The unanswerable question: is it called READY OR NOT: HERE I COME, or READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME? Depends if you ask the opening credits or the closing credits. I guess we get to pick.
Would you believe there was a seven year gap between this sequel and the first READY OR NOT? I was surprised it had been that long. But I suppose directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have since made SCREAM, SCREAM VI and ABIGAIL*, so the math does add up. The fact that I found all of those to be perfectly fine, not great, may have contributed to me not getting around to this one in theaters (even though I did get to the in-some-ways-similar THEY WILL KILL YOU). But it’s also why seeing it now I’m surprised at what a solid and enjoyable sequel it is.
It’s a straight up continuation from the last shot of the first film, I believe. Grace (Samara Weaving, THE BABYSITTER) sits in front the burning mansion where her new husband’s entire family exploded due to failing to sacrifice her to their demonic lord Le Bail before dawn. She’s in a daze smoking a cigarette like Veronica at the end of HEATHERS. It’s a cool long take following her face as she collapses, is taken to the hospital, wakes up handcuffed to her bed.
Yep, she’s being blamed for all the dead rich people, and being called by the last name of the now-deceased asshole who stabbed her, since she’s technically married to him. But she has bigger problems than that. Her victory in the ritualistic game of hide and seek has triggered the next stage in the machinations of this world-controlling cult. In JOHN WICK sequel fashion we learn that they were only one of the powerful families on a High Council. The demise of the Le Domas lineage triggers a competition between the eldest of each family for the head of the council. There will be another game of hide and seek; whoever kills Grace wins, or if nobody does by dawn, she wins.
One thing that got me on the hook right away was its true-to-the-moment world view. The bed-ridden council head Chester Danforth (ol’ Button Eyes himself, David Cronenberg, THE STUPIDS) is seen watching the news and making a phone call that instantly creates a ceasefire. They’re not just board game moguls and the idle rich like last time, they’re the generationally wealthy who control our lives and deaths. I’m not one for satanic panic, but that they got this by selling their souls to the devil is poetically accurate, at least.
Another switch up from the first film is that Grace is forced to play while handcuffed to her younger sister Faith (Kathryn Newton, THE MARTIAL ARTS KID), previously undisclosed because they’re estranged, but present at the hospital because she’s still listed somewhere as an emergency contact. I’ve paid more attention to Newton since seeing her funny turn in LISA FRANKENSTEIN, and sure enough it’s fun to see her and Weaving follow the inevitable arc from bitter grudge to renewed sisterly bond, as well as to see her dumbfounded reactions to the the world of violence and exploding cultists she’s fallen into. These two just keep getting splattered on.
Going straight to the hospital for the sequel put me in mind of HALLOWEEN II, but then they do a great fake out that’s more something out of BLADE. The pieces are in place for the slow roll out of a story about the homicide detective (Grant Nickalls, DIRTY WORK) trying to figure out what happened at that mansion, but before we can take a breath one of the cultists (Kevin Durand, KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES) jumps the gun and attacks them at the hospital, then they’re abducted and Le Bail’s lawyer (Elijah Wood, NORTH) explains the rules to them. And we’re off to the races.
One nice sequel touch is that she manages to switch out of her hospital gown into the only clothes available: the blood-encrusted wedding dress and yellow Chucks in the detective’s evidence bag. No need to start fresh on the battle damage. Imagine if in DIE HARD 2 John McClane got to switch into his stained clothes from part 1, so we have a visual record of everything he’s been through.
The family members are a colorful collection of assholes. Danforth has his kids Ursula (motherfuckin Sarah Michelle Gellar, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy, THE FACULTY) smother him with a pillow so they can both compete (they’re twins). Others have their younger relatives waiting around in case they have to sub in. The hunting grounds are the Danforth family’s fancy-ass club and golf course – there’s a great scene of Titus heartlessly interrupting a wedding between cancer survivors to kick everyone off the premises before the games. They have access to golf carts and some of them have guns, but not all of them, since they’re limited to the weapons that existed when their families signed the pact. (I wish the 2nd amendment followed that logic.)
I wouldn’t say this meets the standards of a straight up action movie, but they deliver plenty of the enjoyable violence and humor inherent in the situation. Stunt coordinator: Dan Skene (NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T), fight coordinator: Thomas Lorber (Oscar Isaac stunt double in FRANKENSTEIN). Mayhem varies, Grace’s blasé reactions don’t as much, but they always make me laugh. The bad guys have a good range from overconfident to knowingly completely out of their league and terrified to have to contribute to the savagery that their lifestyles depend on. One guy, Madhu (Varun Saranga, THE BAKER) weasels out of signing the blood oath, meaning his furious wife (Maša Lizdek) is supposed to step in! Meanwhile, Wan Chen Xing (Olivia Cheng, THE ART OF WAR II: BETRAYAL) offers a mutually beneficial plan to exploit a loophole in the rules, causing tension between Grace and Faith about whether or not to accept it.
The funniest rival is Francesca El Caido (Maia Jae, SUPERBABIES: BABY GENIUSES 2), because she’s furious that Grace “stole” her fiance (the lying motherfucker that tried to sacrifice her!) but Grace cold-heartedly emphasizes that she doesn’t even know who the fuck she is. In one of the movie’s more inspired touches these two would-be-brides battle at the site of the abandoned wedding, using the other couple’s table settings and musical instruments and things as weapons.
Like the original, it has a satisfyingly bloody and clever climax of triumph over evil, this time with the addition of a little sweetness from the sisters doing it together. They end the movie having gained something, and they deserve it. And they meet a goat.
Also like the original there’s nothing really essential about this movie, but it’s just a fun premise, laid out skillfully by screenwriters Guy Busick (FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES) & R. Christopher Murphy, energetically directed by Bettinelli-Olpin & Gillett, powered by the charisma and comic chops of Weaving & Newton. I also loved seeing Gellar back on screen and in CRUEL INTENTIONS mode, and Wood is particularly strong as sort of the master of ceremonies. I like how he’s objective and fair about the competition, doesn’t hide information that could help Grace, but he literally works for the devil. Being neutral isn’t always better! So I’ll take a side on this one. I like it.
*and Samara Weaving has done GUNS AKIMBO, 100% WOLF, LAST MOMENT OF CLARITY, BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC, THE BABYSITTER: KILLER QUEEN, SNAKE EYES, THE VALET, CHEVALIER, BABYLON, SCREAM VI, AZRAEL, 200% WOLF, BORDERLINE, EENIE MEANIE, CAROLINA CAROLINE, and several tv shows.
