'Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come' review: Kathryn Newton & Samara Weaving grace you with their presence
- S.J.
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Oh man, you just have to love the smart guy who hears a perfect title and suggest that they should add "2" somewhere in there. Give a round of applause for that person. Well done. Bloody, satanic hijinks continue in Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come, which is a sequel to 2019's 'Ready Or Not', and picks up immediately where we left off. Our final girl Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) isn't fully in the clear when she's visited in the hospital by her sister Faith (Kathryn Newton). Every other rich, elite family left standing is required to embark on another hunt to kill Grace and also Faith as collateral damage. Grace and Faith must therefore survive another night.
Overseen by "The Lawyer" (Elijah Wood), the wealthy hunters include Titus (Shawn Hatosy) and Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) of the Danforth clan, Chen Xing (Olivia Cheng) of the Wan clan, Francesca (Maia Jae) and Ignacio (Nestor Carbonell) of the El Caído family, Viraj (Nadeem Umar-Khitab) of the Rajan clan, and Bill (Kevin Durand) of the Wilkinson family.
"Bigger is better" and "more is more" seemed to have been the key principles for returning directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett as well as returning screenwriters Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy here. After some connective tissue that gets us to the hospital set, the filmmakers bring in Faith as a second protagonist before multiplying the devilish villains with fairly smooth and effective character introductions. However, once we reach another lavish property and the life-or-death games begin again in the second act, you can sense that a spark is missing from the equation.
Much of the fault lays at the feet of Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett whose contributions range from decisions made on autopilot (the gags, composer Sven Faulconer's score and the needle drops, for example) to shockingly sloppy and banal (the mansion set, SFX, plot armour). For a dark comedy horror, the physical comedy is very basic, the "jokes" are often just characters bickering nonstop and the exploding bodies have become worthy of eye rolls at this point. Tonally, "Here I Come" is oftentimes searching for its identity as well.
What's most surprising perhaps is the fact these creatives have also lost control over the performances. So much of the film is Weaving and everyone else yelling their lines very violently. Loud + annoying = funny and good acting is not an equation you should rely on. It's especially frustrating since Weaving has proven to be a delightful scream queen, but here the directors' lack of passion is impacting her output. Newton isn't strong enough of a scene partner to correct the course either.
The diminishing returns of this particular saga are even more apparent because both the comedy and the horror reveal themselves in action scenes, which are lazily designed, amateurishly blocked and rather unfunny overall. You could forgive some of it if the movie had something interesting to say about wealth inequality, class or privilege during or in between those set pieces, but instead those action scenes and quieter story beats bank on clumsy girlboss energy, which just isn't super engaging.
Some of the film is somewhat enjoyable thriller mayhem, the ending isn't terrible and a few supporting actors like Wood and Gellar get close to giving great performances—they're underserved by the material and screen time—but otherwise you can chalk up the movie as a disappointment. This sequel falls quite short as it's utterly forgettable and kind of mid all the way through. We shall have faith in these filmmakers finally expanding their horizons on whatever they do next. This isn't working anymore.
Smileys: None
Frowneys: Directing
Where's the ex-plosion for the ex-fiancée?
2.0/5
Where to watch:
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