Ready or Not 2: Here I Come – Movie Review
If there is one thing the directorial team Radio Silence (composed of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) are good at, is that they can take slightly left-field but simple ideas and make them blood-filled and wildly fun. Whether it’s accidentally kidnapping a vampire ballerina, or turning a game of hide-and-seek deadly, there is a wicked sense of fun that these two bring to their work. And sequels aren’t something they’re shy of either, having tackled the 5th and 6th instalments of the Scream franchise. Now, six years after the first film, Radio Silence are reteaming with modern scream queens Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, which sadly may be the most reserved the filmmakers have felt in their careers so far.
The sequel picks up immediately after the blood-soaked events of the first film, which saw Grace (Weaving) survive a deadly game of hide-and-seek at the hands of her now former in-laws, who just so happened to be rich Satan worshippers looking to Grace as a sacrifice in order to keep their fortunes. However, Grace’s survival becomes a speedbump for the other wealthy Satanist families around the United States, who want to take their chance at succeeding the throne of the High Council. And the only way they can do that – is to kill Grace in another deadly game. But, Grace is not alone this time, as the arrival of her estranged sister, Faith (Newton), means that the two must work together to once again survive the night.
Ready Or Not 2 starts with a strong momentum as it leads on from the first film’s iconic finale, seeing the blood-soaked wedding dressed, cigarette smoking Grace being transported to a hospital, using sudden flashbacks from the original to fill in any gaps new viewers (or those who hadn’t seen the first in a while). Plus, the film introduces a new cavalcade of villainous characters as the death cultists, including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Elijah Wood, and even horror maestro David Cronenberg cameoing, which just sets that wicked fun tone that is to be expected from Radio Silence. It’s dark, it’s funny, and the tension begins to rise early on.
The cast are having a blast in this film, especially the film’s villains. Elijah Wood, who plays the legal caretaker/possibly right hand man to Satan himself, employs a fun balance between the straight-man role and a devilish soul who relishes in the chaos., with a lot of the Elijah charm. The dynamic between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy, who play twins fighting together (and somewhat against each other) for the High Council throne, have a real campy, bitchy back and forth that adds to that wickedly fun tone. Even David Cronenberg’s small cameo is impactful and fun.
However, it’s the film’s leads that sadly feel the most lacking out of the cast. The dynamic between the sisters doesn’t feel authentic. Their constant bickering, which should’ve been as equally funny as it is emotional, feels forced and shoe-horned into the overall narrative. While Weaving gets a few moments to really shine as the scream queen we love, the overall feeling around her character is slightly dull. And the addition of Faith does very little to bring more substance to her as a character.
This film also feels bigger in scale, not just from the large number of new, eccentric characters, but also in the sense of its setting and how it builds out the lore surrounding this Satanic cult and their kink for deadly games.The action of this sequel predominantly takes place in a gothic-style resort on a lavish golf course that allows the hide-and-seek action to take place in many interesting and fun locations, especially outdoors where the set-pieces take on a blockbuster level scale featuring gun fights and explosions. The production design, especially as the film descends into its more Satanic cult aspects, is also visually impressive.
However, the larger scale doesn’t necessarily translate to a consistently entertaining film overall. While Ready or Not 2 does retread elements of the original that worked well, they weirdly fall flat this time around with a narrative that does very little to actually justify its existence. There is just a dullness around the story, and the lead characters’ dynamic that takes away from the wickedly fun elements. There are three truly phenomenal set pieces in the film that are exciting and inventive (washing machines and dance fights are all you need to know), but even they don’t do enough to bring up the energy. And despite the scale feeling larger, there is weirdly far less kills and gore this time around.
Ready or Not 2 is a disappointing follow up to a wickedly fun, exciting, and devilish original film, despite feeling like a bigger film with a lot of fun, villainous characters. But, it turns out that more characters and lore, but less blood and gore, wasn’t the winning formula for this sequel.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is in Australian cinemas March 19
