Seven years after Ready or Not turned a family game of hide-and-seek into a blood-soaked class warfare fable, the horror comedy sleeper hit has returned with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. It’s a sequel that, in concept, makes a certain kind of sense. The original film has steadily become a cult favorite, buoyed by its gnarly sense of humor, crowd-pleasing carnage, and, most importantly, a star-making performance from Samara Weaving. But revisiting this world so long after the fact also raises a fair question: was there really more story to tell here?
Picking up immediately after the explosive finale of the first film, the sequel wastes no time reminding audiences of Grace’s (Weaving) wedding night from hell before throwing her right back into it. Still battered, bloodied, and now the prime suspect in the massacre she barely survived, Grace finds herself pulled into yet another deadly round of the game; this time involving a global cabal of ultra-wealthy families all vying for power. It’s a natural escalation of the original’s premise, expanding the mythology in a way that should, theoretically, allow for bigger set pieces, more outrageous deaths befalling more outrageous characters, and a sharper satirical edge.
Unfortunately, Here I Come is a textbook case of diminishing returns, even with the homecoming of original directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett (Abigail, Scream 5 & Scream VI) and their frequent collaborators, writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy.
First though, the good: There are flashes here of what made the first film so effective. Weaving (The Babysitter, Over Your Dead Body) once again proves herself more than capable of carrying this kind of franchise on her back, bringing a fierce physicality and emotional exhaustion to Grace that feels earned after everything she continues to endure. The film also introduces a handful of new players, with Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein, Freaky) and Elijah Wood (Come to Daddy, The Toxic Avenger) standing out as performers who seem to really understand the assignment. Newton plays Faith, Grace’s estranged younger sister, adding a decent new emotional dynamic, while Wood’s enigmatic fixer known only as “The Lawyer” injects a welcome bit of winking oddball energy into the villain's side.
There are moments where the film briefly locks into the right tone, even though they’re frustratingly few and far between. A cleverly staged fight between Grace and a dangerous young heiress named Francesca (Maia Jae) involving pepper spray is a standout, blending slapstick brutality with enough ingenuity to feel in line with the original’s spirit. There’s also a legitimately grisly kill set inside an industrial-sized washing machine that delivers the kind of over-the-top horror imagery that this series is clearly trying to build a brand around.
Where the first Ready or Not thrived on a tight, focused premise and a clear tonal identity, this sequel feels strangely adrift. Expanding the world to include multiple competing families should open the door for building on its “eat the rich” credo and offer up even wackier horror ideas, but the script never fully capitalizes on that potential. Instead, it leans heavily on repetition, even lamely returning to the same hide-and-seek structure of the first (despite establishing that there are multiple “games” that can be played) without adding enough new wrinkles to justify the revisit. What once felt fresh now feels routine, especially since there’s far less hiding and seeking and much more chasing and fighting this time around.
The biggest issue, however, lies in the writing itself. The cast does what they can, but the jokes and quips frequently fall flat, often just lazily relying on shouting expletives rather than actual comedic timing or wit. There’s a persistent sense that the film was content to simply cast talented supporting players, like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Néstor Carbonell, and Varun Saranga, and see if they could somehow conjure comedy when there was none in the script. That tonal imbalance becomes even more pronounced as the film progresses. Scenes of cartoonish violence and attempted humor clash awkwardly with sequences that veer into genuinely unpleasant territory. A particularly brutal confrontation involving one of the film’s primary antagonists, Titus (Shawn Hatosy), crosses a line from entertainingly mean-spirited into outright uncomfortable, disrupting whatever rhythm the film had managed to build. It seems somewhat intentional, as by the time the third act rolls around, the humor has largely evaporated. What doesn’t work is that in its place is a climax that feels more expected than exciting.
The introduction of Grace’s sister should anchor the film emotionally, but even that dynamic struggles to land. Their relationship is built on potentially compelling groundwork, with Faith growing up having felt left behind by the older sibling she was once close with. Those feelings of abandonment, resentment, and guilt are solid ideas for these two talented and accomplished actors, but the film’s execution feels rushed and underdeveloped. After all, the pair are immediately thrown into an extraordinary life-or-death situation. Yet somehow, the story still finds time to force sisterly conflicts and predictable beats, including a mid-film falling out, which only adds to the sense that the script is going through predictable motions.
What’s most frustrating about Ready or Not 2 is that the ingredients for a worthy follow-up are all there. A returning final girl with even more to lose, and a concept ripe for wildly fun escalation should have been a winning combination. Instead, the film settles for simply being more - more characters, more violence, more noise - without fully understanding what made the original really resonate in the first place. In trying to go bigger, Here I Come forgets to be better.
'Ready or Not: Here I Come' is now playing in theaters.
