‘Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come’ Movie Review: Sequel Loses Surprise But Still Packs Blood-Soaked, Macabre Fun
Photo from Searchlight Pictures
From Jeremy Kibler
It’s hard to believe Ready or Not was released seven years ago — and what a devilishly fun survival horror-thriller it was with a riotously twisted sense of humor and a wonderful scream-queen showcase for Samara Weaving. It’s also hard to believe that writers Guy Busick & R. Christopher Murphy and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (you may know them as the “Radio Silence” guys) thought of a way to sequelize what seemed like a one-off. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is one of those “it’s different but it’s the same” sequels, doubling down on what worked the first time around and resulting in a slightly inferior, if still perfectly entertaining, crowd-pleaser.
A direct continuation if there ever was one, the movie starts exactly where the first one ended: sole survivor Grace smoking a cigarette as the Le Domas estate goes up in flames. No sooner does Grace (Samara Weaving, game for more) become a bride than a widower, defeating her husband and in-laws, all of them Faustian-bargaining Satan-worshippers, after a violent game of Hide and Seek. Of course, an entire family missing and an estate on fire puts Grace under suspicion of murder and arson. While she’s in police custody in the hospital and reunites with estranged younger sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), the initiation ritual isn’t over and a new game commences with other rich, evil but cowardly elite families as part of the High Council. This time, a handcuffed-together Grace and Faith will have to survive until dawn as they’re hunted by twin siblings Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus Danforth (Shawn Hatosy), along with many others, just to acquire the High Seat.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come justifies its existence just enough, pretending there’s more story to tell because there will always be more evil families out there. The world-building and rules of the High Seat get something of an expansion, and the playing field is widened on a golf course and a forest, but we’re mainly here to see a pair of relatable sisters run from and take down some wealthy assholes. It is another batch of colorful antagonists, although the majority of them are expendable fodder. Then again, the major coup here is the supporting cast playing the bloodthirsty rich — hello, this movie features Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy as the twin children of David Cronenberg (who gets one scene as the patriach)! Of the baddies, Gellar is easily the standout, managing to be ruthless but also finding layers of sympathy as Ursula that make her more than just a cardboard villain. Elijah Wood also appears, getting exposition duties as the family attorney, but he’s clearly in on the joke that these families are all out for a ring to rule them all.
Samara Weaving not only has one of those guttural screams to remember, but she still makes Grace someone to root for, resourceful and endlessly likable with spot-on comedic timing. Even if Grace was said to previously have no family, Kathryn Newton is adorably funny back-up as the sister Grace always knew she had. With that said, there are one too many stop-and-talk moments involving Grace and Faith’s sisterly trauma (much like Sam and Tara Carpenter’s stuff in Radio Silence’s Scream movies), but you buy Weaving and Newton as sisters, and their lively banter more than makes do.
There was a surprisingly sick kick in Ready or Not to how all was revealed—the rich Le Domas family spontaneously combusting like pimples as the ritual failed to be complete—and, now, the cat is sort of out of the bag. And yet, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillettou find enough variances on that “blood cannon” (Radio Silence went to this well with their bloodsucking ballerina movie Abigail as well), including a splatterific conclusion.
One sequence sequence, however, cross-cutting between a viciously slapsticky, pepper spray-induced fight on a wedding reception dance floor and a brutal beatdown in a hallway (all cued to Bonnie Tyler power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart”) ends up leaving an uneven aftertaste. It’s clearly there to up the stakes and establish just how purely evil one of the key antagonists is, but the brutality goes a step too far with the film’s otherwise cheeky tone. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come doesn’t have the same element of surprise as its 2019 predecessor, but it knows when to be enough of a blood-soaked, gallows-humored blast.
Rating: 3/5
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is currently in select theaters.
