“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” (2026) starts where the first movie left off with Grace (Samara Weaving) surviving her first night as a member of the Le Domas family. Unfortunately, her survival triggered a new game among five powerful families on the High Council vying for a chance at controlling the world if they can kill her. By threatening her estranged sister, Faith MacCaullay (Kathryn Newton), they induce her to play. Do the MacCaullay sisters have what it takes to survive and outwit a bunch of power-hungry, well-armed, trained, self-avowed evil people? The second installment fixes a lot of the first film’s flaws and delivers what it promises so if you are not expecting a lot, you should be pleased with the result. It is better than the first. Best of all: you do not have to see the first film to play along.
“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” retains what made the first one great and amplified it: more crazy, rich people except most of them have been preparing for this moment since they were able to walk. Of course, some are still incompetent, but they want to be there and are like guys who dare a woman track star to a race. There is a great cameo from David Cronenberg as the head of the council, Chester Danforth, as he preps his twin, single children, Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy), to keep the family on top. If you are a fan of Gellar, then you cannot miss this movie. She is great at playing both sides of the fence: a horrible person and not the worst. People forget that she is not just an icon, but a good actor, and she deserves the Michael Fassbender award for acting better than required for a film of this caliber. She gets to execute some Buffy moves, and this movie is the only reboot that we are getting so enjoy it while you can.
There was not enough groundwork left to establish Titus as the worst of the worst, but it is possible to get with the program as the hunt continues. The good news: no sexual violence. The bad news: sexual violence feels as if it is on the table. Elijah Wood as Le Bail’s Attorney who oversees the proceedings is delicious, understated and pitch perfect. He seems to be amused, never frightened, despite all the chaos and accidental deaths. Wood makes his character seem equally at ease as a man of this time and tossing a skeleton horsehair headdress with ceremonial robes. This installment plays up the spectacle with aplomb for pomp and circumstance. It is nice to see bad guys have style again.
Hailing from Shanghai, China, Wan Chen Xing (Olivia Cheng) and her son, Wan Cheng Fu (Antony Hall), may be the best of the worst. The El Caído family, Ignacio (Nestor Carbonell) and his children, Francesca (Maia Jae) and Felipe (Juan Pablo Romero), leave Spain with their head in the game with dear old dad unwilling to even give a cigarette to Grace. High as a kite Bill Wilkinson (Kevin Durand), who is styled to resemble Roger Stone, gets a jump on the game with the shortest distance to travel from Atlantic City. Hard partying London brothers, Viraj (Naddeem Umar-Khitab) and Madhu (Varun Saranga) decide to bring Madhu’s wife, Martina (Masa Lizdek), the only practical one in the bunch. Each hunter gets armed with a weapon that tells a story. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I would not mind spending more time learning about these horrible people and how they got into this deal, including servants like security staff Pernilla (Kara Wooten) and the rest of the staff who seem appalled yet functional despite all the exploding bodies.
It is a fun world, and the sisters bickering could be the least interesting aspect of it. Of course, the point of “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” is for the sisters to finally hash out all their issues and resolve them so they can be a family again, but it is an aspect of vigilante television series that is always annoying. If someone is trying to save your life and get themselves out of harm’s way, maybe save the grievance chit chat for when it is safe. Despite this annoying plot, Weaving and Newton are the kind of actors who can make it work because they can be quirky and riveting in their sleep. They breathe life into characters that would otherwise die on the page. Newton could have been given more to do than whine about her abandonment issues, but given Faith’s character arc, Grace was not wrong to cut the dead weight. Mean, but true. Of all the families, the MacCaullay sisters start with the weakest relationship, which is wild considering that they are the only non-Satanists, hich should not be conflated with the real world Church of Satan who seem like a decent bunch of people.
To recap, the problem with “Ready or Not” (2019) was that Grace never had a big cathartic, vengeance moment. It kind of happens incidentally. It also teases the idea that Grace is good, which was a weird characteristic that felt more superficial than visceral. She may actually be bad given her relationship with Faith, subsequent life choices and her ability to defend herself against hordes of people. After all, how did she end up marrying into a family of Satanists? Also, a lot of the kills in the first film were accidental. There are inadvertent consequences this time, but homicidal intent is unambiguous, which makes it more fun. The blood lust is part self-defense, part sick of being underestimated and victimized. While the film still does not explain why Grace is so good at defending herself or if winding up in this predicament is related to her past, the motivation of protecting her sister and ending the madness once and for all are suitable replacements for more backstory…for now.
The denouement is terrific. The only way that “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” could be better is to lean into the Satanic theme earlier instead of saving it for the end. Costume designer Avery Plewes puts their foot in each character’s final costume change. The violence is fine, but there is no early kill scene that sets the stage for being a movie that will hold nothing back. “The Bride” (2026) had a curb stomp. “Primate” (2025) starts with a chimp ripping off a human face for funsies. This movie does not come out of the gates swinging except for establishing that Grace is traumatized and is not the woman that she was at the beginning of the first movie. It is more about her trying to rebuild herself from scratch and reflect on her past mistaken choices though sure, empty, titillating violence is part of the package. Faith feels too old to not understand that her sister was basically a kid making crappy choices, and the passel of writers makes the story into a gauntlet for redemption instead of understanding that Grace was a kid too and deserved to have her own life. If people decide to walk away with a lesson, it may be the theoretically right one, but in application, it could be a dangerous lesson that people groom girls and women into believing already. A chick can’t even keep her soul without seeming selfish. Damn.
Seriousness aside, “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” will please people who were not as enthusiastic about the first movie and should satisfy people who were, but it is not the no holds bar, orgy of blood that it promises to be. Still this year, it has spawned a ton of homages and ripoffs depending on your temperament: “How to Make a Killing” (2026), “They Will Kill You” (2026), and a certain pdfie E-Files. The truth is out there.
