Review - Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

The first Ready or Not was a delightful surprise. I initially threw it on just to kill some time during a long airplane flight, only to find myself thoroughly entertained by its tight narrative structure, irreverent tone, and solid ensemble cast (especially Henry Czerny, who has been my favorite character actor since I saw Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible at age nine). Although the marketing had prepared me for a rather run-of-the-mill horror-comedy, the film delivered a sharp, subversive, satirical thriller akin to a blood-soaked, satanic panic variation on Knives Out.

Unfortunately, like many sequels to unexpectedly profitable genre flicks (see, for example, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions), Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (a title that proves you can still throw a gutter ball while bowling with bumpers) attempts to replicate the critical and commercial success of its predecessor through mimicry alone, regurgitating the same formula with minimal deviation. The screenwriters even make a valiant effort to contrive a scenario that requires Samara Weaving to once again wear the “iconic” stained, tattered wedding dress from the previous installment—a Big Moment that lands with a thud because it insists on self-consciously justifying its own existence. Indeed, the sole “innovation” on display is, predictably, escalation: more villains (including David Cronenberg, whose role isn’t nearly substantial enough), more gallons of gore, more stunts (and, consequently, more elaborate fight choreography), and an entire secondary protagonist (whose main contribution to the story is an excessive amount of expository dialogue). Sadly, the law of diminishing returns is in full effect: multiplying the ingredients merely dilutes the recipe, producing the cinematic equivalent of bland, flavorless gruel.

Which isn’t to say that the movie is irredeemably bad, of course; what worked in 2019—the performances, the action, the thematic subtext—remains perfectly enjoyable seven years later, not unlike microwaved leftovers. In the absence of the novelty that made the original so appealing, however, this borderline self-plagiarizing follow-up simply cannot help but feel lackluster and uninspired. Ready or Not was a delightful surprise. Ready or Not 2, on the other hand, delivered exactly what I anticipated—for better or worse.