By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Starring Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton and Sarah Michelle Gellar
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
Written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy
Searchlight Pictures
The opening of READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME addresses a question that has hung over the end of many a horror film. Any number of genre features have concluded with the hero, heroine or maybe a couple the only one/s left standing in a setting streaked with blood and strewn with dead bodies, and the actual perpetrator among the dead or absent. So what happens when the police arrive? Won’t this person or persons have a lot of explaining to do?
That’s exactly where we find Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) as HERE I COME picks up exactly where the first READY OR NOT left off. With the mansion of the Le Domas family who had welcomed her as their son’s new bride, and then tried to kill her, in flames and her in-laws splattered around the grounds, she’s arrested and taken to a nearby hospital in all kinds of trouble. And no sooner has her emergency contact, her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), reluctantly arrived than even more trouble comes after Grace. The Le Domases were just one of an international cabal of families serving Satan himself, and by surviving her first hunt, Grace has triggered a new “game” in which members of each gather at an expansive resort and attempt to take out both Grace and Faith. Whoever succeeds wins the High Seat of the Council—unless Grace survives the night, in which case she wins that top spot. And the game is afoot.
The introductory scenes play kind of like a KNIVES OUT movie with all manner of weapons and bloodier stakes. Since returning directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (interviewed here) and screenwriters Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy know that we know our heroines are likely to get the best of at least some of their pursuers, they and their cast play most of the hunters amusingly over the top. The exceptions are Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy as Ursula and Titus Danforth, whose family owns the grounds and buildings where the action plays out. Both of them are seriously competitive and ruthless, and then there’s the fact that their patriarch is portrayed by none other than David Cronenberg, clearly relishing the chance to play a member of the evil elite. (A bit establishing his power is both funny and timely, considering current events.)
READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME is a bigger, broader and gruesomely entertaining variation on its predecessor, following the same basic playbook while including enough embellishments to surprise and delight a savvy audience. The key addition is giving Grace a companion and foil for her survival odyssey, and the always welcome Newton, who previously teamed with the filmmakers on ABIGAIL, is quite well-matched with Weaving as siblings who have all kinds of issues to work out at the same time they’re trying to save each other’s lives. For her part, Weaving brings the same combination of vulnerability and fire that made the first movie work so well.
Speaking of welcome, it’s great to see Gellar back in fright territory as another slayer with less altruistic motivations, and a rather unhealthy bond with her onscreen brother that also recalls CRUEL INTENTIONS. Hatosy, also making a genre comeback after starring in THE FACULTY back in the day, creates a sense of true jeopardy as Titus becomes increasingly monstrous and dangerous. The other players are fun to watch with their assorted vanities, squabbles, chicanery and occasional self-defeating incompetence, though their dialogue is littered with a few (OK, more than a few) too many gratuitous F-bombs. The most memorable confrontation, whose details won’t be spoiled here, involves a player with a particular grudge against Grace having it out with her at great and violent length in the resort’s ballroom.
Overseeing all the bloodshed, explaining the rules and providing the right notes of calm in the midst of the chaos is Elijah Wood, as the unnamed lawyer representing His Infernal Highness. He’s central to the film’s final act, where the storyline takes its most significant step beyond the original to delve further into the inner workings and goals of the Council. Anyone who’s been ready and waiting for this sequel should find the climactic developments and resolution more than satisfying.
