Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) - Review
Ready or Not is a personal favorite film of mine for just a plain ol’ good time. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is more of that. And by “more”, I mean more. It doubles down on everything. As a matter of fact, Elijah Wood’s character tells Grace (Samara Weaving) exactly that: this is a “double or nothing”. The sheer catharsis of watching ultra-greedy, capitalist devil worshippers explode in the first film’s finale is dialed up to eleven, and I praise the directors for not losing sight of just how amusing it is to watch the untouchable overlords get - in a shockingly bloody fashion - banished from the mortal plane.
This sequel begins immediately where the first one ends. A quick replay of the final moment from the first to help with the flow between the films. Rather than one family, Grace is now facing off against a cabal of all the world’s most powerful families who made deals with Satan.
I was immediately reminded of John Wick 2, which likewise expanded out a contained microcosm into the global universe behind it. This makes me think I have a type, perhaps. John Wick is another favorite for popcorn-and-couch evenings. Courtesy of Ready or Not, I’ve confirmed that blood-soaked, ripped-up wedding dresses are my type. I already knew about blondes.
Ready or Not 2 once again combines gritty, tight, personal violence with cartoonish explosions of viscera. It’s only a day later, so Grace has not had time to learn first aid, alas, but I’ll allow her miraculous survival as it delivers some excellent, vicious mayhem to the big screen. Her “video game logic” approach to her many wounds briefly pulls me out of the film. The grittier treatment of Grace’s injuries versus the cartoonish fates of her enemies is presumably meant to keep things slightly grounded. It mostly doesn’t work. This is remedied by her wounds at least serving the purpose of providing a sense of scale to the surrounding carnage.
This time, Grace is not alone in her desperate fight for survival in the most dangerous game. This time she is joined by her sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton). Ready or Not 2 boasts a strong cast, but Newton doesn’t quite hold her own among them. Her performance was notably weaker than the rest of the cast. She found her footing by the final act, but only after Faith and Grace’s sisterly climactic confrontation. Until that moment, the sisters’ plotline was adrift, and it was undermining both characters.
I had never seen Varun Saranga before, but he deserves a shoutout. His comedic timing and delivery cut beautifully against the horrors unfolding around him.
While I didn’t enjoy Ready or Not 2 as much as its predecessor, I was pleased to see a sequel, and I’m happy with the direction they went. The writing was clever, Weaving was stellar, and it knows what viewers loved about the first. I think you’ll feel the same. And, to be honest with you, I’d watch a third film if it happened.
TL;DR: I liked it a lot. 5/5
