Ready or Not 2: Here I Come review – here comes the bride…again

When you have ahit film these days, inevitably the question always arises about asequel. There’s very little studios love more than abit of valuable IP, and the pressure to turn standalone stories into franchises, regardless of their suitability, has never been more apparent. After the success of 2019’s Ready or Not (which received positive reviews and made an impressive return on its budget) asequel seemed all but mandated, despite the fact that everyone from the original film – aside from Samara Weaving’s unfortunate bride Grace MacCaullay – had been killed off. The sequel was officially confirmed in 2024, adapted from a ​“sister story” that filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were developing for Weaving and Kathryn Newton, with ascript written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy.

As the title suggests (despite the ​‘2’ in promotional materials, the film itself opts simply for Ready Or Not: Here ICome, evidently trusting the audience to understand it’s asequel more than Searchlight Pictures’ marketing team do) the film picks up right where its predecessor left off. The bruised, bloody and newly bereaved Grace recovers from her ordeal in hospital, only for it to transpire she’s accidentally set herself up for awhole new nightmare. With her evil in-laws out of the picture, Grace now has to fight for her life against ahigh council of cultists from four different families, previously led by shadowy elite Chester Danforth (a welcome cameo from David Cronenberg!) whose adult twins Ursula and Titus (Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy) aren’t used to losing. To make matters worse, Grace is reunited with her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) who isn’t pleased to seeher.

To an extent Ready or Not: Here ICome retreads familiar ground: the group play another deadly game of hide and seek; Grace is wearing her bloodstained wedding dress despite the impracticality of moving in such agarment; there’s lots of references to the demonic entity Le Bail who the elites worship. Asequel demands more bloodshed too – poor Grace can’t catch abreak from the brutality, and there’s an extended scene where Faith takes abeating from Titus which is particularly eye-watering. Some of the violence is more slapstick (lots more exploding bodies) and Elijah Wood’s presence as the impartial lawyer overseeing the ritual helps keep the horror-comedy balance.

The reconciliation between Grace and Faith feels inevitable from the off, amandated plot beat to contrast from Ursula and Titus. Weaving and Newton are well cast for their chemistry as well as their physical resemblance, as are Gellar and Hatosy, though the rest of the ensemble barely get alook-in, reduced to quips and quick exits with the exception of Maia Jae, who plays the spurned ex of Grace’s dead husband and gets awell-choreographed fight scene set to ​‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’. There’s nothing subtle about these films, from their Eat The Rich messaging to the just-go-with-it in-world lore, but in all of their schlock they strike awelcome tone between winking self-awareness and retro absurdity.

While Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett had delivered asequel which is ultimately entertaining and glides by easily on the strength of its cast and gleeful bloodshed, there is asense that fresh ideas are alittle thin on the ground, papered over with cartoon violence and afew half-decent twists. It might be best to quit playing while we’re ahead than risk being the last ones at theparty.