Nerdly » ‘Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come’ Review

18th Mar2026

‘Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come’ Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Néstor Carbonell, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood | Written by Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murphy | Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Samara Weaving puts the bloody wedding dress back on for a sequel to 2019’s murderous hide-and-seek thriller Ready Or Not. However, while the follow-up is still entertaining, it falls short of the original in several ways.

Ready Or Not 2 picks up immediately after the events of the first film, with a bedraggled, blood-soaked Grace (Samara Weaving) sitting on the steps of the blazing mansion and smoking a cigarette. When a paramedic asks her what happened, she replies, “In-laws”. Shortly afterwards, she wakes up in hospital, where she’s surprised to see her estranged younger sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), as well as a detective, who informs her she’s going to be arrested for arson and murder.

However, it turns out that the death of the devil-worshipping Le Domas family from the first film has left a vacancy on a Satanic council that needs to be filled, and since she’s now technically a Le Domas, Grace is a viable candidate. Sure enough, she and Faith are swiftly kidnapped from the hospital and they wake up handcuffed together in yet another mansion, where a handful of gathered council members (including Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy) will once again be trying to kill them.

The sequel has the exact same creative team behind the first film – co-writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, and co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who have since gone on to make two Scream movies and the very enjoyable Abigail, which also co-starred Newton. To that end, it’s a little disappointing that the sequel lacks the originality, the surprise factor and even the black humour that made the first film such a treat.

That’s unfortunately not the only problem – whereas the first film was perfectly paced, Ready Or Not 2 drags considerably in the middle section, ironically because it devotes so much time to the (poorly thought out, not all that interesting) emotional baggage between the two estranged sisters – Faith blames Grace for “abandoning her” when she left home to go to university.

On a similar note, the kills aren’t as inventive or as much fun this time round either. The film also overuses the shock splatter effect (in which bodies suddenly explode if the devil’s rules are contradicted), which was the shock highlight of the previous movie, but suffers from the law of diminishing returns here.

On the plus side, the immensely watchable Weaving is still a terrific lead, bringing tonnes of attitude and spark to the role, while Newton (who’s brilliant in pretty much everything) proves inspired casting as her sister, even if she’s not given all that much to do for the first half of the film. There’s also strong support from both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy as the most prominent of the council members, while David Cronenberg contributes a delightful single-scene cameo in an early scene as their father.

Elsewhere, there are appealing turns from Elijah Wood as the council’s lawyer, who does a good job with quite a lot of exposition and remains amusingly detached throughout, and from Nestor Carbonell, as a Spanish TV host who’s one of the council members – his unsubtitled Spanish dialogue is very funny for Spanish speakers as it’s essentially all the worst possible Spanish swearwords. Similarly, Maia Jae is good value as Francesca, who was previously engaged to Grace’s dead husband and harbours a personal grudge as a result.

In fairness, then, the lead performances, the colourful supporting cast and a handful of decent gore moments all combine to ensure that Ready Or Not 2 is still a good time, though even on that latter point, it’s worth noting that the sequel has a 15 certificate, where the first movie was an 18. It’s also hard to come away from the film without feeling that there were plenty of missed opportunities, not least in a poorly executed running gag about all the council members being inept at wielding their deadly weapons.

In short, Ready Or Not 2 is still fun, but it’s nowhere near as much fun as the original film and it often feels like a lazy retread, which is a shame, given that the original creative team are all involved. Here’s hoping Ready Or Not 3 redresses the balance in that respect.