Five Nights at Freddy’s 2: What to Expect and What to Know

By Teagan Martin

     A popular game franchise, Five Nights at Freddy’s are originally horror games based on animatronics. The first movie came out October 27th of 2023 and the sequel is being released everywhere this Friday, December 5th.

     In the first movie, Josh Hutcherson plays Mike Schmidt who recently got fired and needs a new job to support him and his sister while being threatened with their abusive aunt saying she’ll take custody of her. While working there he discovers that the animatronics are possessed and come alive at night. As he juggles his sister, the animatronics, and his aunt threatening them, Mike also is dealing with his younger brother’s loss and trying to retrace his steps to find him.

     So, going off of that, what can we expect for the new movie? According to the Five Nights at Freddy’s wiki, “It’s been around a year since where the first was set. Abby lost touch with the animatronics so she sneaks out to go see them.” 

     Many fans of Scream are excited to see Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard together on screen again. It’s been almost 30 years since we’ve seen the two as the murderous pair Billy Loomis and Stu Macher. According to the article Horror icons Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich’s friendship runs ‘deep’, “In Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, in theaters now), the sequel to the hit video game adaptation about haunted animatronics, Lillard, 55, returns as brutal serial killer William Afton, while Ulrich debuts as Henry, a new character with a key link to Afton’s past.”

     Despite many fans being excited, there were many negative reviews. One in particular being the article “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 review – inept game-based horror is one of the year’s worst”. According to said article, “In keeping with the first film, these opportunities are repeatedly and firmly declined.” The article also said, “As such, it doesn’t bother with a proper ending – though the beginning and middle it provides suggest that this may not matter. Its shrug of a quasi-cliffhanger may not matter to its young target audience, either.”