Sequels always have a daunting task! It has to offer everything that everyone loved about the original but deliver it in such a way that sets the second chapter apart from the first one! You have to give the audiences something familiar, throw in a few new elements for good measure, and cross that fine line between being the same but different without losing your balance. However, there are some sequels that benefit from staying right on that fine line with no means of trying to differentiate itself from the original or separating itself from it’s own formula, even if it does occasionally flirt with what it would do if it chose to cross that path. Since the new burger tasted so good the first time you had, why bother changing the ingredients when you have it a second time? And that is where sequels like Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come come in!
While it is no doubt more of the same and doesn’t even try to be as fresh as Radio Silence’s original magnum opus, it still contains most of the same old ingredients that audiences loved about the first movie with a few new elements sprinkled in that does enough to justify it’s existence. The cast is much bigger and adds more to the established lore of Ready or Not, there’s a much larger scope and more expansive setting to explore, there’s more bloody kills and guts spewing everywhere than before, and there’s even more beautiful blondes kicking butt this time around. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel nor is it trying to win over anybody that were not fans of the original. It just wants to have a gory, fun time and it certainly succeeds at that.
Premise: After surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace (Samara Weaving) discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game, and this time with her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), by her side. To survive, Grace must keep Faith alive and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are also hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins will rule it all.
Throughout Ready Or Not 2, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olphin and Tyler Gillett make it clear that their #1 goal with Here I Come is to have more fun this time around rather than trying to play a brand new game from seven years earlier. Going bigger, not bolder. Expand the mythos, not deepen them. Be with the grain, not against it. Deliver on expectations, not subvert them. (We even get to see Samara Weaving wearing the exact same bloody wedding dress she had in the first movie!) While that is certainly well and good because the duo are well aware of their own interests as well as the audiences, you can’t help but be mildly frustrated at the intriguing subtext and ideas that the film chooses to handwave.
The film states that the rich families that Grace and Faith are fighting against are these insane religious supremacy overlords that are using their money, wealth, and power to control all the world’s resources. And if they are not successful in killing Grace, then they will lose all of that money, wealth, power, and control over everything. Yet aside from an occasional line or two, Here I Come never really dives deep into that, feeling like it only exists to give the rich families new motives for needing to kill Grace.
And that is where the shortcomings for Ready or Not 2 come into place. Even though it’s longer than the first film and has more locations and set pieces than before, it wants to add more subtext and character dilemma than before. However, because the pacing is so break-neck and Bettinelli-Olphin and Gillett are in such a hurry to get from one glorious kill to the next, these moments never have time to breathe.
There’s the goals of the rich elites to control everything but it never goes into why they want to achieve these goals other than Satan told them so. You got a rivalry set-up between Grace and her ex-husband’s previous finance that doesn’t go anywhere aside from an awesome climatic fight between the two. You also got a sister bondship which includes scenes, while good and well-acted, forces the pacing of the film to come to a screeching halt and suspense of disbelief needed for these moments while the two girls are fighting for their lives. There’s these doors opens for Here I Come to be bolder and risker than the original but it’s clear the film would rather just close it and stay in the house that it’s clearly comfortable in.
Thankfully, none of that detracts from the entertainment value here because all of the successful elements that made the original Ready or Not so fun are still good here. The kills are fun, the blood and gore are turned up to 11, the set pieces and chase sequences, while extremely over-the-top and nonsensical, make for some of the film’s exciting and delightfully amusing moments, and the supporting cast all make for fine additions to these series of films, with the main highlights of the rich families being Sarah Michelle Gellar as the well-intentioned but morally handcuffed rich daughter, Elijah Wood as the straight as an arrow lawyer, and also whoever the heck that guy who was playing the Nintendo Switch 2 (Seriously, what’s his name?! I can’t find him on Google or Wiki!).
The real glue that holds Here I Come together is Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton playing two long distanced sisters. Samara Weaving is able to kick just as much ass as she did the first time around (and does so in that same bloody dress) while being able to match every moment she can with her effortless charisma and mighty war scream (That NEVER get old!). Kathryn Newton, who has already proven herself to be a reliable Scream queen with Freaky and Abigail, has really sold chemistry with Weaving, really buying the core relationship between two sisters who thought they wanted nothing to do with each other but deep down they really do. Even if the more character driven moments between the two sisters did come at the expense of the film stopping dead in it’s tracks, the film wouldn’t have worked as well as it does if it weren’t for these two actresses trying to work out their problems with guns, swords, and pure wits.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is the textbook definition of a sequel that is basically, “What you see is what you get!” Do you want to see more heads and bodies exploding with creative and satisfying kills?! Do you want to see more gorgeous looking locations, well-suited costume designs, and a more expansive world to spend time in?! Do you want to just have fun for 105 minutes with two super hot blondes and the OG Buffy the Vampire Slayer?! If your answer is Yes to any of those, then I can’t see how you won’t enjoy another round with Radio Silence’s most unique original series to date.
As much as I can nitpick about the glossed over subtext and lore, that’s a small price to pay for everything else it does well. Is it more of the same? Sure? Does it taste just as good as the first time around even though you’ve already had it? Absolutely!
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