Bottom line: The game is still afoot! [Read: we had so much fun trying to kill off Grace in Ready or Not, we decided to make up some shit so we have another go!] Yup, it’s time -once again- for ultra-wealthy assholes to hunt down Grace MacCaullay on a large estate. Does the premise really matter? No. And that’s a good thing, because it seems completely contrived this time around.
Before I go on, I guess you need to know some stuff (yeah, the plot doesn’t matter, but you might get lost without this): Grace (Samara Weaving) unwittingly married into a family allied with Satan. On her wedding day, she was forced to play Hide and Seek while the rest of the family, including her new husband, tried to kill her. They failed. Satan claimed the fam. Grace survived. Oh well.
The sequel picks up right where the first film ended with the mansion on fire and several ugly corpses inside. Naturally, Grace is the prime suspect, which is probably as it ought to be. But part of this Satanic cult involves powerful globetrotting families, all of whom need to be represented in order to continue attempting to kill Grace. Hmmmm, have these guys thought about a March Madness seeding type of arrangement? (“Grace takes on UTEP in round one?”) That might play better this time of year. The details past this point are silly. What you need to know is this is another very black comedy horror about wealthy douchebags trying -sportsman-like- to kill a woman who wants nothing to do with any of this.
It’s hard not to think of this story as used. We’ve seen it already. And yet, as Grace was the only survivor from the first film, there needed to be an entirely new cast, and some of them are gems, for instance Elijah Wood as the new games master is a nice touch, as is Sarah Michelle Gellar as one of the head hunters. Oh yeah, we’ve seen Buffy hunt before, huh? The real coup, however, was getting Kathryn Newton to play Grace’s estranged younger sister. Threatening Faith (Newton) gets Grace to play along for a second round even when she’d probably sooner commit suicide than subject herself to this crap again. Newton is somebody who absolutely sprung to life during the COVID scene and has quickly emerged as one of my big-screen favorites.
Ok, so how did this play? Well, now there are a bunch of a-moral spoiled degenerates hunting down two women on a golf course, instead of hunting down one in a mansion. And every hunter has a distinct level of incompetence, which gives the un-armed sisters a fighting chance. The problem 
is the sisters are estranged for good reason – they don’t like each other. This became the most frustrating part of the film because, seriously, women, you’re being shot at, blown up, gored, whatever. i.e. you have enough problems without bickering over “Who dissed whom?” This part of the film didn’t really work for me. When the film was able, however, to ally Grace and Faith in a survival pact, I thought Ready or Not 2: Here I Come worked very well, and stayed true to the original.
Besides the leading ladies, what this film really has going for it is the inventive jester’s court of money-grubbing, blood thirsty clowns. You will want to see all of them die. Nastily. Painfully. With surprised expressions. If you ever desire seeing fictional rich people get their come-uppance, Ready or Not is the franchise to deliver. And with that in mind, I give this silly and completely unnecessary sequel a mild thumbs up. But, be warned: 1) You’re gonna say, “Huh?” and 2) There’s gonna be blood. Get me?
There once was a woman named Grace
Forced to kill at her post-wedding place
She’s back for Round two
Which she’s not want to do
But threats to her sister made sure she’d save face
Rated R, 108 Minutes
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Writer: Gary Busick, R. Christopher Murphy, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Genre: The world’s most fabricated game
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who like seeing wealthy people eat it
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The blood-sensitive
