What’s It About

After surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game, and this time with her estranged sister, Faith, by her side. To survive, Grace must keep Faith alive and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are also hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins will rule it all.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

Let’s be honest. When Ready or Not dropped back in 2019, most people slept on it. A bride in a blood-soaked wedding dress running for her life through a mansion full of rich devil worshippers? That should have been ridiculous. Instead, it was one of the sharpest, most entertaining horror films in years. Samara Weaving walked in as a newcomer and walked out as a full-blown icon. So when the sequel was announced, the pressure was real. Lightning rarely strikes the same place twice — especially in horror. But Ready or Not 2: Here I Come earns its place at the table. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the filmmaking duo known as Radio Silence, pick up exactly where the first film ended. Grace MacCaullay is sitting outside the burning Le Domas mansion, cigarette in hand, looking like she just survived the worst night of her life — because she did. Within minutes, she collapses and wakes up in a hospital bed, handcuffed to the railing, suspected of murder and arson. Already, the movie is telling you something important: surviving is not the same as being free. Grace hasn’t even had a chance to take a breath when her long-lost sister Faith (played fiercely by Kathryn Newton) bursts into the room, and the two of them reunite. This is not a joyous reunion; there is an enormous chasm of separation between them, the sort of chasm that has taken many years of silence and pain for it to develop. But the world has a habit of forcing conversations you have been avoiding, and sure enough, both sisters are kidnapped and brought to a luxury golf resort owned by four powerful, Satan-worshipping families who have been watching from the shadows this whole time. Here is where the sequel expands its world in a smart way. The Le Domas family from the original was never alone. They were one branch of a much larger tree — a secret council of obscenely wealthy families who made deals with something dark in exchange for power. By wiping out the Le Domas clan, Grace accidentally opened up a seat at the table. Now every family wants that seat, and the only way to claim it is to kill her first. One more game. One more night. Same rules. Elijah Wood plays the lawyer who oversees the entire operation in a very polite but also surprisingly terrifying manner (he explains the rules with a very calm manner but not with his eyes). He has a ring on his finger with an even more familiar stone, and with total chaos around him, I thought having Elijah Wood as this type of character in this movie is perfect – completely composed, darkly humorous, and slightly unsettling. David Cronenberg also has a role as the current owner of the ring that makes an individual the owner of ultimate power – just the casting of him deserves applause. But the heart of this film beats between Grace and Faith. Samara Weaving carries every scene she touches. Her Grace is exhausted, furious, funny, and completely fearless — sometimes all at once. She moves through the film like someone who has already died once and decided it was not going to happen again. When she screams, you feel it. When she delivers a one-liner while covered in somebody else’s blood, you laugh despite yourself. It is the kind of performance that reminds you why certain actors become stars. Kathryn Newton more than holds her own beside her. Faith starts the film as the terrified outsider, someone who had nothing to do with any of this and wants absolutely no part of it. But Newton slowly strips that fear back to reveal something tougher underneath. By the time the film reaches its final stretch, Faith is no longer a passenger — she is a partner. The chemistry between Newton and Weaving is electric, and their relationship gives the film an emotional center that keeps it grounded even as the body count climbs and people begin literally exploding. The supporting cast rounds things out beautifully. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy play Ursula and Titus Danforth, aristocratic siblings hunting together with ice in their veins. Gellar is clearly having the time of her life in a villainous role, and she brings a polished nastiness to Ursula that works perfectly. But Hatosy is the real revelation here. Titus shifts between quietly reserved and suddenly, terrifyingly violent in ways that are genuinely unsettling. He is more intimidating than anyone in the first film, and that is saying something. The film is funnier than it has any right to be. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett understand that dark comedy and genuine tension are not enemies — they feed each other. One sequence involving multiple brides and a lot of chaos earns the loudest laugh of the film. The kills are creative, the gore is plentiful, and the movie never apologizes for going all the way. If anything, it goes further. The middle part of the film does not have a strong flow because it is more of an exposition to explain or even build upon the story’s mythology. Expanding on these ideas means that there has to be a lot of talking, which is at times counterproductive to building momentum; some of the scenes that show violence against women also come very, very close to crossing the line, and there are times when we are also not so comfortable that we think that the movie has crossed it. The story hints at much larger ideas, such as wealth and power; as well as, who really runs things in the world, but it does not dig down into any of the satire it sets up, which creates an opportunity for real corruption makes it into the news every week, and therefore, compared to a secret elite worshiping the devil seems really tame. It seems that a more cutting-edge film would have taken advantage of that opportunity to develop the irony further. Still, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come accomplishes exactly what a good sequel should. It builds on the original without erasing what made it special. It gives its star room to grow while adding a new character worth caring about. It is bloody, sharp, and genuinely entertaining from beginning to near-end. Grace MacCaullay never asked to be a warrior. She just refused to be a victim. That distinction still matters — and it still hits.

OUR RATING – A REPEAT RUN 8