When sequelizing something like Ready or Not, a film that pulls an incredible reveal that changes the context of every scene which came before, you’re already starting at a deficit. After such a gleefully batshit narrative turn, the required escalations of a sequel are considerably harder to mount. With Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, the writers do a decent enough job of getting the pieces into to play to allow for further bloodletting, but they walk a precarious line in the film’s first act. It’s a lot of material, a lot of characters, and a lot of new rules to introduce to the overall conflict. At a nearly two hour runtime, one can’t help but feel like the filmmakers didn’t need to do so much (especially since the first film clocked in at just over 90 minutes).
Even so, this overstuffed sequel is a lot fun, and it’s a worthy follow up to a film that I consider to be capital-G Great. Here I Come picks up literally at the moment the first film ends. Grace (Samara Weaving) has just won the game she was thrust into by the La Domas family. She is now just minutes out from learning that their ritual wasn’t just standard rich people weirdness — they were satanists, and their magick was real.
I spelled magick with a K so that you know it’s real.
Grace soon finds herself in the hospital, cuffed to the bed while she recovers from her injuries and awaits potential murder charges. Her emergency contact is her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), and after a tense reunion, the two are forced to bond during a feature length act of survival. You see…
…ahem…
…the Le Domas family was just one of many rich families within their particular brand of Satanism, and now that Grace has survived the initial Hide and Seek game, she has set in motion the vacancy of the High Chair, a position that will be filled by whoever can kill Grace. The High Chair grants its holder unlimited power over, well, everything.
Yeah, it’s a lot. Yeah, it borrows more than a little from the John Wick school of sequelization (and executes it not nearly as cleanly). But once this hefty lore drop is out of the way, the carnage begins, and the movie starts being a lot more fun to watch. It’s not quite as fun as the original film, given that much of the playful energy has been exchanged for overt brutality. To be fair, both films lean into the gore, but the splatter sensibilities of the first are dialed down and replaced with viciousness. It’s effective and frequently shocking, but it frequently undercuts the attempts at humor.
What isn’t dialed down is the “eat the rich” energy that the world absolutely needs right now. The extended cast of potential killers/High Chair fillers are a rogues gallery of wealth stereotypes that would feel at home in a Knives Out flick (even if they’re not nearly as fleshed out as Rian Johnson’s ensembles tend to be). They’re a colorful group of cartoonish baddies, many of whom are dispatched in gruesome and satisfying ways, but none of whom make much of a mark on the story. At the center of the cabal are Ursula and Titus Danforth (Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy, respectively), twins who could potentially fill the Chair as a team. Both actors are suitably evil in their roles (Gellar having always been a better actress than she’ll ever get credit for outside of niche fandoms), and they make an interesting mirror to our sibling protagonists. Both our heroic duo and villainous duo could easily survive/win the day … if only they could put their family BS aside. It’s a smart bit of writing, but I do wish the film spent more time developing this angle than it did building mythology to excuse a rehashing of the Hide and Seek concept.
A simple “you killed my family, now I want revenge” story would have been so much cleaner, and the writers still could’ve leaned into the Satanism angle all the same (which means that Elijah Wood could’ve played the exact same delightful role — the no-nonsense Satanic lawyer/accountant). Still, respect for taking a big swing.
The bulk of the film is a blood-soaked, needledrop-laden, crowd-pleasing horror comedy, all of which rests on the capable shoulders of Samara Weaving, whose ability to scream with rage (and willingness to be drenched in blood) is second to none. She’s an inherently compelling presence, giving and taking damage with the best of the scream queens, while also giving uncommon depth to the familial drama between her and Newton (who has also become a reliable and badass genre staple). Even though we didn’t really need a second Ready or Not movie, nor do we need a third, if a franchise is ultimately built, the combo of Weaving and Newton would be a fantastic base upon which to serve up more of the same. Maybe next time don’t overwrite it. Just get to the goods. 99% of the cast is going to die anyway — we don’t need lore.
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Written by Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murphy, screenplay by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Starring Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Nestor Carbonell, Sarah Michelle Gellare, Shawn Hatosy, and DAVID FUCKING CRONENBERG
Rated R, 108 minutes
