Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

I am a big fan of Ready or Not. So there was a certain amount of trepidation when I went to see Ready or Not 2 cause I am still wary of sequels being better than the first. Despite coming out six years after the original, this film takes place immediately after the first one. As Grace survived the game the scriptwriters scrambled around for a way of rehashing the original plot and introducing her sister Faith played by Kathryn Newton.  The additional aspect of the plot is that the Le Domas’ were part of a group of families and Grace now being the winner is forced into playing double or nothing/ There are suppose to be six but with  the Le Domas’ were wiped out and Kevin Durand’s Bill Wilkinson and his family were wiped out so we are already down to four.

We meet Francesca (Maia Jae) who was originally suppose to marry Alex in the first film but he ditched her for Grace for some reason so this seemed to be introduced to add some drama. Her father Ignacio (played by Nestor Carbonell who is frankly chewing the scenery) seems to be lousy with a weapon and then when Francesca has a bazooka she is also rubbish with it, firing it in the opposite direction. If they wanted to they could have made her the driving force of the conflict but then again Maia Jae isn't Sarah Michelle Gellar. When Virat is killed, his brother Madhu he forfeits his position in the family to his wife who then decides to leave. She is actually the smartest of the entire cast and she drives off into the sunset and out of the movie. All the supporting characters of the supporting characters add nothing to the plot.

My main issue with the film is that its the first film but way more bloated in terms of story. Not just in terms of the cast numbers that don't do anything substantial but there are also way too many plot points where they try and get themselves out of a hole only to dig themselves into another hole. The first one was simple and effective, this time it just felt bloated and unnecessarily so. It’s not a terrible film by any means but I think that it's a classic sequel in that it does the first film but with a bigger budget so it’ll be bigger and louder and most of the time it doesn't work.

I don't think that this is a terrible film by any means because Samara Weaving is likeable as Grace and the absurdity of the whole film is used well enough but I don't think that this needed to exist. The script is weighed down by having to do too much and whilst it ends in a satisfactory way, it makes life very difficult for itself. There is potential for more if they wanted to although I think that they should stop now but I suppose it depends what happens at the box office.

Ready or Not (2019)

Ready Or Not is a 2019 horror film starring Samara Weaving who gets married into a rich family and as part of an initiation has to play a game and she selects hide and seek and if the family find her, she has to be sacrificed and there is a limited amount of time. That’s the plot and it's straight forward and doesn’t have to over complicate things. This film is directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillet who previously directed Devil’s Due (which as of writing, I haven’t seen). 

I really liked this film. I thought that it was a good idea and the whole thing moves along at a solid pace and it never feels like its padding or over staying its welcome. It's 1 hour and 35 minutes and I was surprised at how quickly the time had passed. The film doesn’t stretch things too far. They don’t keep Grace in the house and find more and more stupid ways of keeping here there and she does manage to get out and they don’t play the ‘picked up by someone pretending to be a help but turning out to be a member of the family’ trick which I appreciated. They managed to do things without me rolling my eyes which hasn’t happened in a horror for……well ages. The humour is really funny such as the killing of the maids and the reaction when Helene blows up. It’s the perfect reaction.

The performances are quite good. I thought that Samara Weaving was very good as Grace. Weaving follows that tradition of people who have starred in Australian soaps and gone on to do quite well afterwards. I thought that she led the film solidly and made me winch when she gets shot in the hand and has to impale herself to get herself out of the hole. I thought that Henry Czerny was very funny as Tony the father. Melanie Scrofano is also quite funny as the cocaine addicted Emilie who is a terrible shot except when she manages to fire a crossbow perfectly into one of the maids mouth. Andie MacDowell turns in this film and it’s the first film I think I’ve seen her in since Groundhog Day back in 1993. I think she’s there because of name recognition because she never really gets involved except to have a heart to heart with Alex towards the end although she does have a really good death. 

It’s not a completely perfect film. Firstly there is Samara Weaving’s cry/scream which sounds like she’s auditioning to play Xena. It was totally distracting and I could have done without it. Also there is flip-flopping of Alex who doesn’t want anything to happen to Grace and then willingly goes along with the sacrifice. I thought that it made him look slightly weak.  I couldn’t really make my mind up what I was supposed to think about him so when he died I was like…ok.

As I said, I really like this film. I thought it had a nice balance of horror and humour and ended in the only way that it could do.