Director duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Scream VI), known together as Radio Silence, along with writers Guy Busick (Abigail) and R. Christopher Murphy (Castle Rock), are back with a follow-up to their hit horror-comedy, 2019’s Ready or Not. And it stars three certified scream queens and a legendary horror filmmaker. Stakes are higher. Blood is bloodier. And it’s pretty fantastic.
But before we get into the review, let’s recap.
Ready or Not begins on Grace MacCaullay’s (Samara Weaving) wedding day. She’s about to marry Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien), an heir to the Le Domas gaming company. As a former foster child with no relatives (allegedly), she’s looking forward to joining a big family. Her soon-to-be husband and his brother, Daniel (Adam Brody), both give her an out before the I-dos. Of course, they don’t tell her why she should go, so she chalks it up to them just joking.
Decades ago, Victor Le Domas made a deal with the devil, or more specifically, a demon called Le Bail. And now, every time someone marries into the family, they must draw a card from the puzzle box and play a game. Grace pulls the Hide-and-Seek card, thinking it’ll be a silly game with her new family, but it quickly turns into a hellish nightmare. If one of them kills Grace before dawn, then they’ll continue to live wealthily ever after. But our final girl wins, they all explode, and we find out this ritual sacrifice deal is real. Grace ends the movie soaked in their blood, smoking a cigarette, and when asked what happened, she says, “In-laws.”
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come picks up right where the last movie ended. Grace survived but sustained countless injuries. At the hospital, she has a rocky reunion with her younger sister, Faith MacCaullay (Kathryn Newton). But when they both wake up on a golf course handcuffed to each other, Grace has to give Faith a crash course in surviving a killer cult of wealthy satanists. She dons her blood-soaked wedding gown, which, once again, gets more and more damaged as the night goes on.
This time around, Grace isn’t battling her in-laws. She now has to fight against four families trying to kill her and her sister, including the Danforth siblings, Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy). They’re all vying for the High Seat of the Council to become the most powerful people on the planet (and to not have their guts explode).
The Danforth patriarch, Chester (David Cronenberg), has his lawyer (Elijah Wood) send out an “evil families assemble!” notice, and we meet: Ignacio El Caido (Néstor Carbonell), Bill Wilkinson (Kevin Durand), Wan Chen Xing (Olivia Cheng), and Madhu Rajan (Varun Saranga).
I love how this sequel has more rich people who are mostly bad at handling weapons and hitting targets, though maybe not as hopeless as Emilie (Melanie Scrofano), Grace’s former coked-up, trigger-happy sister-in-law. But there are also a few who, unfortunately for the MacCaullay sisters, know what they’re doing, and their dehumanization of Grace makes them more intimidating than the Le Domases. As seen in the trailer, Francesca El Caido, played by Maia Jae, who is so good at playing bitchy, conniving women (see: Gen V), is especially unhinged. Watching her and Grace fight is definitely one of the movie’s highlights.
Ready or Not’s themes of familial bonds and estrangements continue in the sequel, with Grace and Faith being the heart of the story. And while there are a few familiar elements, mainly that they’re playing the same game, from the first movie, Here I Come still manages to deliver a fresh take, expanding its world and showing new perspectives, personalities, and motivations.
Radio Silence has a good grasp of balancing horror with dark humor and touching moments. Here I Come feels more emotional than the last one. Scenes with Weaving and Newton, who are very believable as sisters, made me tear up at least twice. Both actresses are known for consistently delivering incredible performances, especially in horror movies, and they did not disappoint here. Neither did the returning creatives behind the camera.
One of the things that stood out to me in Ready or Not was Brett Jutkiewicz’s (Scream) cinematography. The lighting is warm but shadowy, cozy but chaotic, creating an old-money haunted-house-like atmosphere. Production designer Andrew Stearn (The Umbrella Academy) had more than one mansion to work with for the sequel; he had a whole compound. He kept the same sinister country club aesthetic and applied it to multiple locations within one sprawling area.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come does what all great sequels do. It’s grander, gorier, and gutsier, giving audiences what they loved from its 2019 predecessor, bursting bodies and all, while also introducing new elements that they’ll love just the same, or maybe even more.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come premiered March 13 at SXSW and hits theaters on March 20.
