Back in 2019, director duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, better known as Radio Silence, impressed audiences with raucous, bloody horror comedy Ready or Not. Now, after two entries into the Scream franchise and original vampire flick named Abigail, the duo return for the continuation of Grace’s story. Moments after surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game – and this time with her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) at her side. Grace has one chance to survive, keep her sister alive and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. This time, four rival families are hunting her for the throne. With an extended cast and location, Ready or Not 2 keeps audiences entertained by amping up the violence, carnage and kills, but is bogged down by an excess of lore and rules.
Fans of Samara Weaving can rest assured that she’s expectedly kick-ass here. It’s ridiculously fun to have Grace back on our screens, and this time, she’s a little bit more experienced and rightly so, furious at her situation. Weaving continues her winning streak as Grace by providing further layers to the character which make her even more likeable; the experience under her belt leads to better decision making and hilarious, angsty sarcasm. Ruthless, cut throat but with a caring, emotional streak towards her sister, she’s the best she’s ever been. Starring as on-screen sister Faith is another horror favourite Kathryn Newton (Abigail), and their dynamic is certainly intriguing. Estranged due to their messy family and Faith feeling ‘left behind’ by Grace, their already fractured relationship is really put to the test, and it’s interesting to see them figure this out as the run-time moves forward. Newton gives another good turn here, continuing her streak of admirable horror performances. With plenty of new additions to the cast, we have a real ensemble on our hands, but the two that will likely impress the most are Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (I Know What You Did Last Summer). Both have a natural ability to elevate the material given, and they’re always a joy to see on the big screen.
Horror sequels tend to go down the path of delivering more of everything; characters, gore, kills, scares and sometimes even laughs where the more comedy-skewed entries are concerned. This is definitely a sentiment that Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett took on board. From the get-go, it’s obvious that this flick isn’t holding off in the blood and violence department, as you can expect combustions, fist fights and plenty of bloodshed from start to end. A bigger cast just means more asses for Grace to kick, and although we know that the characters in this now-franchise are prone to exploding before our eyes, the film still keeps things inventive by providing creative demises. Of course, the competing families are satirically rich and annoying fools, so watching them meet their grizzly end is ever exciting, and makes rooting for Grace natural and easy. In terms of humour, there is a lot more on display here than in its predecessor, one scene in particular involving pepper spray causing belly laughs from the entire audience. It fully embraces the splatter-fest campiness of it all, ensuring you’re as entertained and amused as you are grossed out. Even the location seems grander, the Danforth Estate providing acres of land and multiple rooms for our violence to occur in. It may not be as visually stunning as the interior of the Le Domas house, but it’s still impressive.
For the most part, the script of Ready or Not 2 warrants the films existence by providing a believable means of the story continuing, a genuine reason behind Grace slipping into her blood-soaked wedding dress and enough fun for us not to care much about those prior two points anyway. However, it does suffer from one element the first instalment avoided – convolution. Bogged down by rules and lore dating back to when certain pacts and agreements were made, the film has to make frequent pauses to explain the contract at play to both the characters and the audience. In the first one, the rules were simple – kill or be killed – but in this second outing, there is a lot more to take into account. This paves the way for pacing issues, dialogue heavy sequences that detract from the carnage candy and an overall feeling of overwhelm. Although the sisterly bond between Grace and Faith is certainly an intriguing aspect of the plot, it is also partially responsible for the pacing issues. Too often, our characters (who are being hunted, may I add) stop to loudly converse about their upbringing, life experiences and what drew them apart. Of course, this dialogue is present to ensure us as an audience care for the duo, but those conversations occasionally feel awkwardly placed and not in keeping with the urgency of the plot. Due to these reasons above, this instalment doesn’t feel as cohesive as the first.
Ready or Not 2 can easily be summed up as ‘more of the same’, though the final product isn’t as slick and surprising as the first instalment was. Still, the pacing issues and plot convolution don’t mean you’ll have a bad viewing experience, as this sequel entertains with action, sickens with gory violence whilst blessing us with a gorgeous location and a likeable cast. It’s certainly messy, but undeniably fun. Samara Weaving singlehandedly provides a reason why this sequel should exist.
