Ever since the release of the comedic “Five Nights at Freddy’s” in 2023, fans of the film have been anxiously awaiting the story’s sequel. Based on the titular survival-horror game, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” offers a similarly cheesy yet entertaining addition to Scott Cawthon’s popular franchise.
Released on streaming platforms last December, the sequel opens with a flashback to the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant in 1982, where a young girl named Charlotte (Audrey Lynn-Marie) tragically dies while trying to save one of her companions from the killer animatronics. As the Marionette — an animatronic puppet that first appeared in the “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” game — whisks Charlotte’s body away, diehard fans of the franchise’s original lore are left with a sinking feeling.
In 2002, the Marionette returns when she possesses the body of Lisa (Mckenna Grace), a curious ghost hunter who stumbles upon the now dilapidated establishment while filming a video series with her friends. Nearby, the young Abby (Piper Rubio) begs her older brother Mike (Josh Hutcherson) to let her reunite with the deadly animatronics. The beginning of the movie is admittedly frustrating, as audience members are forced to watch characters make dangerous, irrational decisions just for the sake of sparking a plotline.
After secretly communicating with the mechatronic puppets through a talking toy called the FazTalker, Abby returns to Freddy’s and is greeted by a star-studded cast. When Toy Chica (Meghan Fox) — a remodeled version of the franchise’s original animatronic chicken — first introduces herself to Abby, Fox’s breathy and sultry voice emerges from the robot’s mechanical beak.
Later, the YouTube game theorist Matthew Patrick — more notably known as MatPat — also makes a cameo as the voice of Toy Bonnie, a blue rabbit animatronic. While the unexpected celebrity cameos made for an engaging beginning, it wasn’t enough to compensate for the film’s lazy storyline and cheesy script.
One scene stood out as a particularly cringeworthy moment. After cornering one of Abby’s teachers, Toy Chica ominously says “What I want is to see what’s going on inside your head.” She proceeds to crush the struggling man’s head, adding, “Nothing in there at all” while inspecting the damage.
Yet fans weren’t the only ones to point out the lackluster screenwriting. Just last month, Variety magazine went as far as to rank the film number two on their “The Worst Movies of 2025” list. The movie is also nominated for “Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel” at the 2026 Golden Raspberry Awards, a parody awards show honoring the year’s greatest cinematic failures.
While the film is seemingly unbearable to critics, its deep-cut references to Cawthon’s original video game series make it the perfect night in for fans of the original “Five Nights at Freddy’s” franchise. The sequel features a variety of characters from the game’s extensive lore, including other beloved animatronics like Circus Baby, Mangle and Balloon Boy.
During an interaction with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), William Afton’s (Matthew Lillard) daughter, the Marionette even goes as far as to quote the franchise’s 2018 game “Ultimate Custom Night.”
“I don’t hate you, but you need to stay out of my way,” the puppet says.
Other niche references include the night guard’s ability to hide from the animatronics with a Freddy mask — a tactic used by Mike as he evades a surprise attack — and the split-second appearance of a Shadow Bonnie in the hallway of the original Freddy’s restaurant. In one of Abby’s classrooms, more vigilant fans can even make out the map of the game’s fifth installment — “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location” — on a whiteboard.
While the film is far from Oscar-worthy, its feel-good nature and callbacks to the original game will most certainly leave fans smiling — regardless of whether they’re laughing with or at it.
