Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come Doubles Down On Delirious Supernatural Terror
Let the games begin (again).
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directors behind the cult hit Ready or Not, know that most people really just want that movie again, even though everyone in it (save its indestructible heroine, Samara Weaving’s Grace) literally exploded. And in a way, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is basically that movie: More rich sycophants become mincemeat, a new game bathes our heroes in blood, and Weaving unleashes her iconic scream whenever necessary. It even opens with a rehash of Ready or Not’s now-iconic ending, reintroducing Grace as she stumbles out of her in-laws’ decadent mansion, wedding dress soaked through with their blood, to finally enjoy a cigarette while a pair of stunned paramedics look on.
It’s a fitting way to kick things off, even if it does explicitly tread the same ground. But before we can get too comfortable, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett “yes, and” that imagery in the most bonkers way possible. In a seamless continuation of that parting scene, Grace goes into critical shock; a dizzying snorricam sequence follows her into the back of an ambulance, where we relive her harrowing wedding night in quick jarring flashes. If there ever was a sense of security going into Ready or Not 2, this sequel wastes little time blowing it all up. Sure, this game hasn’t changed much, but with double the players comes double the carnage and, naturally, more delirious charm.
It’s a true family affair for Samara Weaving’s Grace in Ready or Not 2.
Even if Ready or Not 2 picks up precisely where its predecessor left off, the intervening years have boosted this tale to near-mythic proportions. The film treats Grace like a kind of cult hero — and given that she married into a family of Satan worshippers and was nearly sacrificed to “Mr. Le Bail” during a game of hide and seek, that reverence is more than warranted. Grace essentially channeled the spirit of John McClane to survive the Le Domases, but her supernatural ordeal is naturally met with indifference and confusion in the real world. Not even her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), who comes running only because she’s listed as Grace’s emergency contact, thinks there’s any clean way out of this hellish situation. “You are so going to jail,” she drones upon hearing Grace’s tale, undercutting the thrill of her escape with another dose of dread.
It’s almost a relief when we learn that Grace has one more battle left to fight. The Le Domas family was just one head of the hydra: There’s a whole council of families whose respective Faustian deals were thrown into jeopardy when Grace won her game of hide-and-seek. The demise of the Le Domas patriarch and all his eligible heirs left the “High Seat” vacant, meaning that the four surviving families — plus Grace and Faith — must fight to claim it. Whoever wins controls the world, but if Grace survives until dawn, the seat automatically reverts to her. If no one wins, Mr. Le Bail will be “very angry,” and everyone will meet with an explosive death.
With double the players, expect an even more explosive game of hide and seek.
Where Ready or Not largely played within the mystery of the Le Domas’ deal with the devil, its sequel is tasked with lifting the curtain completely. There’s a lot of worldbuilding to power through at the outset as a result, but a script by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy does so quickly — if only to get Grace back into her wedding dress and yellow converse, a sequence that plays out almost like a superhero suiting up again. (Don’t worry, she does eventually get to bathe.) The addition of Elijah Wood as The Lawyer, Mr. Le Bail’s Earthly representative, makes all that exposition go down smoothly enough. A new game means a few new rules, but the true boon of Ready or Not 2 comes with the inclusion of so many despicably eccentric families, each of whom gets their chance to chew some scenery and reaffirm the need to eat the rich.
That Grace also gets some help this go ’round goes a long way in making this game feel different. As she’s spent the past 24 hours in perpetual survival mode, there hasn’t been much time to get to know her — but pairing Grace with the sister we never knew she had brings new dimensions both to the game and to its final girl. Their fight to survive is frequently interrupted by Faith’s need to hash out the problems of their past: She resents Grace for abandoning her in favor of a cushy life in the city, and that argument plays out in fits and starts as they run for their lives. Newton’s reliable wisecracking, perfected in films like Lisa Frankenstein and Abigail, is also an ideal counter to all the doom and Satanic gloom at play. There’s a levity to Ready or Not 2 that its lean-and-mean predecessor didn’t necessarily require, but returning to this world asks for a spoonful of sugar that Faith seamlessly supplies.
Elijah Wood’s Lawyer pulls the curtain back on the franchise’s unseen world.
In Ready or Not 2, there’s more at stake than a mere seat — and Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett dig deep into what it truly means to sell one’s soul. Grace can’t brute-force her way out of this game like she did the last, and searching for a new escape means playing smart against veritable psychopaths with unlimited resources. The Radio Silence team wisely pits the MacCaullay sisters against the living embodiment of evil twins, Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus Danforth (The Pitt’s Shawn Hatosy). Ursula may be the brains of this operation, but Titus is the uncontrollable dark horse of the entire affair. As the night wears on, he emerges as the threat that could destroy this game from the inside out, while Hatosy’s performance — part-hammy, part-genuinely menacing — sets the stage for a true descent into Hell.
Radio Silence has never been afraid to “go there” with a supernatural twist, but Ready or Not 2 is most exhilarating when it finally gives us more of Mr. Le Bail and his devil-worshipping minions. It understands the appetite of its audience and gives them exactly what they’re looking for — but it also finds remarkable ways to make all those “Hail Satans!” feel fresh. Making a sequel to something as perfectly standalone as Ready or Not was always going to be a risk, but double or nothing pays major dividends with a story this deliciously dark.
