Pictured from left to right: Abby Schmidt (Piper Rubio), Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), and Vanessa Shelly (Elizabeth Lail) cower in fear at the sight of animatronics. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2”, released on Dec. 5, 2025, was a movie adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. Courtesy of: Universal Pictures.

Usually, a sequel to a lone-standing movie is intended to build off the original plot in great fashion. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” does the complete opposite.

The movie, based on the hit game Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 released in 2014, included barely any parts of the indie game, which I found annoying and repetitive, as the previous movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s” included even less of the video game. 

The film presented a very confusing plot, with the protagonist Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) trying to find a way for his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) to make real friends, rather than making ones with animatronics, robotic figures that maintain the souls of dead kids, at the Freddy Fazbear Pizza Place. The antagonist of the movie was a Marionette doll (McKenna Grace) that remotely controlled these animatronics, intending to wreak havoc across their town. 

I didn’t expect much from the movie, and I was not let down one bit. The dialogue, character development and plot never really caught my eye, and scenes throughout the movie failed to be unique. For example, it featured a rebellious child that goes off on their own and gets in trouble, leading to the older brother needing to be their “savior.”

In addition, jumpscares, a common theme throughout the video game, were bare in the second half of the film. And when they appeared, they were second-rate at best. They relied more on blood-hurling screams and the character appearing out of the dark rather than sudden visuals. 

Usually, if I’m watching a horror movie, I want to feel like I’m with the main character along their journey, making jumpscares a lot scarier. 

Also, the entire video game’s theme involves gore and violence that disturbs the audience. The movie completely ignores this due to its PG-13 rating. If director Emma Tammi wants more interest and entertainment, I recommend changing the rating to R, as the main audience are older teens and young adults who would find more engrossment if gore was a main theme.

Finally, the movie misused the lore from the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 video game, in the appearance of the antagonist of the first movie’s son, Michael Afton (Freddy Carter), who was a main character in the Five Nights at Freddy’s games. The character was supposed to appear as creepy and determined to carry on his father’s legacy, but just appeared as a push-around and useless at the end of the movie..

The only positive I got out of the movie was the post-credit scene that featured the antagonist of Five Nights at Freddy’s 3, who will most likely be the antagonist of the next movie.

The real question that has to be answered for any upcoming “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movies is: “How can I incorporate the video games into the movie as much as I can without making the plot extremely hard to follow, even for fans of the game?”

If you want to find an answer to this question, I recommend not watching the movie unless you are diehard fan of the video game franchise, or you want to burn two hours out of your day.