52 Films by Women Vol 9. 43. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (Director: Emma Tammi)

Pictured (left to right): Eleven-year-old Abby (Piper Rubio) is protected by her brother Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and family friend Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) in the horror sequel, 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2', written by Scott Cawthon and directed by Emma Tammi. Still courtesy of Universal.

The most financially successful film directed by a woman released in 2025 is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, grossing $222,430,104 worldwide as of 30 December 2025, $121,162,630 domestic (source: Box Office Mojo). Outside of the franchise’s fan base, the film is unlikely to figure on ‘Best of the Year’ lists or even to be remembered. You can tell an audience’s investment by the number of times they pop out for a bathroom break or a drink – perhaps both – which was plenty at the screening I attended. Written by Scott Cawthon and produced by Jason Blum, it can’t truly be said to be a film authored by a woman, but director Emma Tammi, who helmed the first film, released in 2023, has been trusted with the reins for the sequel. Whether it is Tammi’s long-term career interests to continue directing films in this franchise is moot, and there is certainly the issue that her young star, Piper Rubio, who plays eleven-year-old Abby, befriended by otherwise homicidal animatronic puppets in the first movie, might grow out of the role. Any threequel will need to be fast-tracked into production to capitalise on her youth.

The Freddy of the title is a large animatronic teddy bear, front and centre at a fictional chain of family restaurants that offer mechanical distractions and a floorshow while customers consume pizza and fast food. The film is adapted from a popular videogame created by Cawthon that has a young following, accounting for eleven-year-olds pleading to see the original movie. Rated PG-13 in the US, the film acknowledges its fan base by featuring a child (Rubio) as its protagonist, though nominally Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Lail are the stars, the former as Abby’s brother, Mike, the latter as Vanessa, the daughter of twisted animatronic maker, William (Matthew Lillard), who hired Mike to guard a dilapidated restaurant in the first movie.

In the sequel, set in the 2000s, Abby is alienated by a nasty, win-at-any-price, science teacher, Mr Berg (Wayne Knight, faxing it in), who refuses to let her to take part in the upcoming school science fair, alleging that her work isn’t good enough. Mr Berg stands for any teacher who does not want women to study science, technology or maths. Naturally, this being a horror film, he is made to suffer. There are plans for a celebration of ‘Fazbear’ to acknowledge the cultural impact of the franchise in the locality. We learn that there was more than one branch and a wider variety of animatronic characters. Though as far as I could tell, only one catchphrase: ‘I want to see inside your head’, which might seem creepy to a young person – or anyone, for that matter.

Meanwhile, Mike is out of work decorating his home with a friend, Jeremiah (Theodus Crane), whose sole purpose in the film is to act as a deus ex machina in the final third of the film, offering a character a lift. Mike has also arranged to meet Vanessa for dinner at a fancy restaurant. Abby helps him with his tie, which Vanessa remarks upon. Mike is a non-assertive male whose primary focus is his sister. Suppressing any desire for independence, he is not your typical horror movie lead. He doesn’t have any great ambition, nor any skill, except perhaps in computing. The women fill his void. However, Vanessa is haunted by the spectre of her father, who appears in a dream, angry and ill-intentioned. She wants to move on, but events conspire against her. She can’t even take a spin class without feeling threatened. I wondered whether spin classes were a thing in the early 2000s, but apparently they became popular in the late 1990s through Crunch Gyms in New York City.

Abby watches a TV programme, ‘Spectral Scoopers’, featuring a trio of young people stalking ghosts, as if The Blair Witch Project, released in 1999, wasn’t cautionary enough. This trio investigate a branch of Freddy’s where a young girl was murdered years ago, shown in the film’s prologue. Greeted by a grinning security guard (Freddy Carter), who insists that his name is Michael, not Mike – this franchise is all about borrowing first names from serial killers in popular 1980s moves, such as Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers – they meet implied horrific ends, one of them falling in a still filled artificial canal of the type seen in the Disneyland ride, ‘It’s A Small World’. No jolly theme tune, just lethal mechanics.

In a normal movie, you’d expect the police to investigate the disappearance of three cable television stars, but I guess in Bush-era America, you have to wait five nights before declaring someone missing. We are introduced to a large marionette that looks like it was created for a Studio Ghibli movie. It has a white round face with two black slits for eyes, reminding you of Spirited Away. This seems intentional, since Miyazaki Hayao’s movie, released in 2001, focuses on a child who disappears into a mystical realm. At any rate, Abby is grumpy, so Mike takes her to a branch of Freddy’s where she picks up a radio with a digital display that allows her to receive a message from the animatronics, a sort of ‘help me, Abby-wan, you’re my only hope.’

The marionette is not the only lethal new character. There is also a tee-shirt-wearing mechanical duck who is somewhat unhappy. The plot hinges on Vanessa being lured to the new branch of Freddy’s and releasing the puppets from the restaurant just in time for both the science fair and Fazbear-fest. Meanwhile, Mike meets the father of the deceased child who has put up posters declaring ‘Fazbear is Murder’, which have as much impact as the slogan, ‘Meat is Murder’ posted by Vegans. He is played by Skeet Ulrich of Scream fame, another popular Noughties franchise. The film suggests that his daughter’s spirit has entered one of the puppets. He gives Mike a music box that may calm the puppet’s raging spirit. As we know from movies, a music box shown in Act Three goes off in Act Five.

Pictured: Covering his face to disguise himself as an animatronic, Mike (Josh Hutcherson) attempts to override a set of murderous franchise characters in the horror sequel, 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2', written by Scott Cawthon and directed by Emma Tammi. Still courtesy of Universal.

The film is so pre-occupied with world building that it doesn’t really generate much more than rudimentary suspense and the occasional jump scare. We wonder how a mechanical puppet is able to leap on top of a moving vehicle in the climax of the film, though Tammi doesn’t attempt to show us. There is blood, loud noise but no explicit gore, even when heads are squeezed. We discover Michael’s agenda as the film develops into a race against time to save the town from killer animatronics that somehow blend in. After one attack, an elderly couple is advised to contact a lawyer.

Before even the Universal Pictures logo appears, William’s voice tells us to strap ourselves in and wait for a surprise at the end, cueing us for a mid-credit sting. This involves another group of young people scavenging for souvenirs and placing a sheet of plastic on one of the puppets.

Pictured: Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) fends off an animatronic in the horror sequel, 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2', written by Scott Cawthon and directed by Emma Tammi. Still courtesy of Universal. 

Many horror films introduce religion in order to demonstrate the existence of evil. Five Nights at Freddy’s does not. Rather it presents material symbols of recent childhood – fast food and hand drawn characters – as virtue signallers. There is no gender dysphoria in the film’s world nor expressions of sexual desire. The film offers a particularly American capitalist ‘return to innocence’, as if corporations can manufacture an anthropomorphised better world filled with half-human creatures that fills a void. Low tech – wires and low-resolution graphics – is presented as somehow virtuous. The film is set in an era where mobile phones are not yet popular. Shared experiences are not provided by user-generated content, rather by skilled artists. This retro-nostalgia has some cache. We want to believe in cartoon characters once again because humans with their isolationist slogans have lost their way. It isn’t clear where the filmmakers will take their thesis, whether we’ll end up with robot wars. They will almost certainly exhaust childhood (noughties) cultural reference points.

Reviewed at Cineworld Ashford, Screen Nine, Kent, England, Tuesday 30 December 2025, 20:50 screening