Intensity 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett)
Written by Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murphy, and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Embattled bride Grace is back, in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, and she’s going to have to do it all over again. This time, her estranged sister will be by her side as a cadre of rival megalomaniacal families vie to murder her and claim the ultimate Satanic prize. This sequel is a bloody joy ride, and it extends the premise well, but a chunk of the magic of the first movie is missing.
Ready or Not was my favorite movie of 2019. I gave it the full five stars. Loved it. It was a bloody romp, full of amusing side characters, a blood-soaked game of hide-and-go-seek, and a final girl for the ages in Samara Weaving. (A well-known film crush of mine, amongst the Scariest Things community.) With that movie, a couple of Scream sequels, and the little ballerina vampire film Abigail (2024), the directing duo known as Radio Silence has developed a successful house style. Assemble a large and wacky ensemble cast, and pit them against a formidable protagonist who gives the erstwhile hunters a massive, bloody challenge. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is a direct lead in sequel to the original. No time is lost between the two films.
With this film, the formula still works. However, that is also its weak point. It feels like a formula, like a Marvel or James Bond movie. There are very familiar story beats and tropes. It can be wildly entertaining at times, and with the growing success and relationships that Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett have been building, there is real star power behind this film. There is a large bucket of popcorn fare, because you know what’s coming, and it’s a blast. Unfortunately, the surprise factor is missing. That was the allure of the first movie. It felt fresh, and the apocalyptic ending was a stunner. This time, the conclusion builds to a worthy climax, but you can call your shots for how it will end.
Like many Radio Silence projects, there is strength in numbers. Their movies are filled with many colorful characters, and the tradition continues with Ready or Not 2.
“Hail Satan!”
The Cast of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
- Samara Weaving returns as Grace LaDomas (MacCaulley). She survived her wedding night, where her new family attempted to kill her as a Satanic Cult ritual of hide-and-go-seek.
- Kathryn Newton plays Faith MacCaulley, Grace’s estranged younger sister. Faith blames Grace for abandoning her as a teenager, but she heeds a hospital summons as Grace’s emergency contact.
- Elijah Wood plays The Lawyer, a somewhat neutral arbiter who lays down the rules for succession to the High Seat of the mysterious Council, a world-dominating cult of Satan.
- David Cronenberg plays Chester Danforth, the current high seat of the Council, and the patriarch of the Danforth family.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Ursula Danforth, a cunning scion of the powerful Danforth family.
- Shawn Hatosy plays Titus Danforth, Ursula’s twin brother. Titus is considerably dimmer than his sister and often resorts to brute force to get what he wants.
- Dan Beirne plays Kip Danforth, a cousin to Ursla and Titus.
- Olivia Cheng plays Wan Chen Xing, head of one of the competing Council families.
- Anthony Hall plays Wan Cheng Fu, Xing’s son.
- Nestor Carbonell plays Ignacio El Caido, the head of the El Caido family. He hasn’t been to the shooting range as he should have.
- Maia Jae plays Francesca El Caido, Ignacio’s daughter, and the former girlfriend of Alex LaDomas, who is out for revenge against Grace.
- Juan Pablo Romero plays Felipe El Caido, the youngest of the El Caido family.
- Nadeem Umar-Khitab plays Viraj Rajan, the head of the Rajan family, a British playboy.
- Varun Saranga plays Madhu Raja, Viraj’s little brother. He’s a bit of a cowardly goofball.
- Masa Lizdek plays Martina Rajan, Madhu’s wife.
- Kevin Durand plays Bill Wilkinson, head of the Wilkinson family. He’s an incautious coke-head.
A Synopsis
Ambulance Med Tech: What happened to you?
Grace: In Laws.
We pick up where we left off. Grace takes a smoke break, wounded from her battle with the entire La Domas clan and their servants. She was to have happily been married into a prominent 1% wealthy life, and instead, she finds herself the sole survivor of a bloody Satanic ritual. As arriving paramedics whisk her off to the hospital, she blacks out. When she wakes up, she is handcuffed to a gurney and is interrogated under suspicion of multiple homicides. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately for her, Faith has arrived as her emergency contact. The two haven’t seen each other for seven years, and Faith has not forgiven her for abandoning her at their foster home, as Grace pursued a fresh start in New York City.
Meanwhile, at the palatial Danforth estate, word has arrived that the LeBail game ritual was executed by the LaDomas family, and they failed. Grace is known to be alive, and Chester Danforth, the powerful high seat of the sinister Council. The Lawyer arrives to debrief the patriarch. Chester knows what this means. “The Ball is in play.” Chester notifies all the Council families. Because Grace survived the overnight ritual, there will be a power transition. Chester, in a moment of clarity, allows his children, Ursula and Titus, to smother him to death. The next generation will be the ones to take power.
As the detective escorts Grace and Faith to prison from the hospita an overzealous Bill Wilkinson ambushes them at the hospital. Hopped up on cocaine, he slays the arresting police detective and hopes to skip the line and claim the throne for himself before the game for succession officially begins. He will discover that it was a fateful bad move. The Lawyer arrives and stuns Grace and Faith with a gas grenade, and brings them to the Danforth estate to begin the next phase of the game that Grace started with drawing the hide and seek card.
All of the families gather to receive the rules of the game. The council gagged the sisters and restrained them in chairs while the lawyer debriefed on the rules. It is similar to the hide-and-seek rules at the LaDomas ritual. The family that manages to eliminate Grace will earn the high seat. If Grace survives until dawn, horrible things will happen to all the family members. No family member may kill a member of an opposing family, or serious bad things will happen. (To be clear: explosive death.) Unfortunately for Faith, she’s along for the ride. And, worse for both sisters, they are handcuffed together.
Let the games begin.
Evaluation of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Much like the first movie, Ready or Not 2 plays like a roller coaster. The action kicks in and never really stops, except for the occasional comic moment. The movie borrows the familiar “Most Dangerous Game” trope that has been around for ages. Humans hunting other humans for sport. What makes or breaks this trope is the amount of danger we fear that the protagonists are in. Clearly, the odds favor the families. They are armed and motivated. Conversely, the sisters struggle to move around, linked together both physically and symbolically.
Unlike the first film, we know that Grace carries a lot of plot armor. We now understand that she is a capable survivor and is willing to get her hands bloody. The plot uses Faith as a foil, providing an emotional tether for Grace. This is where the movie feels like it is forcing plot elements. Plenty of time is devoted to the sisters’ backstory. They currently can’t stand each other. But any reasonable audience member can see what is coming. They’re family. They are all that each other has left. However, the story spends a lot of time on exposition. The relationship bell rings early and often. The Chemistry between Weaving and Newton comes and goes. On the whole, it mostly works.
What works better is the other sibling pairing. Titus and Ursula enjoy a more richly combative relationship. The power dynamics quietly shift over the course of the movie. Unlike the MacCaulley sisters, the Danforth twins have distinct personalities that will ultimately collide. Faith and Grace seem cut from the same cloth. Stubborn, yes. But deep down inside, they really care for each other. The Danforths? Not so much.
The other standout performance is by Elijah Wood. (Hail Satan!) Wood deadpans his way through the proceedings, the ultimate neutral arbiter. Behind his mask of serenity, you can tell Wood is enjoying this role immensely. Also enjoyable is Varun Saranga’s comic relief as the bumbling number two of the Rajan family. Maia Jae’s righteous fury is fun to behold. Her blind fight with Grace in the wedding chapel is the film’s comic and action highlight. The blind fight features a great needle drop for “A Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler, appropriately enough kicked off by a wedding DJ soundboard. Curiously, that song is not included on the official soundtrack.
Concluding Thoughts
Good, but not great. If not for the first movie, it could be considered very good. It is a worthy representation of what feels like a franchise, but the zenith of the first film was a big ask. By comparison, this edition plays similarly, but with less tension because of Grace’s secure position as a badass. The finale provides a bit of suspense, but astute audiences can puzzle together the likely outcome. This feels like a rough equivalent of a superhero film. Great action. Punch dialogue. Colorful characters. A bit predictable, but certainly worth the price of a theater ticket.
Samara was a lot of fun. That wedding dress is iconic, but it is so soaked through with blood that it must be littered with clots at this point. If there is another film, it will be interesting to see what she would wear. It is one of the branding elements of these films. Radio Silence knows how to entertain, but they will need to work on breaking out of their patterns a little bit. The formula works, but shows signs of wear and tear. Their films remain on my must-watch list for sheer entertainment, if not intellectual value.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come has been doing fairly well at the box office ($24 million in earnings so far), and as of this posting, it should still be in theaters. The film is rated R for gratuitous and gleeful gore and violence, language, and drug use. This content would be suitable for mature teens, and they probably would enjoy the heck out of it, if they can stomach watching bodies explode.
Review by Eric Li
