Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2 (2025)

Starring Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Freddy Carter, Theodus Crane, Wayne Knight, Teo Briones, Mckenna Grace, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, David Andrew Calvillo, Audrey Lynn Marie, Miriam Spumpkin, Han Soto, Grant Feely, Gavin Borders, Bentley Cooper, Carl Palmer and the voices of Kellen Goff, Megan Fox and Matthew "MatPat" Patrick.

Screenplay by  Scott Cawthon.

Directed by Emma Tammi.

Distributed by Universal Pictures. 104 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Can you survive five nights at Freddy’s? Well, at this point I’ve only done two. On Wednesday, I went to an advanced screening of Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. As a longtime fan of the games, I was just as excited as I was in 2023 to screen the original movie. While I felt that it did deliver on the fear-factor better than before, I can’t say I’m a fan of cliff hangers.

This installment of the series covers the second game and features the original location to the pizzeria introduced in the first movie. Lore fanatics of the games will note the accuracy compared to the games, as well as some of the liberties that were taken. For example, the Toy Animatronics using their “free roaming mode” in the outside world. 

Speaking of the toy animatronics, the cast is joined by Megan Fox, as Toy Chica. Returning to the cast is Kellen Goff and Matthew Patrick (MatPat) as Toy Freddy and Toy, Bonnie, respectively. Words cannot describe how excited I was to hear about these voices as a fan of the horror genre and Five Nights at Freddy’s. 

The human cast saw a little expansion in terms of main characters, which I can appreciate. Having a franchise with deep running lore, keeping a narrow cast is a great choice for this story. Josh Hutcherson once again joins us as Mike Schmidt, and shines in his role. While not a formal night guard anymore, a segment of the movie featuring him using the game’s mechanics in real life was overly enjoyable. Even as a child, I never thought that Freddy-head-trick would work. Unfortunately for Mike, it still doesn’t work on Foxy. 

Also returning to the cast was Piper Rubio as Abby. Her performance was convincingly frustrating as all of us wondered why the hell was she going back for those robots? But of course, her dynamic with Josh Hutcherson, and Elizabeth Lail (Vanessa Shelly) was fun to watch once again. Elizabeth Lail’s performance, as always, was great as her role continues to set up the complex mysteries of this ongoing series. And there were of course a few shrieks of excitement throughout the theater with the return of some popular cameos from 2023.

I could not write this review without mentioning Matthew Lillard, who, as far as I’m concerned, is horror movie royalty. I absolutely loved seeing his performance in the first movie, and though William Afton has “died,” in visions he was a force of nature on screen and drove home some of the best scary moments in the movie. Joining him as his counterpart, hopefully to be seen more later in the following movies is Skeet Ulrich as Henry Emily.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 improved significantly on the critiques I had from the last, mainly the horror. I understand that the first movie was meant to reach all of FNAF’s audience, but now they’re narrowing it down and making it into a true horror film. I feel that Blumhouse were masters of suspense this time around. I admittedly found myself needing to cower a bit while McKenna Grace (Lisa) and Teo Briones (Alex) wandered the pizzeria, accompanied by the talented Freddy Carter as Michael Afton.

The puppeteer work from Jim Henson’s creature shop was astounding as expected. The animatronics looked incredible, one in particular I have to note is withered Chica. The moment I saw her in suit-form my childhood fear of her resurfaced and gave me chills.

When we pick up again at Fazbear frights, I can’t wait to see what Scott Cawthon and Blumhouse have in store. Spring trap is a character that I am both ecstatic and terrified to see more of. But until then, I recommend fans of this franchise to go and see Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in theaters now. It is once again a love letter to FNAF fans that we all can appreciate.

Jordan Wagner

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: December 5, 2025.