Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

Rated R for a lot of violence towards women, often including gore and a copious amount of gratuitous blood.  The death abounds.  Also --and this spoils both movies --a lot of devil worshipping going on.  It's kind of the reason that all of this is happening.  I bet there might be people who are totally cool with just bodies piling up, but might have an uncomfortable moment with open devil worship going on.  The first one was R.  The second one is R.  They are probably on the same scale.  Oh!  There is one scene of drug use.  Can't forget that.  

DIRECTORS:  Matt Bettineli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

I honestly don't know how I'm going to maintain this blog with how tightly packed my life is.  I'm --like a real idiot --on this quest to show my kids a billion great movies so they can both be more empathetic and be someone culturally knowledgable.  But add that to the fact that I watch movies when I workout, it gets hard to find time to write about the movies I'm watching.  I feel genuinely rude not hanging with my wife when we have awake time, so I have to write if she nods off.  Right now, she's asleep on the couch and it's almost midnight, so here I am knocking out....Ready or Not 2?

Can I confess something?  I barely remember watching the first movie.  I kind of / sort of remember some of the bigger beats.  Thank goodness for a very clever exposition as a "Previously on" from the beginning of this movie or else I would have wondered if I was allowed to watch the second one.  I mean, the major beats came back to me.  I kind of remember having a good time with the first movie.  But I'll tell you, Disney+ / Hulu kept dropping ads on my PS4 when I was working out that Ready or Not 2 was out and my brain went, "You should probably watch that."  I knew it wasn't going to add to my life.  I also kind of quickly figured out that this is one of those sequels that isn't going to make the story richer or anything.  If anything, it was just a celebration that a fun horror movie from a few years ago did better than expected, so they wanted to draw water from a stone to get a sequel.

I'm going to be as brutally honest as I can about this movie.  It's in no way terrible.  I will go as far as to say that I had a pretty darned good time watching it.  But I also have to say, as plain as I can, that it is absurd that there was a sequel to a movie that really went out of its way to make sure that there couldn't be a sequel.  For those who don't remember Ready or Not, like I completely forgot, Grace unknowingly marries into a satanic cult who are ruling the world thanks to their allegiance to Satan.  As part of the deal for unimaginable power, there is an initiation that happens with people marrying into the family.  They risk playing a deadly game where the cult has to hunt down the new bride in a game of hide-and-seek.  It's all a bit campy, but if the bride survives until dawn, everyone but the bride dies.  It's camp as heck, but it's also a good time.  Now, the rules are: If you survive until dawn, you are safe.  The first movie ended with a silhouette of the devil relishing the chance to slaughter the members of the cult by exploding them all, seemingly proud of Grace for being able to outwit the entire evil family.

But like with most sequels, there's this need to expand on the universe.  Sometimes I like this.  After all, I've been citing John Wick 2 as an example of how to make a vague world way more lived in.  As fun as Ready or Not 2 is, I didn't want any of this explanation of what was happening.  The filmmakers were desperate to unbury the thing that was so clearly put to rest in the first movie and almost retconned the intentions of the first film as an excuse to do the exact same thing in the second movie, only this time with a sister.  Like, we're talking cartwheels where so much explanation had to be said about other Satanists who had a stake in the events of the first movie that were never mentioned.

Now, I don't hate that this is a movie that is actively lambasting the oligarchy.  Golly, just a savage takedown of the modern Illuminati is something that makes the movie fun.  Yes, I have to shut my brain off and I didn't do the best job of that while watching the movie.,  That's a me thing.  But I love how the conceit was that there were probably other games, but the movie really really REALLY wanted to have Grace be chased by rich jerks as she took them out one-by-one.  But the reasoning and the in-world rules seem way too malliable considering how strict and rigid they were sometimes in the story.  

I don't know what it is about me that really needs movie rules to stay consistent.  Like, the entire Elijah Wood character is there to make sure that everyone keeps a strict observation of the rules.  But this entire movie hinges on the fact that the rules don't really matter because Grace didn't do anything to play the "Double or Nothing" clause that the Lawyer dispenses.  Like, the first movie --if we're playing by the horror movie trope that says "You have to do something irresponsible to justify what is about toe happen --establishes that Grace got in with the Le Domas family too quickly without knowing what marriage was all about.  It's a commentary on blind love and marrying rich.  Okay.  We get that --while she doesn't deserve it --there is a lesson to be learned by what has happened in this movie.  But Grace beat the game.  The game is over.  It feels like Grace, no matter what she does, will always be tied into this Satanic cult.  It doesn't make the story over all bad.  It just makes for a weak sequel.

But we've established that I like all the action.  As a fun horror survival movie, Ready or Not 2 hits what it needs to, outside of being incredibly stupid.  But I have to talk about the stupid things because 1) that's easy to talk about and 2) because I have thoughts.  Before I start venting, I'm finally saying, "This was a fun movie that was pretty dumb. Watch it because it's fun."  

Let's talk about Faith.  The movie's heart is based on the notion that Grace had a sister that she never mentioned.  The reason that Faith is never mentioned is because they had a falling out.  It's not terribly shocking that a character is introduced with a lot of baggage.  I actually like the trope of two estranged loved ones rekindle what made them close through surviving impossible odds together. There's a reason that we keep seeing it in film and storytelling.  It's just that...

...Faith reason for hating Grace is terrible.  The movie doesn't exactly spell out, beat-for-beat, what happened between these two sisters.  We get that the two of them grew up in the foster system and that Grace, the older sister, tended to take care of Faith.  Okay.  But Grace got a scholarship and went off to college, swearing to Faith that she was not abandoning her and that she would be back.  Okay, now, if Grace failed to come back simply because of the Le Domas thing, then Faith would have reason to really hate Grace.  But that's not what happened.  It would also make sense if Faith was somehow being abused at home.  The film goes out of its way to stress that Faith was actually completely safe at home and that their foster family were good people.  Yet, Faith acts like Grace committed the ultimate betrayal.  Is Grace supposed to be there for Faith forever?  It's a weird choice, especially considering that these two are adults at this point.

I also hate when I come up with a better ending than what the movie presents.  I knew that Faith was going to be the key bargaining chip by the end of the movie.  I think everyone knew that.  It's why Faith is in the film.  She's the princess that's in another castle.  So, there's this mildly cool "That's using your brain" moment where Faith is being used as a hostage while Grace has found basically a safe room in a storage with a thick panel of glass.  She is informed earlier in the film that there's a loophole that says that she can marry her way out of being hunted.  She offers to marry Titus Danforth so that Faith won't be killed.  Grace then makes Titus swear on Mr. Le Bail that no harm will come to Grace or Faith if Grace comes out.  There's your out.  Le Bail / Satan is all about rules (Although, I've already griped that the film doesn't know how serious to take its own rules based on the scene.)  I would have loved to see Grace come out and her intentionally stab her own toe, just to watch the Danforths explode.  After all, Grace never said, "Titus couldn't cause me harm."  No, "No harm will come to you."  That seems ripe for exploitation.  But they just wanted their Black Mass wedding.

Now, again, I hate that I think of better moments in movies.  I can't say that I hated the betrayal that Grace has at the altar.  I actually slow clapped when Grace reminded Titus that there are no rules about hurting your own family.  It's a great callback.  Points all around.  I am tepid on "Everyone jumping into the pit."  For much of the movie, the extended family were all kind of cool on the idea of getting in on the hunt.  They actually understood that, while they all wanted the ring to control the council, they just needed to get rid of Grace so they didn't die.  They knew when to fight clean and when to fight dirty.  The notion that every single one of them --minus the guy who was doing an Aziz Ansari imitation throughout --jumped into that pit with three minutes to spare, was silly.  It's a great shot and it's mildly satisfying seeing them all fight for this ring, but it doesn't align with their character.  

But the moment I'm talking about was that I wanted Faith to turn on Grace.  I thought the movie was going to end with Grace thinking that Faith had forgiven her for going away to college. I would have loved to have Faith turn on Grace and take the ring out of nowhere.  Do you know why?  It would have explained away the lame reason that Faith had for hating Grace.  That whole "Why did you leave me for college" thing?  It would have demonstrated that Faith had abandonment issues way beyond what was reasonable.  It would have explained her behavior throughout the entire movie and it might have been a nice twist.  Just my thoughts.

But, again, it's fun.  It's super dumb and that cell phone in the boiled man's pocket shouldn't have worked.  (Also, don't kill him.  If he's locked in there, no other family member could have been activated until he died.)  I don't care.  I had a good time and sometimes stupid movies are fun.