Movies & TV Ready or Not Ready or Not: Here I Come Is Ready to Burn it All Down The sequel to the 2019 horror comedy has a much larger stage than the first. By Emmet Asher-Perrin | Published on March 20, 2026 Screenshot: Searchlight Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Searchlight Pictures It’s been seven years since the first Ready or Not, which effectively feels like saying that the film was made on an entirely different planet to its successor. Despite this, Ready or Not 2 begins in the final moments of the first film, which feature Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) smoking a cigarette on the steps of the flaming Le Domas manor, having just survived the worst night of her life. That night, for those unaware or unremembering, was her wedding night. She learned that her husband’s family—boardgame tycoons—required every joining member of the brood to pull a card from a special puzzle box and play the game written on it. These terms were dictated to the family by one “Mr. Le Bail,” a man who once made a deal with their ancestor to make them wealthy and powerful in exchange for certain traditions, including cute group activities like goat sacrifice, and the understanding that when someone pulls the card “Hide and Seek,” the whole family must hunt that person to the death, or they will all die by sunrise. Grace survived, in case you’re wondering how that played out. Now it looks like she’s about to be brought up on criminal charges—given the fact that the family is exploded, their house is on fire, and her ripped up wedding dress is covered in their blood—until a contingency is activated. Grace’s survival has dictated that all the “ruling families” who made a pact with Mr. Le Bail are now required to play a second game, this one dictating who gets to keep the center seat and, essentially, rule the world. The family with that seat used to be the Danforths, and their head of house (played by David Cronenberg, who is having something of an acting renaissance in old age that I cannot get enough of) has his children commit patricide so that they can both, being twins, be the ones to take his place in the game. Grace is determined to sit this one out, but there’s a teensy flaw in this plan: She still had her baby sister listed as her emergency contact. Faith MacCaulley (Kathryn Newton) is now involved in the game in order to force Grace’s participation, with the Danforth resort as the playing field. The rules are deliberately byzantine and laid out by “the Lawyer” (Elijah Wood), who also keeps each of the four ruling families in check while they watch their selected heads of houses go after the sisters on screens from a safe room. Grace winds up suiting up in her old gear—chucks and a torn up wedding dress becoming a sort of ceremonial garb, though you couldn’t pay me to tug something with lace and that much dried blood back onto my body—for the sake of movement. She’s gained a very different sort of toughness from the first ordeal, one that Faith never questions, even if she is angry with her sister for leaving her behind. There are a few gripes to be had here, and most of them come down to flagrant retooling of the original conceit. It doesn’t make much sense for Grace to have a sister; her whole purpose in joining the Le Domas family was down to growing up in the foster system and desperately wishing that she had a family of her own. An elaborate falling out between Grace and Faith is wedged into things, but it still does weaken one of the core aspects of the initial movie (and can’t cover up the fact that Faith was never so much as mentioned there). This is a full retcon on the creative team’s part, by the way: Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett had planned an entirely different project where Weaving and Newton were sisters, but on being asked to create a Ready or Not sequel, they decided to smash those stories together. The duo make a great team and their relationship is sweet, but it’s hard not to feel aggravated when the previous film is set up so well. Another retcon is learning that Grace wasn’t Alex Le Domas’ first fiancée—that was Francesca (Maia Jae), a member of the El Caido ruling house, who is now determined to destroy Grace for “stealing her man.” While they wind up having the funniest fight of the film’s run, her entire character is framed around this rote catfighting trope. There was an opportunity in her introduction to give some context to the previous film, but no interest in using the character beyond catty one-liners and comical rage. It’s really too bad, because it might have helped alleviate some of the disconnect between the two films by bringing the Le Domas clan’s history to the fore. Why did Alex consider marrying Francesca? Was this part of a bid to consolidate house power that he decided against? Was he strong-armed into the match by his family, and is that part of the reason he ran away from them for a few years? What strange games do the other families have to play for the delight of Mr. Le Bail? What does running the world even mean in this context and how does it work? A great deal of the folk magic feel to the first film winds up obliterated by the larger stage in this sequel, which is a shame. There’s also the question of whether or not another sequel will be requested and where the films could possibly go from here. After all, ruling the world does seem like an endgame of sorts. (Perhaps part three will have to go intergalactic or ultra-dimensional? I’m not counting on it, but I would genuinely be interested in something like that.) There’s a lot of silliness between the various heads of houses and their cheering squads. While the film does go over-the-top in these dynamics a little too often, the places where it works provide the film’s best laughs; the similarities between Francesca and her father Ignacio (Néstor Carbonell) are a highlight. Also of particular note is the way the script balances who believes they are in charge of each family group with who is actually in charge, showcasing how power dynamics play out among powerful people. Elijah Wood is having the time of this life as the arbiter of the proceedings—being Satan’s lawyer has to come with some perks, right? Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy, two veterans of the screen who are well-known and loved amongst ‘90s kids, play the Danforth twins, Ursula and Titus. We run into a bit of an issue in the arcs for both characters, as there are “rules” for scenarios such as these in horror films. This is particularly true for Gellar, who is one of the genre’s most beloved heroes, currently playing a villain. While the usual intrigue is deployed, the heel turns and revelations, the payoff for both of these characters never quite sits right. Hatosy’s brutality is difficult to watch, but it also doesn’t smolder enough at the beginning for the steady build it requires. Somehow, the film manages to pull it all together at the end. Like its predecessor, Ready or Not: Here I Come does not skimp on outrageousness in its finale, going so much harder on its second run that the emotional catharsis comes clear. The underpinnings of the first story do shine through in enough moments to remind its audience that this isn’t simply a story about the moral bankruptcy of our ruling classes—it is also ultimately a story about how much the institution of marriage demands (and takes) from women. While Faith may not have existed in the first film, her creation is a helpful reminder to women today that family does not require marriage to sustain itself… but it sure does need sisterhood. All day, every day.[end-mark] The post <i>Ready or Not: Here I Come</i> Is Ready to Burn it All Down appeared first on Reactor.