You may not be able to guess it from the reviews, but “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (FNaF2) was one of the highest-grossing films of 2025. It made over $202.7 million in under three weeks, with almost half of the total profit coming from international audiences.

     The movie received only a 16 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, a 5.2 out of 10 on IMDb and 2.6 out of five on Letterboxd. All significantly lower than the first film in the series. 

     Most critics seemed to pick at three aspects of the movie: its lack of technical skill, its inability to work as an adaptation and its polarizing story choices. 

     In terms of the movie on a technical level, everything seems a little off. Dialogue comes out stilted or choppy, almost nothing anyone does makes sense and the villains are so comically one-dimensional that people still ask if this film’s only writer was ChatGPT. All of this is wrapped up in boring, tired shots that feel like they could be found in any Hallmark movie, and a dream sequence that fails to deepen the characters or advance the plot in any meaningful way.

     Adaptations can never satisfy all fans, but this one seems to satisfy almost no one. The film faithfully recreates the game’s iconic setting and characters, but it fails to use them in a way that meets or exceeds expectations. The main enemies of the game, the “withered animatronics,” get less than five minutes of screen time. 

     The main failure on this front, however, comes again from the movie’s lazy writing. The games made a big point of holding the secret identity of Freddy’s security guard over the players’ heads. Which, when revealed, becomes a major plot point in the game. In the movie, however, the guard simply declares his real name in a cheap attempt to shock the audience.  

     The film’s story, particularly its additions to the established FNaF timeline, also contributed to the hate it received. The very first scene breaks the canon of the games, showing the creation of the marionette animatronic in a totally different way than the games. Maybe this would be an interesting choice in a different series, but in “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” where the most famous quote from the creator is, “I’ve only ever retconned one thing,” it seems like an excuse to let the writers avoid doing any research on how that story might impact the series as a whole.

     “It just feels disingenuous to the game’s whole philosophy and storytelling,” actor and longtime “Five Nights at Freddy’s” fan Huntly Plantz said. 

     Disingenuous is a good word for it. It pretends to be an adaptation of a beloved series of childhood games, but in reality is an obvious cash grab stuffed with fan service and the laziest possible writing in place of a narrative. It uses famous YouTubers and a Scott Cawthon writing credit as a distraction from the fact that the unique and beautiful stories that these people created are being twisted and broken so that the next movie and the next movie and the next can be made at a higher profit margin in less time. 

     If you’re a “Five Nights at Freddy’s fan,” do yourself a favor and spare yourself the pain that comes from watching your favorite characters be reduced to a 10-second cameo. If you’re not a fan, don’t even bother; there’s nothing for you here.