Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

by Mike McGranaghan

The last shot of 2019’s Ready or Not is the first shot of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. It just goes on a while longer, establishing that heroine Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) is battered but alive after surviving a deadly game of “Hide and Seek” forced upon her by her new husband’s family. That’s what happens when you marry into a satanic cult.

Grace soon finds the game is not over. As a mysterious lawyer (Elijah Wood) explains, her victory has triggered a higher-level round of the game that will bring together members of the most powerful devil-worshipping families from around the world. If she survives until dawn, she wins again. If one of the hunters - including psychotic siblings Ursula and Titus Danforth (Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy) - kill her, they will gain “the High Seat” within the cult. There’s a twist: Grace’s estranged younger sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) showed up at the wrong moment, so now she’s forced to play, too.

The appeal of the original is how it mixes extreme violence with dark humor. It’s the kind of picture where you gasp in horror one minute, then crack up laughing the next. Sometimes both those things happen simultaneously. Ready or Not 2 maintains that quality. The action sequences are bigger and more elaborate. A particular highlight is a brutal fight scene - amusingly scored to Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” - that cuts back and forth as Grace and Faith each take on a different assailant. The finale involves a satanic wedding that’s funny in how creepy it is, and creepy in how funny it is.

Grace MacCaullay was a breakout role for Samara Weaving. Over the course of the movie, she credibly turned the character from an eager-to-please bride into a fierce warrior. The actress expands on that transformation here, imbuing Grace with a defiant, “I’m sick of this shit” attitude. That anger fuels her determination to live during this new ordeal. Weaving is nicely paired with Kathryn Newton. Together, they make the love/hate dynamic between Grace and Faith the heart of the story. We not only root for them to survive but also to heal their fractured relationship.

Gellar and Hatosy are the standouts in the supporting realm. The former brings a hint of that Cruel Intentions manipulativeness to Ursula; the latter turns Titus into a full-on lunatic. Elijah Wood provides levity as the lawyer who treats all the madness as though it’s just another day at the office.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come doesn’t quite have the same breathless pace as its predecessor. That’s because the original took place inside a mansion, whereas the sequel finds everybody running around the grounds of a casino resort. The sense that danger lurks at every corner isn’t quite as strong. The film still offers up plenty of sick, twisted fun, powered by the fiery Weaving/Newton pairing.

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