Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

Grade: B

Ready or Not, out in the late summer of 2019, was one of the first movies that set into motion a wave of films about a poor underdog taking on the rich. Knives Out and Parasite followed soon after, and then along came the likes of Glass Onion, Triangle of Sadness, The Menu, Saltburn, and most recently How to Make a Killing. It was cool when it happened, but perhaps the rich have been eaten enough already.

The plot summary is my least favorite part of the review to write. It’s especially tedious here, because I hated Ready or Not 2’s busy, labyrinthine exposition dump. But let’s rip the Band-Aid off. It’s a direct sequel to the 2019 film, picking up immediately where it left off. Grace (Samara Weaving) has survived the previous chapter’s explosive events. For obvious reasons, Weaving is the only actor to return for the sequel. It’s odd to think about how she has aged 7 years, yet this takes place the next day. They got away with it this time, but if there are more to come, and they are set immediately after what happened in the last one, they’d better hurry up and get these out. Remember the Silence of the Lambs prequel Red Dragon, which had an 11-years-older Anthony Hopkins returning? That was stretching it.

Grace, thankfully, is rushed to the hospital. In Ready or Not, she had married into a powerful, elite, Illuminati-type, Satan-worshipping extended family known as the Council. The fact that she survived has complicated matters for them. They scramble – with some flying from all over the world – to reunite at one of their mansions for another “game.” It’s cruel to make Grace go through this again so soon after she just overcame it, but they have kidnapped and brought her to the complex. Joining Grace is her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton). She had nothing to do with anything, but was unlucky enough to be at the hospital visiting Grace when the transport went down, so she finds herself in the situation too. A stone-faced, matter-of-fact Elijah Wood – as the family’s lawyer – monologues out the rules. Grace and Faith have to survive until dawn. If someone manages to kill them, whoever does earns the High Seat in the society.

Once we finally have all this out of the way, Ready or Not 2 is allowed to breathe, with as much verve, zest, and life as I’ve seen in a movie this year. It’s nice to see Shawn Hatosy and Sarah Michelle Gellar again. David Cronenberg, the director of The Fly (1986), has an amusing glorified cameo that shows just how much ability the Council has. The family’s inexperience with weapons, with some of them being bad shots, is played up in a running joke. Weaving is great, but it was Kathryn Newton who stole the show for me. Whether she’s fighting, splattered with blood, spitting out blood on whoever she’s battling, or cussing out the people she’s fighting – Newton is eternally fierce. I’ve enjoyed her before, but she is now one of my favorites.

I often harp on about characters functioning unrealistically well after a major injury. Grace gets a doozy. You’ll know it when you see it, and it’s soon completely forgotten about, by everyone but me. It’s a hurdle I had to overcome, but at least it’s consistent with the physical reactions everyone else has to what is done to them. The characters who die are taken down by much more than what Grace endured. There’s a missed opportunity to acknowledge this and explain it away. Given how much control and access the society has, there could have been a scene, or even just a few lines, where they reference Grace receiving quick medical attention from the best doctors.

The final sequence is fun and vindicating, but is upstaged by a spectacular dual fight from earlier. Grace and Faith are in separate locations, each dealing with their own opponent, and we cut back and forth between them as one of Billboard’s top hits from 1983 blares on the soundtrack. It’s funny, energetic, imaginative, and made me giddy. For a few minutes, I didn’t care about a complicated exposition, or who wasn’t acting as hurt as they should have been. I was all in, rocking out with the movie, in all its madcap gory glory. I think the rich have been sufficiently eaten by now, and I’m ready for screenwriters to move on and stop fishing in that pond. I keep saying that, but then I find another one I like.

Grade: B