When you have a hit film these days, inevitably the question always arises about a sequel. There’s very little studios love more than a bit 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) a sequel 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 a script 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 I Come, evidently trusting the audience to understand it’s a sequel 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 a whole new nightmare. With her evil in-laws out of the picture, Grace now has to fight for her life against a high 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 see her.
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To an extent Ready or Not: Here I Come 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 a garment; there’s lots of references to the demonic entity Le Bail who the elites worship. A sequel demands more bloodshed too – poor Grace can’t catch a break from the brutality, and there’s an extended scene where Faith takes a beating 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, a mandated 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 a look-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 a well-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 a welcome tone between winking self-awareness and retro absurdity.
While Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett had delivered a sequel which is ultimately entertaining and glides by easily on the strength of its cast and gleeful bloodshed, there is a sense that fresh ideas are a little thin on the ground, papered over with cartoon violence and a few half-decent twists. It might be best to quit playing while we’re ahead than risk being the last ones at the party.