The inevitable sequel to the very successful 2023 movie adaptation of the equally popular video game slightly improves on its predecessor in that its storytelling is more abstract. The problem I had with the first movie was its byzantine plotting around a premise it couldn’t avoid, since the weird logic of the game had to be taken into consideration. Consequently, there was a lot of baffling stuff about the titular family-friendly pizza parlor’s back story and a bunch of kids who were somehow lured to their doom by the guy who designed the animatronic creatures that were the eatery’s main attraction. It didn’t have to make sense, but it sure needed to be easier to follow if it was going to be as scary as the game. 

The main attraction of the sequel is that the animatronic killer monsters leave the confines of the abandoned pizzeria to terrorize the surrounding environs, but how that happens requires more than the suspension of disbelief usually required of these kinds of horror films. The central idea of the stolen children is repeated at the beginning of the film with a flashback to Freddy Fazbear’s heyday, when a little girl watches as a little boy is abducted right in front of a crowd of unaware restaurant patrons. Though she saves the boy she’s killed in the process and later her spirit enters the animatronic body of a marionette that didn’t appear in the first film. The marionette conveniently causes all the mischief in the sequel, presumably as a form of revenge. Abby (Piper Rubio), the girl who was the main person-in-danger in the first film, is back, slightly older, and still under the impression that she can connect with the possessed robots, much to the chagrin of her older brother, Mike (Josh Hutcherson), who used to be a security guard at Freddy’s after it closed for obvious reasons. Also returning is Mike’s romantic interest and action figure foil Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), who is the daughter of the evil Freddy’s mastermind (Matthew Lillard, making a brief cameo here in nightmare mode because his character was killed in the previous movie) and so has dibs on some of the payback stuff that’s central to the movie’s mojo. 

When I say that Freddy’s 2 is more abstract, what I mean is that all roads lead to the robots laying siege to the town, so story arcs are replaced with elliptical episodes that simply get us from here to there without a lot of narrative fuss. Unfortunately, the only really interesting thing that happens is the creatures interrupt a student science fair, severely trying the patience of the mean teacher (Wayne Knight) in charge. Since he gets what he deserves, you then understand who the target audience is: brainy junior high schoolers who think they’re smarter than their science teachers. 

Opens Jan. 23 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Shinjuku Piccadilly (050-6861-3011), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Shibuya Humax Cinema (03-3462-2539), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2025 Universal Studios