Film Review – Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

March 20th, 2026 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar

Grace MacCaullay is having the worst week ever.

First, she gets married into a rich family that forces her to play a game as a form of initiation. Then, we come to find out that the game in question is hide and seek, except she is the one that does the hiding and the entire family tries to find her. Oh, but there’s a catch: The family is actually part of a satanic cult and the game is a twisted ritual where Grace is targeted as a human sacrifice to their dark lord. Well, after a night of hijinks, we find Grace has survived. Unfortunately for her, the game has only just started. This time around, her estranged sister gets pulled in as well. So now the two must survive yet another night of death and destruction. Grace just can’t catch a break.

Ready or Not (2019) came as a pleasant surprise: a comedy horror/thriller packed with thrills and laughs, as well as an underlying commentary on class inequality and the evils of the bourgeoisie. The sequel, Ready or Not 2 (2026) is basically more of the same, but on a bigger scale. Directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have returned (co-writing with Guy Busick) as well as star Samara Weaving as Grace. This time, we find Grace paired up with her sister Faith (Kathryn Newton). We learn that the two have had a rocky past, which would explain why Faith was absent from the wedding in the previous film. We pick up after the end of the last installment, with Grace still in shock over what she went through. The direction, editing (Jay Prychidny) and cinematography (Brett Jutkiewicz) does a clever transition, taking the last shot of the first film and blending it into the first shot of this release. Even though it’s been seven years in real time, the story continues mere seconds from where we left off.

Taking a page out of the John Wick (2014) handbook, Ready or Not 2 introduces us to an expanded world with Grace stuck in the middle of it. Turns out that her previous in-laws – the Le Domas family – was part of a larger organization made up of several powerful families. The recent passing of the organization’s leader (David Cronenberg) has left an open position that needs to be filled. Several members of the warring clans (Shawn Hatosy, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Olivia Cheng, Antony Hall, Varun Saranga, Nadeem Umar-Khitab, Nestor Carbonell, Maia Jae, Dan Beirne, Juan Pablo Romero) have convened at a fancy golf resort where they, just as before, will go on an all-night hunt to kill Grace (with Faith tagging along). Supervised and hosted by the mysterious Lawyer (Elijah Wood), the game ends when someone kills Grace, thus becoming the leader of the organization and the most powerful person in the world. But as we’ve seen, killing Grace is no easy task, and this new batch of Satan-worshipping occultists will learn that the hard way.

Fans of Ready or Not will have a lot to like here. Bettinelli-Oplin and Gillett translate a lot of what made the original work in the action, horror, and dark comedy. This is a messier affair painted on a much larger canvas. Instead of sneaking around a house, we find Grace and Faith sprinting in and around an enormous golf course and within the nearby facilities. The violence is more brutal and the comedy more slapstick. One of the more memorable sequences has Grace and one of her attackers fighting one another while both have been sprayed in the eyes with mace. Trying to fight someone while blinded is tough. One of the biggest highlights of the first film involves…let’s just say some very “explosive” blood splatter. That gimmick is taken to another level here. Since the element of surprise is gone, the filmmakers have taken the bit and made it a recurrent joke. Even when we anticipate the gag coming, the more it happens the funnier it gets.

The film’s strengths are undercut with weaknesses in the writing. Despite all the visual flair and amplified action, the narrative suffers from repetitiveness. Just as The Lawyer says, “You will play the game again.” Without all the window dressing, this is the same basic story as the original. Scenes have an episodic nature, where Grace and Faith will go up against an attacker, come inches away from death, only to miraculously survive by the slimmest of margins. The sense of revelation is absent – we have a good idea of what to expect. There isn’t enough of a spin on the material to make this stand apart from its predecessor. Despite having a supporting cast that includes stars like Elijah Wood and Sarah Michelle Gellar, the characters feel more generic than before. The villains of the first film were more impactful because they were supposed to be Grace’s new family. Here, everyone we meet are strangers, so that attachment has been cut off.

The inclusion of Faith was meant to create an emotional core for Grace, but even that comes off as underdeveloped. The two had not spoken for years, and lucky for us, Grace and Faith repeat this fact over and over again. The relationship is hinged on the resentment they have for one another, leading to quarrels where each blames the other for their breakup. Not only does their bickering circle back constantly (they have the same argument at least three times), they do so in the middle of the game. I can understand siblings trying to hash out their problems, but must it occur while people are shooting at them, punching them, or stabbing them? Couldn’t they deal with their issues afterward and concentrate on the problem at hand? Whenever Grace and Faith get into yet another yelling match, it brings the energy down. I’m not sure most audience members going into this will connect to the familial drama elements. 

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is a looser, more scraggly undertaking than the first entry. The rules of the game are more complex, and thus more confusing. In fact, characters twist and reinterpret the bylaws into a pretzel, coming up with loopholes to get their way. While the overall result is still entertaining in the action and dark comedy, its cohesion is more muddled. By the time things settle, we come away wondering if any of it made any sense. I enjoyed revisiting this world, and Samara Weaving continues to be a compelling actor in the horror/thriller genre. I just hope that if we get a third installment, that it maintains the quality that made this series so much fun to begin with.

Antony Hall, Brett Jutkiewicz, Dan Beirne, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood, Featured, Guy Busick, Jay Prychidny, John Wick, Juan Pablo Romero, Kathryn Newton, Maia Jae, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Nadeem Umar-Khitab, Nestor Carbonell, Olivia Cheng, Ready or Not, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, Samara Weaving, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Tyler Gillett, Varun Saranga