Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Starring:  Samantha Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Elijah Wood, David Cronenberg

Ready or Not (2019) was a successful action movie in which a newlywed named Grace (Weaving), who married into a rich family, spends her wedding night trying to survive a deadly game of hide and seek from her new in-laws and husband.  Ready or Not 2 picks up where the first one left off, with Grace sitting on the steps of the mansion she burned to the ground while smoking a cigarette.  She went through hell, but soon learns that she will have to survive another game of people who want to control Satan's earthly cult and need to do so by killing Grace.   

I won't get into why or how that is that Grace controls the fate of Satan's biggest and most powerful cult, except that the action starts after the children of the cult's leader Chester Danforth (famed director David Cronenberg) smother the old man to death.  Moments before, he was watching a story of a terrible war on tv and called in to demand a ceasefire.  The screen scroll then reads, "Ceasefire reached" seconds later.  His evil children Titus (Hatosy) and Ursula (Gellar) are two of the numerous players trying to kill Grace (and her estranged sister Faith (Newton)), who has the unfortunate luck of being Grace's next of kin contact and actually shows up to Grace's hospital room.  Grace explains in roughly two minutes of dialogue what happened in the last movie and then the game is afoot.

Grace and Faith are kidnapped and taken to a remote country club where Satan's attorney (Wood) explains the ground rules to the participants who are looking to take out Grace.  The participants can't kill each other, even accidentally, or they'll be immediately burned up by Satan.  Then, family members on hand must join the game even if they don't want to.  What's interesting about the Wood character is that he truly has no skin in the game.  He doesn't mind seeing this cultists off each other and when Grace outsmarts them in a key scene, a smirk crosses his face.  And who knew Satan required an attorney here on Earth?  What does he have down below?  A second attorney who specializes in underworld matters?   Do they work for Al Pacino's firm from The Devil's Advocate?  

Yes, of course this is silly, but it's fun because ultimately we want to see Grace and Faith destroy their would-be assassins.  Of course, reconciliation is in the works because if not, then you've come to the wrong movie.  Yet, Ready or Not 2 is not simply a retread of the first movie.  The stakes seem higher and it's no longer just a family affair.  You can understand by the Lord of Darkness is fed up with the idiots who want to rule the cult.  In a way, you sense he admires Grace's chutzpah, although he won't admit it.