Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

Set directly after the events of 2019’s Ready or Not, the new sequel finds Grace (Samara Weaving) trapped in yet another game of lethal hide and seek. Still recovering from how her wealthy, cultish in-laws hunted her down in the first film, Grace becomes the target of even more elite families as they all compete in a high-stakes ritual. To make matters worse, Grace’s younger sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) also gets thrown in the line of fire. Gruesome chaos follows.

Bloody shoot’em up/slasher franchise returns with creatively graphic kills and Satanic subplots that are surprisingly timely. The horror directing collective Radio Silence (with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett sharing directing duties this time) is back. And as they have proven with their Scream revivals and genre-benders like Abigail, Radio Silence knows how to deliver on a crowd-pleasing, bloody good time at the movies. And while Ready or Not 2: Here I Come doesn’t boast the most original storyline (especially with a title like that), the crimson-coloured frenzy has enough thrills to make this franchise relevant even seven years later. Back in 2019, Ready or Not was familiarising audiences with the ‘eat-the-rich’ satirical formula, a dark comedy subgenre that is now almost at its expiry date. But at a time when the grim realities from Epstein’s Island, Diddy’s mansion, or simply parliaments and royal palaces are flooding our timelines, a Ready or Not sequel comes across as an unexpected (and perhaps unintentional) catharsis. There’s an escapist comfort in witnessing Samara Weaving’s everyday heroine and her equally relatable sister take on world-controlling elites in a hyperviolent hellscape. Ruining the kills would be sacrilege, but let’s just say our villains get what they deserve, and somewhere in the middle, washing machines, rocket launchers, and pepper spray lead up to some memorably graphic and dark slapstick.

Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton have fun as the slasher genre stalwarts they’re becoming. As with the first film, Ready or Not 2 boasts a talented ensemble, with the bag guys amping up their ruthlessness to eleven. But with performers like Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Sarah Michelle Gellar and The Pitt’s Shawn Hatosy, you can even digest the over-the-top caricatures that they end up playing. Even body horror maestro David Cronenberg steps out of the director’s chair and steps in for a memorable cameo as a corpse-like patriarch leading one of the uber-rich families. As stated earlier, the current news cycle is reaching such nightmarish levels that even a subplot with a Satanic cult becomes all too realistic to believe. As for our scream queens and final girls, Weaving (The Babysitter, Scream VI) and Newton (Abigail, Lisa Frankenstein) are clearly having fun with the bonkers material. Their constant bickering and post-kill gasps keep the film alive and running, proving once again that these two actors are among the best talents working in modern-day popcorn horror. If you’re willing to look past some familiar genre beats and strap in for a dark comedy inked in gallons of blood, then Ready or Not 2 will play out as more than a cash grab sequel.