Another perfectly balanced melding of horror and comedy from the director duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, with another memorable lead performance from Samara Weaving, this time ably supported by Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Elijah Wood.

Premise: By surviving the events of the first film, Grace (Samara Weaving) has inadvertently given five wealthy and influential families the chance to compete to lead the High Council of “Mr Le Bail”, and harness the ultimate power that comes with that position. Soon a new game of hide-and-seek is underway – but also caught in the crossfire this time is Grace’s estranged younger sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton).

Review:

So far, the directing duo known as “Radio Silence”, aka Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, have made six films – Devil’s Due, Ready or Not, Scream 5, Scream VI, Abigail and now Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. Admittedly, I’ve not seen their debut film (the low-budget, found-footage horror Devil's Due), but all five of their more mainstream movies have been excellent, and they’ve had a hell of a run since Ready or Not came out in 2019, just 7 years ago.

Ready or Not 2 picks up immediately from the final shot of the first film, and although you could (probably) watch this sequel without having seen Ready or Not (and the film does try to get potential new viewers up to speed with some exposition and flashbacks), you’ll obviously get a much more satisfying movie experience if you know what’s already happened (and I’m going to assume that’s the case in this review).

“…bringing in Kathryn Newton incorporate buddy-comedy elements…”

Playing with the joke that so many people have made about so many horror films – that the final survivor would immediately become the prime suspect for all of the murders – Ready or Not 2 starts with Grace Le Domas née MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) waking up in hospital, handcuffed to the bed and being questioned by the police for the suspected murder of her in-laws. To make matters worse, the hospital has contacted her estranged younger sister, Faith MacCaullay (Kathryn Newton), as her emergency contact.

Bringing in Faith and turning the MacCaullay sisters into a double act is one of the main ways in which Ready or Not 2: Here I Come avoids becoming a retread of the first film. The original Ready or Not was a (darkly comic) survival horror anchored around the central premise that Grace was all alone with no one to turn to – whereas Ready or Not 2 is able to incorporate buddy-comedy elements by forcing the estranged MacCaullay sisters to work together (and to work through their unresolved emotional baggage) if either of them are to survive the night.

“…Sarah Michelle Geller & Shawn Hatosy in particular are great…”

The threat this time comes not from the (largely incompetent) members of the Le Domas family, but from the heads of the five most powerful families in the secret cult of Mr Le Bail (aka Satan). Whereas the Le Domas family members where arguably almost as unprepared for the events of the first film as Grace was, the members of the High Council families have been preparing for this night their entire lives – a night when each of them has the opportunity to grasp ultimate power for their family by being the one to “get” Grace in a double-or-nothing hide-and-seek rematch.

The incumbent head of the High Council, the Danforth family, is represented by Chester Danforth (David Cronenberg), and his twin children Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy) – Geller and Hatosy in particular are great, and seem to be having a great time playing these fun, larger-than-life characters. The other four High Council families are represented by Nestor Carbonell, Olivia Cheng, Kevin Durand and Nadeem Umar-Khitab, who also all seem to be having fun (Kevin Durrand returning to work with Radio Silence again after 2024’s Abigail).

“…Samara Weaving & Kathryn Newton both have a natural talent for comedy…”

Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton make a great double act, and both are actors who clearly have a love for genre movies and a natural talent for bringing to life the comedic elements in scripts, whether it’s in Eenie Meanie or Bill & Ted Face The Music in Samara Weaving’s case, or in Freaky or Abigail in Kathryn Newton’s case. Samara Weaving in particular has a rare ability to be cool AF in one scene, and ridiculously funny in the next – her fight scene on a ballroom dancefloor in this movie was laugh-out-loud funny.

The film is full of smaller characters that each still get a comedic moment or two to shine in (Dan Beirne gets perhaps the film’s funniest line, playing Ursula’s and Titus’ wastrel cousin), but I think the film’s secret weapon is arguably Elijah Wood, who plays the unnamed lawyer acting as Mr Le Bail’s earthly representative. Elijah Wood has an incredible ability to deliver pages and pages of expository dialogue as “The Lawyer” explains the ancient byelaws of Mr Le Bail’s secret sect, while making it interesting and entertaining for the audience. Plus, because his character has “no skin in the game” himself, he’s a wry observer of the events, and the audience is in on the joke of his distain and lack of respect for the High Council families.

“…a very fun (blood-soaked) night at the movies…”

Like Radio Silence’s previous films, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come does not skimp on the blood and gore (I’d love to know whether this or Abigail used the most amount of fake blood!), but for the most part, it’s all done with its tongue firmly in its cheek (and in one scene where the violence is uncomfortably grounded, it’s an intentional decision on the directors’ part to make the audience uncomfortable at that point in the movie). There are great little set-pieces throughout the movie, and the ending itself is a *chef’s kiss*, mic drop moment.

The film may not be perfect (inevitably, it lacks the surprise factor or the intensity of the original, and although some of the characters are developed in unexpected ways, you can probably already guess how the Grace/Faith relationship issues will resolve themselves), but overall, this film kept me chuckling from beginning to end, and was a very fun (blood-soaked) night at the movies.