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Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is a so-so horror/action/comedy/thriller cinematic
mishmash that combines elements of both slasher films, "eat-the-rich" movies
like The Menu,
Triangle of Sadness,
Knives Out,
and
Infinity Pool, and competitive game flicks
like
Hunger Games.
It's a sequel to a film I did not see-Ready or Not, which is regarded by most
critics as a precursor to eat-the-rich genre.
We’ve seen all of this before, and although it’s arranged in a slightly
different package here the story itself is strictly by the numbers. The film
shows little restraint and overdoes the gore. I have not seen this many heads
exploding since Cronenberg’s Scanners. By the third or fourth time this happens,
audience members may be as bored as I was. And the gore isn't presented in a
particularly creative way, like in the Evil Dead films or the recent Send Help.
Also, unlike the Italian giallo films, this movie offers no superb or alluring
shot compositions. In its favor, the film has a stellar cast composed of many
young, attractive actors and potential future stars-so ten years from now the
film will be good for "remember when" trivia questions on certain cast members.
Through flashbacks we re-experience the first film which relates the story of
how a woman named Grace married into a horrible, morally bankrupt upper-class
family and had to battle the other family members as part of an ancient
initiation ceremony to join the family. Despite the seven-year gap between this
film and the first, Ready or Not 2 takes place in-universe almost immediately
after the first. So, Grace inexplicably looks quite years older in the sequel
than she did in the first film-which just recently happened.
This time, Grace (Samara Weaving, who deserves better material) must reluctantly
team up with her long-estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton). The situation is
poorly developed, and the sisters seem to despise each other for about 10
minutes, then all is forgotten as they must face members of multiple families in
a fight for their lives. The one survivor of the game will become head of all
the families, and the families are all part of a secret society of Satanists
that secretly rule the globe, and their story is similar to that of the
Illuminati in conspiracy theories.
Elijah Wood plays the lawyer (just referred to as "the lawyer") of the family
she married into in the last film (her husband is deceased), and explains that,
because Grace was the sole survivor of the murderous game in the last film, she
must now slay the whole bloodline and everyone else. All the evil members of the
families are playing because each wants to become the leader of the world. If
she does not play along, they’ll just kill her. And the families basically own
all the politicians and police, much like the vampires in Blade.
Ready or Not 2 was co directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin. He is best known for
doing TV, horror, and franchise films like V/H/S (2012), Southbound (2015), the
original Ready or Not (2019), Scream (2022), Scream VI (2023), and Abigail
(2024), which also featured rising horror star Kathryn Newton. Most of these
were co directed with his frequent partner, Tyler Gillet.
The film features the long-awaited return of Buffy the Vampire Slayer star,
Sarah Michell Gellar. She was mostly in mediocre formula-horror films, like
Scream 2 (1997), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), and The Grudge (2004).
But she was also in the more ambitious Cruel Intentions (1999), Harvard Man
(2001), and, best of all, Southland Tales (2004). She was also in the recently
failed Buffy update pilot that she co-produced, titled Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
The New Sunnydale. Hulu opted not to pick it up, and now there is a big social
media campaign to bring it back to life. See below for the Petition link to save
it. I’ve always liked her work, but the part she plays here is a clear waste of
her talent and does not tap into any of her considerable comedic or dramatic
gifts.
Beyond Geller, the film also features several young, capable female performers,
such as Samara Weaving, who was in Ash vs Evil Dead and Three Billboards Outside
Ebbing, Missouri, Kathyrn Love Newton from Blockers, Ant-Man and the Wasp:
Quantumania, and Abigail. But talthe characters they play are flat and
one-dimensional, and almost anyone could have played them.
There are some small pleasures in the film. Ready or Not 2 does contain one of
the best (and only) murder-in-a-laundry-machine scenes. One of the weird
highlights is an eerie and unsettling Satanic wedding ceremony. Viewers might
have an '80s flashback during an interesting catfight (can we still use this
word?) while the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" plays. It’s also kind of cool
to see body-horror director David Cronenberg (The
Shrouds) playing a sinister
patriarch in what amounts to a nice extended cameo; once he appears one can't
help but think the film would have been much better if he had directed it.
Whatever you think about Cronenberg’s films, you could never say they are
ordinary,
Ready or Not 2 would have been passable as a free streaming film. But the film
is definitely not worth the full price of a theatre admission. Recent films like
Weapons, Together, and
Sinners
have elevated the standards for fright films. In comparison, films like Ready or
Not 2 simply does not cut the mustard. Although it has its moments, the film
ultimately has no strong reason for existing.
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