Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

Game Ready or Not 2 is Fun, Just Not as Much Fun as Ready or Not

As unexpected (and unnecessary) sequels go, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come doesn’t have any right to be as good as it is. The first film, released to critical and box office success in 2019, was a delightfully playful standalone The Most Dangerous Game crossed with a satanic panic horror yarn. It was like something Hammer would have made with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing during the 1960s, only with modern levels of profanity, violence, and gore. Written by Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence), and starring Samara Weaving as a happy bride faced with the worst, most homicidal honeymoon night in history, the thriller was a ghoulish delight. I don’t think I could have loved it more.

Although there was talk of a follow-up shortly after the original’s release, with the combination of COVID, Weaving’s soaring popularity, and Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett going on to make 2022’s Scream, Scream VI, and Abigail in quick succession, I assumed all involved had thrown in the towel on a sequel. Not so fast. But where could the story go from the loopily genius, blood-splattered absurdity of the Ready or Not climax? How was this mythology, built on devil worship, economic inequality, and the sinister smile of the ethereal Mr. Le Bail, going to evolve? While I always try to keep an open mind, I did have my doubts that a second chapter could offer up much I’d find surprising.

Even though I was right in that assessment (returning writers Busick and Murphy go pretty much exactly where I guessed they would), that does not mean this return of Grace “don’t call me Le Domas” MacCaullay (Weaving) to a second madcap survivalist game of hide-and-seek isn’t without its merits. The pair introduces an estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), into the mix, while also successfully expanding on the devil cult narrative surrounding Mr. Le Bail and his elitist followers. There’s also the inclusion of a deadpan, matter-of-fact lawyer, portrayed to side-eye, crooked-smiled perfection by Elijah Wood. Whenever he was around, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. It’s a sublime performance overflowing in captivating, understated menace.

In pure Halloween II style, the story literally picks things up with Grace passing out from her wounds, still wearing her tattered, blood-covered wedding dress, and sitting on the steps of the Le Domas mansion. From there, events briskly progress to a hospital room and Faith’s arrival, and it’s clear she’d rather be anywhere else than standing at her sister’s bedside. It isn’t too long after that the two are under assault from a knife-wielding attacker attempting to cut Grace’s throat, and it is at this point that Wood’s nameless lawyer also comes into their lives.

Turns out, by defeating the Le Domas clan in hide-and-seek, Grace unwittingly triggered a clause in all of Mr. Le Bail’s contracts with his Earthly followers. While every family that has sold themselves (and their eternal souls) over to him has unimagined wealth and power, one clan has dominion over all of the others. With Grace proving herself to be a worthy adversary, now that power is up for grabs, and it will belong to the family whose eldest member can sacrifice her in another game of hide-and-seek, assuming they do it before dawn’s first light. Sound familiar?

Yes. It’s basically the same plot all over again. However, Busick and Murphy do have a few tricks up their sleeves, and the inclusion of Faith into the proceedings works far better than I initially imagined it would. They’ve also crafted a suitably nasty pair of villains for Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy to portray, the icily determined twins Ursula and Titus Danforth. They want to make sure their family retains its dominant position in Mr. Le Bail’s satanic organization, and they’ll double-cross anyone (even their own sibling if need be) who stands in their way. The remainder of the supporting cast, which includes Nestor Carbonell, Kevin Durand, Olivia Cheng, and — I kid you not — David Cronenberg, doesn’t make near the same impression as they Gellar and Hatosy do.

The strength of the sequel, however, remains Weaver. She’s a resolute force of nature. The actor brings far more emotional depth and nuance to this second installment than I anticipated would be possible. It helps considerably that Weaving shares terrific chemistry with Newton, the duo dropping into authentic familial patterns that are immediately relatable. There’s genuine pain that they have to reconcile if they’re going to survive until the following morning, and watching them work through all of that, while also unleashing all types of chaos and carnage against their attackers, works astonishingly well.

As nice as all of that is, I can’t say I cared for how Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett frequently toned down much of the pitch-black humor that helped make the original such a malevolent hoot and instead doubled down on a bleakly serious ambience at random intervals. These bursts of dreary sincerity took me out of the proceedings. They added a layer of austere realism that didn’t match the cartoonish ghoulishness of every other moment that surrounded them. While I get why they went that direction — the need to make the true baddie of the piece as inhumanely scary as possible — if I wanted to watch Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer or The House That Jack Built, I’d have done so. One strangulation death is particularly upsetting and feels uncomfortably out of place amidst all of the Grand Guignol theatrics surrounding it.

Thankfully, moments like those are few and far between. Better, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett stage another rousingly absurd climax that overflows in crafty mayhem, winking depravity, and cleverly concealed sleight of hand. While nothing that happens is altogether shocking, it’s still staged exceedingly well. It also brings this story to a fitting conclusion that brings Grace’s two evenings of hide-and-seek to a suitable conclusion, while also not quite closing the door if all involved decide they’d like to carry on for one more concluding chapter of a potential trilogy.

Ultimately, even if it does take a bit to justify its existence, Ready or Not 2 still ends up being a suitably fun night out at the movies, just not as much of one as the first feature was. But still fun, and that helps make this sequel a game worth playing.

Film Rating: 3 (out of 4)