Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Gets Mixed Reviews But Fans Love It

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 might not be a hit with the critics, but the fans have sung its praises.

The horror sequel hit theaters on Friday, December 5. Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio and Matthew Lillard reprised their roles and introduced new faces to the franchise with the addition of Skeet Ulrich, Wayne Knight, Mckenna Grace and Teo Briones to the cast.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 takes place one year after the events of the first film, which was released in 2023. It follows Abby (Rubio) as she reconnects with the animatronics at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and encounters another spirit with a new sinister plan.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 earned $7.2 million in previews, according to Deadline.

At the time of writing, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 received a score of 12 percent from Rotten Tomatoes. Those reviews come strictly from critics.

“It’s an incoherent mess, something that, back in the day, would be straight to DVD. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 has an after-school special vibe with no real horror and no real awareness that it should,” a critic for the Associated Press wrote in a negative review.

The critic for The Hollywood Reporter penned, “The film’s cast deserves credit, not so much for their performances as their ability to keep a straight face throughout.”

Despite the critics feeling unsatisfied, viewers had a completely different viewing experience. Audiences rated the film 88 percent out of 100 at the time of writing.

“If you hate the movie then you’re boring and hate fun,” one fan candidly wrote in a review giving the film five stars, while another five-star review read, “This movie really dove deeper into the lore! Fans of FNAF are going to love this film. I was so excited to see it and I was not disappointed!!”

Fans on social media echoed similar sentiments about loving Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and slammed the critics for their take.

“Literally don’t care what any critics or anyone else has to say because five nights at freddy’s 2 was so good imo,” one user wrote via X, while another tweeted, “I actually did like five night [sic] at freddy’s 2. It wasn’t great, just like the first movie, but it was made with good intentions, I could tell. [It] wasn’t just some soulless cash grab as some critics say.”

Ahead of the official release of the supernatural flick, Lillard, 55, praised the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 fans for their dedication to the franchise.

“I don’t think that everyone in Hollywood understands the full power and capacity of this fanbase, and they certainly didn’t understand it the first time round,” Lillard said in a December interview with The Hollywood Reporter, adding that the original cast did not do much promotion for the first film, which was a box office hit. “We went day-and-date [in theaters and on Peacock] and still did really well.”

Hutcherson, 33, explained that while making the sequel, they listened to the fans’ requests for more thrilling moments. He teased that they made sure to deliver this time around.

“I think it’s a little dangerous sometimes looking for feedback from an audience to then make a sequel, but in this case the feedback was great, it was making it scarier,” he told the outlet. “The first one, I liked the movie but I think that it wasn’t as scary as it could have been; I think that we heard that and we agreed, so we stepped up the scariness in this second one.”