It’s been seven years since directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett brought Ready or Not to our screens. Since then, the pair have made a couple of slashers in the Scream series and now the dynamic horror duo is back with a sequel to their 2019 hit. Picking up immediately where the original left off, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come sees doomed bride Grace (Samara Weaving) admitted to hospital after playing a deadly round of hide and seek with her devil-worshipping in-laws. She reunites with estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) but soon realises that her nightmare isn’t over.
Her ex’s family was just one of many controlled by the mysterious Mr. Le Bail and she must survive ‘til dawn again as the others compete for the ultimate seat of power. Her assembly of adversaries this time include Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) Titus (Shawn Hatosy), and Ignacio ( Néstor Carbonell) as “the lawyer” (Elijah Wood) oversees the battle royale with the satanic cult rulebook.
If the previous outing was the ‘story mode’ that took a little time to build this world of crazed games, this instalment plays very much like a tournament expansion pack. We are quickly thrust into a straight-up survival narrative as Grace and Faith desperately attempt to outwit, outrun, or at times overpower their foes. This gives a fresh canvas for the directors to express their genre flair as they craft enjoyably gruesome kills and although this chapter might lack the shock factor of its predecessor, it doesn’t hold back on the blood-curdling violence – a vicious fight sequence to Bonnie Tyler’s 80s anthem Total Eclipse of the Heart is particularly well executed. In between the attack scenes, the script from R. Christopher Murphy and Guy Busick patches together a fraught backstory between the protagonist and her younger sister; the screenwriters are regular collaborators of the filmmakers and there are definitely shades of their Scream films in this interesting central relationship.
Fans of the first will get a kick out of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, a satisfying survival sequel from Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett. Fierce, cunning, and always on the hunt for her next cigarette, an impressive Samara Weaving establishes herself as a killer scream queen.
Cinema Perspective 