Ready or Not 2: Bigger, Sillier, and Much Worse Than the Original
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is a horror comedy that’s neither scary nor funny. When you consider that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie’s 2019 predecessor, Ready or Not, Ready or Not 2 is a major disappointment.
The film picks up right where the first movie left off, with Grace having survived that initial game of hide and seek. As with most sequels, Ready or Not 2 attempts to up the ante by having her, and now also her younger sister, face off against the members of five elite families in another round of the game.
The movie makes the mistake of getting extremely bogged down in the lore of the Ready or Not world. In that original movie, the fact that the family hunting Grace had a connection to a satanic cult was secondary to what the movie was about: Grace simply trying to survive until dawn.
In this sequel, the story revolves around the five families now having to hunt Grace since she survived the first game, with whoever kills her being granted the High Seat in the cult and worldwide power. There’s a giant rulebook the cult’s lawyer lugs around, and he informs everyone different rules throughout the movie. Horror movies need to have rules, sure, but it’s the opposite of show don’t tell here, and it really drags the story down. Ready or Not 2 becomes a story about a cult and its laws more than a fun horror film about two sisters surviving.
The film’s main weakness is definitely its script. There’s a lot that just doesn’t work here in terms of tone and humor. Ready or Not 2 is a film that tries way too hard to be funny.
There were dark comedy elements in the original Ready or Not, but it never ventured into wacky or goofy territory. Here, from the moment we’re introduced to the over-the-top, ridiculous family members Grace will need to square off with, we know we’re in very silly territory.
This would be more excusable if the film were actually humorous, but it’s really not. The nonstop jokes and light tone also really lower the threat level of our adversaries. No one feels like a real threat.
Despite all of this, Ready or Not 2 is still watchable. The film boasts a quality cast, led by Samara Weaving, and with other standouts like Elijah Wood as the lawyer and Sarah Michelle Geller. I just wish they had better material to work with.
The movie also isn’t boring, though you’ll spend most of its runtime simply wondering what silly way Grace and her sister will dispatch the next ridiculous cult member they come up against. Ready or Not 2 is the perfect case of a sequel that really didn’t need to exist. It answers questions about the world of the film from the first movie that viewers didn’t ask and doesn’t do anything interesting to build off of the original hide-and-seek horror concept.
Grade: 4.5/10