When the movie adaptation of Scott Cawthon’s Five Nights at Freddy’s hit theatres in 2023, talks of a sequel quickly began. And when the sequel was announced, fans of the horror series were eager to return to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.

As a longtime fan of Five Nights at Freddy’s, having played the games, read the books, and spent countless hours theorizing on the infamously complicated lore the series is known for, I was eager for the release of the sequel, counting the months, days, and weeks until the film premiered.

My thoughts? Mixed. 

While Five Nights at Freddy’s is well known for its complicated lore, the games themselves don’t lend particularly well to a movie adaptation: the gameplay takes place in one room, which the nightguard must defend from animatronics using his trusty flashlight and Freddy mask. But if you dig beyond the base gameplay, read the newspapers, analyse the minigames, and listen to the phone calls several times over- suddenly the game is not just about a nightguard being hunted by evil robots, but it’s about revenge, murder, and young souls taken too soon.

While the first movie stayed relatively faithful to established lore, the second made quite a few changes.

For the uninitiated, the second Five Nights at Freddy’s game follows nightguard Jeremy Fitzgerald and later, Fritz Smith, at his new summer job at the new and improved Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While a night security job at a pizza place doesn’t sound particularly scary to most, players quickly learn of the horrors awaiting them in the nights to come. Over the course of five shifts, the player must fend off many animatronic foes, the most important of which is the Marionette.

The Marionette is arguably one of the most iconic characters in the series. In the games, the Marionette is kept in a box next to the prize counter, only becoming an active threat when her music box, which the player is responsible for winding, comes to a stop. She is the only new character in the game who is haunted, her spirit being that of Henry Emily’s young daughter, Charlotte. Throughout the games, it is revealed through a series of 8-bit minigames that Charlotte was killed outside of the restaurant, and the Marionette, who was programmed to keep the children safe, broke down on top of her corpse, leading her soul to possess the animatronic.

The Marionette, while keeping the same lanky body and facepaint from the games, was changed massively when adapted for the big screen. Instead of being in a box next to the prize counter, being tasked to keep the children in safe areas, Marionette rises up from under the stage to wirelessly conduct the main band during their performance. While the spirit of Charlotte Emily still comes to haunt the Marionette, the manner of her death is different, being stabbed in an attempt to save another child, collapsing onto the trapdoor beneath her and falling into the Marionettes arms as it rises onto the stage for showtime. In my opinion, these changes improved the character; not only is the manner of Charlotte’s death much more visually interesting than in the games, but I think the addition of the puppet’s role as conductor makes the second game scarier retroactively. As I established earlier, the Marionette is the only newly introduced character with a soul- originally, the animatronics attacked the player due to a glitch in their programming, but with this update, it suggests the idea that the Marionette, while unable to attack herself until the music box winds down, is using the animatronics she controls as her puppets, which is in my opinion much scarier than a few faulty lines of code.

Personally, I found the overall plot of this movie to be rather weak. Abby Schmit, who befriended the spirits inhabiting the animatronics, misses her friends, and finds herself being led to another abandoned Freddy’s location by a toy she took from the location shown in the first film. While Abby believes she’s reunited with her friends, Vanessa soon finds out that it’s all a ploy, a trick by Charlotte’s vengeful spirit to release the perimeter locks that keep her and the other animatronics from leaving the pizzeria. This is where I wish they would’ve stuck closer to the original lore- while Charlotte in the games directs her rage towards her killer, or, who she believes is her killer, Charlotte in the movies directs her rage towards parents- they didn’t help her when she needed it, and therefore, are just as bad as the man who took her life. Charlotte is stuck in the rage she experienced in her final moments, and she uses the opportunity to escape the long abandoned pizzeria to attack parents, sending the animatronics under her control out into the suburbs to kill, seemingly with no goal other than to cause as much harm as possible.

Part of why I found the first Five Nights at Freddy’s movie to be so good was because of its portrayal of the children- they aren’t violent for the sake of violence, they are scared children, hoping for revenge against the man who killed them. I feel like the second movie deviated from this- Charlotte is scared and hoping for revenge, but unlike in the first movie, she doesn’t seem to have a rhyme or reason to who she wants to hurt. She is willing to hurt her childhood friend Vanessa, to hurt Abby, she is willing to kill parents she has never met in front of their children, and for what?

Another plot point I don’t entirely understand is the introduction of Michael Afton. This portrayal of Micheal is the polar opposite of his game counterpart- instead of hoping to amend the sins of his father, the man responsible for the murders at Freddy Fazbear’s, Micheal hopes to continue his legacy. Micheal shows up very briefly at the beginning and end of the film, and personally, I’m unsure why he was introduced at this point. In the final scene, he reveals his plan to unleash the animatronics into the town and to kill as many people as possible, but wasn’t Charlotte already planning on the same thing? When he originally appeared, Charlotte attacked him- the two weren’t operating as a unit. Michael also seems to have the ability to command the animatronics- how? Why? Why didn’t Charlotte kill him? He’s an adult, the son of her murderer, at that. There’s no reason for her to spare him. So why would she?

But despite the many flaws, the movie still had its strengths- the set design, especially for the pizzeria itself, was incredible- referencing the original games while making the setting a bit more realistic. One of what I think is the movie’s greatest strengths is the animatronics themselves. In a world where CGI becomes more prominent in film, Blumhouse’s use of real animatronics, suits and puppets is a breath of fresh air. Designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the characters look like they were taken right from the games. 

The movie seems like it was made for the fans- a lot of things would be lost on someone unfamiliar with the franchise when watching the film. References are scattered throughout, from a cameo by popular fangame Five Nights at Candy’s in the opening scenes, to The Living Tombstone’s It’s Been So Long playing during the credits. The fan community made Five Nights at Freddy’s what it is today- and the movies seem to acknowledge that. 

Mathew Lillard’s portrayal of William Afton is probably my favorite in the franchise. Even with such a minor role in the second film compared to the first, Afton has such a large presence, terrifying even without the yellow rabbit. Between the writing and Lillard’s performance, the iconic killer feels so much more real, more dangerous than 16-bit minigames, short voicelines, and his appearance in the books could ever make him. Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Lail continue to knock it out of the park with their roles as Mike Schmit and Vanessa Shelly, and Piper Rubio’s Abbey Schmit is still curious as ever. While the returning actors continue to shine, Skeet Ulrich’s performance as Henry Emily just feels right- despite his appearance being brief, it introduces the character wonderfully, and I’m curious to see what role Henry plays in later films. Audrey Lynn Marie’s performance in the opening scene is my favorite part of the film- her rage feels real, and raw. Freddy Carter’s role as Micheal Afton isn’t my favorite. He feels too generically evil- almost cartoonish. Compared to his father, Micheal just isn’t threatening at all. 

The after credits scene gives me hope for a better sequel- an obvious setup for an adaptation of the third game. While FNAF 3 has never been my favorite, I’m interested to see the direction they take it, and of course, Matthew Lillard’s return to his role as William Afton. 

Even beyond FNAF 3, Blumhouse seems to be setting up for even more sequels with a brief cameo from Circus Baby- an animatronic who doesn’t show up until the fifth installment in the series. I think these teasers do a great job of keeping people invested- leaving longtime fans wondering how in-game events will be portrayed on the big screen, and newcomers curious as to what this new character’s presence entails.