In August of 2019 the world was treated to what I consider one of the defining slashers of the past 10 years; Ready or Not. The film was a massive success and turned the Radio Silence team into household names within the genre. They were brought on for the fifth and sixth entries in the Scream franchise, then delivered their own fun take on Dracula's Daughter with the 2024 vampire flick Abigail. Now they're back to the story that blew them up with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.
Despite being released nearly seven years later, this film takes place immediately after the events of the first film. The first minute or so is basically just the first movie's ending, so we really jump right back into things. After besting the Le Domas family in their killer game of hide and seek, Grace (Samara Weaving) has unknowingly unleashed a potentially world altering turn of events. The Le Domas' were one of a handful of families on Le Bail's council, and now each other family must try to kill Grace in order to capture the council's "high seat", a role granting essentially unlimited power. Caught in the mix is Grace's sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), thrown into the mix after years of not speaking to one another simply because Grace forgot to remove her as an emergency contact.
This narratively reminded me a decent bit of the John Wick movies. The first film works as a fun standalone effort, but the sprinkles of clever world building allow for the story to continue. This takes the cultish games of the first Ready or Not movie and crank them up a notch. Now the hunters are coming in from around the world, each with their own riches and power. It does get a bit over the top in that respect, but seeing the reach of Le Bail's power and the different intricacies of the organization was a lot of fun. There are times where it feels like too much is going on, and my biggest criticism of the film is that it does feel a bit overstuffed at times. Where the first film clocks in at a tight 95 minutes, this comes in closer to two hours and that time is filled with a lot of exposition that does make moments feel bloated.
Another area I was a bit disappointed here was the ensemble. There are a handful of real highlights that I'll get to in a moment, but on the whole I found that the first film had a full roster of fun characters, while this has a lot of fillers that you don't wind up caring for much at all. Shawn Hatosy as the film's main antagonist is one of the ones that really did nothing for me, delivering a performance that I found a bit to dull in contrast to the colourful characters of the first film.
The clear highlight here, as with the first movie, is Samara Weaving in the lead role. She further cements herself as this generation's "Scream Queen", thanks largely to how iconic her actual scream is. She is also hilarious though, and holds her own physically as the badass protagonist. Alongside Weaving this time is Kathryn Newton, a perfect addition as her sister. Newton is another one today's horror icons, and her comedic sensibilities work perfectly with the brand of fun horror Radio Silence excels with. Elijah Wood joins the cast as Le Bail's lawyer, and while he won't blow you away by any means, he brings a cool and collected presence while also making you go "hell yeah, that's Elijah Wood." Aside from Newton though, the best addition is the iconic Sarah Michelle Gellar. It's fun to see her in an antagonistic role, and she truly steals the show every time she's on screen. I also have to shoutout the Canadian legend David Cronenberg, he's only in one scene but it's so much fun seeing him in this.
It's easy to look at the Radio Silence team as very narrow in their filmmaking, but several films in now I've grown to love their fun spin on the horror genre. Directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin know exactly what tone they want, and while the end result is rarely scary, the Ready or Not films are fun carnage filled with a ton of memorable kills. The amount of fake blood used on this film delights the horror fan in me, as there's at least 2 if not 3 points where Samara Weaving is able to clean the blood off of her only to be covered in it all over again. The effects brought in for some of the more outlandish kills are really fun, but where I most appreciated the production side of things was in the set design. The production design team excels in creating a playground for the film's carnage, this time doing so in a casino/resort. It's a ton of fun watching the game of cat and mouse unfold amidst a space that has somewhat of a sense of familiarity. The costumes are also fantastic, especially the ever evolving blood covered wedding dress and converse Weaving wears throughout.
I don't think there's any denying that this is a step down from the first film, but it still works as a very solid continuation. There's a bit too much going on for its own good, but it's still an absolute blast of blood and dark humour that I had a great time with. 3.5/5
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