From that moment on, Charlotte’s soul possesses the Marionette, setting the stage for everything that follows.
The movie then takes us back to the year 2002, two years after William Afton is killed and the main characters from the first film all return. Again, as I said before, this isn’t a movie created for regular movie goers but rather the fans who are deeply invested in the games and lore that has been built up over the many years.
The story here just refuses to make any sense. Abby, following the events of the first film, continues to miss her ghost friends whose souls were trapped inside the animatonics. She secretly seeks out the old animatronics, unaware that her actions set off a chain reaction that awakens a long-dormant threat connected to the Marionette, a relic of the franchise’s dark history.
Honestly, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 feels like it’s just ticking off franchise boxes instead of building a real story. The “Toy” animatronics are supposed to be a big deal, but they suddenly start acting on their own with no explanation. The movie never really tells you why they are more dangerous than the originals, so the tension never actually builds. It just kind of happens and you’re left like, “Okay… now what?”
The Marionette is even worse. It is basically used as a lazy plot tool to justify whatever chaos the movie needs next. Abby getting possessed is supposed to be emotional, but it happens so fast and gets fixed so easily that it loses all impact. Mike using the music box is supposed to feel powerful, but the movie barely sets it up, so it just comes off as a random solve.
And then there is Michael Afton. His reveal is meant to be a big twist, but it lands flat because the movie never gives him any real character. He just shows up, sides with the animatronics, and starts acting like a villain because the plot needs one. Even the big showdown with the original animatronics feels like the film just needed a quick way to escape the mess.
The acting is not bad, but the dialogue is. Everything sounds like exposition or filler, and the characters end up shouting or staring dramatically at each other instead of actually feeling real. So when Mike and Vanessa have their big falling out, it does not feel earned. It feels like the movie said, “Okay, now you guys are broken.”
By the end, the movie is more interested in setting up the next one than finishing the story it started. The mid credits scene brings back William Afton in a way that feels forced, and the final Marionette tease just reminds you the film never committed to a real ending.
At the end of the day, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 does not fail because it is ambitious. It fails because it confuses noise with storytelling. It had the chance to be a tense, character driven horror sequel, but instead it feels like a random collection of ideas that never really connect.
