Immediately following the 2019 hit, “Ready Or Not” fans began begging producers for a second movie. The first movie followed Grace, played by audience proclaimed “scream queen” Samara Weaving, as she goes through her wedding day. This is where the film introduces her soon to be husband Alex and the rest of the Le Domas family including Daniel, Aunt Helen, Becky and Tony. Once the newlyweds have been officiated, they head back to Le Domas’ mansion where Grace learns that her wedding day is about to take a turn.
The rest of the first movie follows Grace as she is forced to play a game of Hide and Seek with her new in-laws, the catch is: if they find her, they have to kill her. The Le Domas believe that in order to keep their distant ancestor happy, and in turn to keep them alive, they must have every new member of the family draw from a deck of cards to choose a game to play. If that card is Hide and Seek, that member must be killed by sunrise or else the entire family line will die.
Grace manages to survive this horrific honeymoon just in time as the family explodes when the sunlight spills through the curtains right as they had her cornered. This brings Grace to the beginning of the second film: “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.”
This movie opens immediately where the first leaves off as Grace sits on the front steps of the Le Domas mansion in her red-stained wedding dress, yellow converse and a burning building propped behind her. Police begin surrounding her as she falls unconscious. They wheel her into the ambulance as the film cuts to the introduction of the new families that Grace must battle.
Here, the audience is shown Chester Danforth, a terminally ill and elderly man who is alerted that Grace has survived the first round of hide and seek. Danforth then explains the main plot thread of this new film. Due to the Le Domas ancestor’s mysterious past, Danforth is now in possession of the family ring, which in this movie means he rules the world from behind the scenes. However, now that Grace has beaten the Le Domas in her first game, the ring is now liable to be taken by one of four rival families. Unfortunately for Grace, the family that eliminates her first inherits the heirloom.
The twist on this second and final round is however, Grace is not alone. She wakes up with her sister Faith McCaulley handcuffed to her, in the families’ minds to slow her down, but in reality to help her conquer this challenge. On the Le Domas’ private property, the sisters are hunted by the Heads of each family.
This film centered heavily on the complicated relationship between the two sisters, with many emotional scenes relating to the two’s past. We thought that this detracted from the comical aspect of the original as these compelling moments were placed in odd parts of the movie.
The acting was incredible from both ends, however, the first movie’s success hinged on the fact that the comedic timing was perfectly mixed with the unsettling nature of the environment the audience was put in.
This movie goes in a completely different direction than audiences were expecting, when a loophole is revealed. If Grace were to marry one of the competitors, the game could end with no further bloodshed. Although initially horrified at the idea of marrying into one of the psychotic families, Grace eventually gives in when her sister’s life is threatened. Or, she appears to, going along with the ceremony until she is officially tied to the Danforth family. The instant the game officially ends, Grace murders her new husband and throws away the very ring those four families had been willing to die for. For the second time in a few short days, a glowing sunrise is punctuated by the red of the losing families’ blood.
The ending of this movie, though reminiscent of the original, was fun and chaotic, however it definitely threw us through a loop. We found the character that Grace ends up marrying, Titus Danforth, to be off from the rest of the characters. Each of the others had a comedic spin on them despite being on a mission to hunt two girls. On the contrary, Titus felt rather intense throughout the entire movie which left us feeling unsettled at moments that were supposed to be humorous.
Overall, though this movie had its flaws, it was an incredible way to bring this story into a second film. Sequels are extremely difficult to live up to their original, and all things considered, we believe they did well with this plotline. We would give this movie a 6.8/10.
