By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (USA, 2026. Dir: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett): You know the drill: Sequels are expected to open up the world of the original, to up the ante. If Spider-Man was initially saving the city, by the next movie he was saving the world..

The Ready or Not sequel takes that principle and blows it up. If the original was about a bride realizing she was marrying into a family of murderous maniacs, this one pits said bride against even more skilled psychopaths with the fate of mankind at stake. Kind of like John Wick.

How does that even happen? By adding massive amounts of backstory that bog down the outcome.

Last time we saw Grace (scream queen Samara Weaving), she was covered in the blood of her in-laws, the Le Domas family, having a smoke on the porch of the huge mansion she had just inherited. Given the amount of punishment received and the fact no one survived other than herself, Grace ends up in the hospital, handcuffed to her bed.

The jilted bride is unaware the events of the first movie have triggered a constitutional crisis in the demonic cabal that rules the world. The death of the Le Domas family has left a vacancy and the other clans are allowed to compete for the seat. Winner gets to control the council and, consequently, the world.

Naturally, for that to happen, the members of the cabal must defeat Grace in a game of hide and seek. To motivate Grace to participate, her estranged sister (Kathryn Newton, Freaky) has been roped into the game. Expect a lot of bickering in between set pieces.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come offsets some of the script’s shortcomings by casting familiar faces as the antagonists, particularly Sarah Michelle Gellar as the über-competent Ursula and Shawn Hatosy (The Pitt) as her sadistic twin. Another bright point is Elijah Wood as the game master, unflappable and oddly sympathetic.

If the first movie was horror in name only, the sequel is even less so, focusing on the kills and gallows humor. All this is well and good from an entertainment perspective, but the outcome feels insubstantial as a result. The film also leans a bit too much on violence against women. Weaving, Newton, and Gellar receive enough punishment to make the viewer uncomfortable. The filmmakers could argue it’s plot-motivated, but the payoff feels insufficient. ★★½☆☆

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is now playing everywhere.