They say each time Samara Weaving belts out her one-of-a-kind scream in a horror film, an angel will get its wings. Or, as could be extra correct for the style, a satan will get its horns. This was true in “Ready or Not,” the darkly, devilishly enjoyable 2019 horror romp the place Weaving performed Grace, a working-class lady who marries right into a rich household desperately sustaining their iron grip on cash and energy by way of a cope with the mysterious Mr. Le Bail, who, because it seems, is the literal embodiment of Satan.
However, placing apart the prince of darkness, the standout of the movie was Weaving as she cemented her standing as a memorable trendy scream queen and joyously compelling motion star. Her aforementioned scream, specifically, stays an all-timer, feeling like it’s exorcising a deep, primal worry simply because it rattles you in your seat. Much as Grace needed to battle her manner via a nightmarish recreation of conceal and search the place she should survive being hunted by her murderous new “family” till dawn, Weaving was in a position to combat in opposition to most of that movie’s prevailing limitations and are available out on the opposite aspect in a single piece. Even when all the things then went to bloody items throughout her, leading to a splendidly grotesque and explosive gag of an ending, she held all of it collectively.
One would assume that one other movie that supplied extra of Weaving, her boundless charisma, sly humor, and shattering scream could be powerful to fumble. Yet one way or the other “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” a surprisingly protected sequel that picks up proper the place its predecessor left off but goes in disappointingly few new attention-grabbing instructions of its personal, manages to do loads of fumbling. It’s larger and boasts a bigger ensemble, together with these performed by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, and, briefly, a pleasant David Cronenberg, whom Weaving should once more do battle with. Though simply because the scope expands, the creativity shrinks, leaving Weaving having to do much more heavy lifting because the movie merely feels prefer it’s going via the motions we’ve all already seen executed higher the primary time. It’s received extra moments of correctly grotesque silliness, however little in the way in which of significant thematic chew, participating motion, or well-shot horror. While Weaving is sensational as soon as extra, managing to profit from what little she has to work with via nearly a sheer drive of will, it’s a movie you’d fairly simply say “not” to, whereas sticking with the unique.
Directed by the returning duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett from a screenplay by the also-returning Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, the movie opens the place “Ready or Not” closed with the nice in-laws’ kicker. This line, which may have simply felt like a hacky, womp womp comedy second, was given life by way of the wearied and deadpan method with which the blood-covered Weaving delivered it, guaranteeing that it wrapped again round to being genuinely impressed. Such inspiration is profoundly missing right here as “Ready or Not 2” instantly finds itself awkwardly constructing off of this by exhibiting Grace then passing out following this joke and being taken to a hospital. With every shock of a defibrillator, we catch temporary glimpses of memorable, extra genuinely menacing highlights from the primary movie. This second one doesn’t do itself any favors by reminding us of the strengths that made its predecessor such successful, however there may be no less than one thing successfully streamlined about the way it drops these reminders into the opening. Alas, we then arrive at a hospital the place all the things grinds to a halt, and we get an exposition dump on all the things that occurred earlier than this anyway. The movie retains explaining itself to you again and again, although hardly ever do you truly really feel something just like the jolt of power the primary had.
It’s on the hospital the place Grace is quickly interrogated by a detective, who at first, seems nearly like he’s being performed by Jemaine Clement (sadly, he isn’t), reconnects along with her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), who she nonetheless had as her emergency contact, explains what it was that occurred to her, after which will get roped again into the identical cat-and-mouse recreation she simply solely barely survived. Only this time, it’s not marriage that’s on the desk, however the High Seat of the Council (which mainly offers management of the world) that 4 households at the moment are making an attempt to take for themselves. Whoever kills Grace and Faith would be the one sitting within the chair, although, once more, in the event that they survive til dawn, the entire rival members of the family will explode into bloody pulp. We see a lot extra of those explosions, however the place the primary movie used them as an extremely satisfying payoff, the sequel retains going again time and again to the bloody nicely to diminishing outcomes.
Much of this, save for a smattering of extra darkly playful jokes, like one the place we see how Cronenberg’s bedridden patriarch can wield instant energy with a single telephone name, or all the things surrounding Elijah Wood’s wacky little evil lawyer overseeing all of it, proves oddly tiresome. Where “Ready or Not” just about received proper all the way down to the enjoyable, “Ready or Not 2” does extra stumbling about, punctuated with bloody explosions that don’t fairly hit as laborious as they did the primary time. That it treats the unique movie with an odd reference, together with in a single baffling scene the place Grace dons her bloody marriage ceremony robe and yellow high-top footwear like she’s a superhero suiting up for battle, simply additional strains credulity when it doesn’t put in the identical work to creating a case for its personal existence. Where “Ready or Not” felt genuinely contemporary and enjoyable in the way it smashed collectively acquainted style components, “Ready or Not 2” simply rinses and repeats a lot of it. It’s not ever actually scary or tense with the best worry you’re feeling coming not from the movie, however from its creators who appear to be averse to taking any actual dangers.
It’s nonetheless usually enjoyable to see Weaving prepare dinner, particularly in how she’ll underplay key scenes for comedic impact, however a lot of the movie will get misplaced within the woods of the large resort Grace and Faith should navigate. It cycles via the more and more tiresome patterns of the duo working, getting caught, participating in stiffly staged and shot combat sequences, after which working once more whereas some expositional particulars about their estrangement get awkwardly teased out. It’s not boring per se, as there may be at all times a lot that’s occurring, however it’s pretty fundamental, usually falling again on predictable contrivances to maintain issues shifting. There are some betrayals, twists, and revelations, although the precise development of the movie leaves you largely uninvested in them after they come up. The cinematography feels flat and drab, with few attention-grabbing compositions that stick out within the thoughts.
This is a disgrace, as a resort, particularly one with a golf course, is ripe for great cinema to be made using it as a backdrop. Such locations are pristine and exquisite, although additionally frighteningly synthetic, usually masking a simmering violence. Unfortunately, there may be so little in the way in which of visible panache to be present in “Ready or Not 2” in the way it uncovers this. All it finally ends up betraying is the movie’s painful lack of something resembling audaciousness in both its technical or thematic components. There simply isn’t a lot of something right here to carry onto save for Weaving’s efficiency. The addition of Newton doesn’t add any noteworthy bits aside from superficial sibling bickering and a compelled sentimentality the movie doesn’t earn. Where the unique thrived in its simplicity, a lot of the expansions this sequel makes really feel like muddle and take away from the sturdy core character.
Weaving does get one second in the direction of the top the place she’s in a position to supply one thing a bit extra layered with a alternative no person anticipated Grace to make, complicating what the whole movie was all about. Alas, this comes far too late to go away a lot of an impression. Instead, it does one other retread of the ending we already noticed the primary time. Blood goes all over the place, however there is no such thing as a actual coronary heart behind it. For a horror movie ostensibly about discovering a approach to play the sport of life by yourself phrases and never by the merciless guidelines of the rich, it’s disappointing how a lot “Ready or Not 2” delivers extra of the identical however worse. Even when it does chew down, there’s no tooth to it. All you’re left with is the echo of what was higher earlier than. You watch solely in a position to want Weaving was given extra to work with than this, or, on the very least, better room for her iconic scream to rattle you as soon as extra.
Grade: C
“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” premiered on the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Searchlight Pictures releases the movie on March 19.
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