“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ is a 2026 action/horror film produced by Searchlight Pictures, directed by the Radio Silence team, and starring Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Shawn Hatosy, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Elijah Wood. If you’re a fan of the first one of these movies (and yes, this is one of those sequels that it would definitely benefit you to have seen the original although it isn’t REALLY necessary), then it’s guaranteed you will at least somewhat be a fan of this sequel. It does what a sequel is supposed to do. Raises the stakes to a degree, unveils more of the backstory, buffs up the cast, increases the gore, etc. So, without further yammering, let’s get into this thing shall we?
These Radio Silence guys, Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, are producing their own brand of horror here in the 2020s and I love to see it. They haven’t always hit it out of the park for me personally necessarily, but you love to see fresh directors making original stories in the horror space and these guys have been doing that for the last few years now. They’ve written & directed segments in the ‘VHS’ movies, Scream 5 & VI, the ballerina vampire film ‘Abigail’, and of course my personal favorites of theirs, the ‘Ready or Not’ films. These movies are just so much fun as a fan of horror. They blend action, horror, and comedy seamlessly and have introduced us to a new badass final girl in the form of Samara Weaving’s Grace as well. The thing about these movies also, the first one did it very well and this one did also while still increasing the size and scope of the story, is that they keep it simple. The movie takes place throughout the course of 1 night on 1 family’s property and you simply try to survive these devil worshipping elites that are hunting you till dawn. That’s it, that’s all you have to follow, but they keep you wrapped in and on the edge of your seat throughout the entire film that way, no need to muddy up the waters of bog down the script more than that. It creates a tension and atmosphere that pulls you in, but it’s never too complex or hard to follow. Look, most of us aren’t asking for that much as horror fans. If you want to be an Ari Aster or a Jordan Peele that’s great and I’ll take it, but you don’t always have to create this Kubrick like mind-bending atmosphere. Just be yourself and create some original stuff and I’ll probably appreciate it on some level just for that. I love a remake every now and then, but we get TOO many of those in the horror genre nowadays as is. We need fresh, and this is fresh.
As I said, it would definitely benefit you to see the first movie before seeing this one because there are plenty of references to it and this follow-up takes place inside a week after the first movie and actually picks right back up where the first one ended. If you can just buy into the story of these 2 girls trying to escape death at the hands of these rich people trying to take the high seat on the council though, then you’ll be fine. There’s plenty of exposition dump throughout the movie and a lot of this film focuses on the interpersonal relationship of our main characters/estranged sisters, Weaving’s Grace & Newton’s Faith. Adding Kathryn Newton to this movie as the little sis was cool seeing as she’s somewhat of a modern scream queen in her own right, much like Samara Weaving has become. This cast was actually somewhat of a who’s who. Of course, the stars of the show Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton as I mentioned, David Cronenberg played the extremely evil/extremely powerful high council member who was in poor health, Kevin Durand played a coked-up psychopath, Buffy herself Sarah Michelle Gellar had a big part in a much more sophisticated and evil role than I’m used to seeing her play, and Elijah Wood channeled his inner creepy, awkward weirdo once again. As I sort of mentioned before, this movie peels back more of the layers of the overarching story, this devil cult that secretly runs the world that the first movie revealed near the end of it, and they increased the level and scope of the destruction and violence as well. Propane tank explosions, rocket launcher misfirings, and of course a blinded by pepper spray fight to the death in a wedding ballroom.
Samara Weaving is great in this role and Kathryn Newton pulled it off as well. They come off snarky and funny and like independent badasses in their own right so you really get behind them as people, but they also really draw believable sympathy because they get severely effed up throughout the course of this film and while you are pretty sure they’re going to live you buy into the thought of them of course not making it as well and that’s a credit to the acting. I’m not sure if this makes me come off sounding sexist or whatever, that’s not the intention, but violence to women in horror films is always more alarming and sympathy inducing than violence to men, especially when it’s at the hands of men, and there are scenes of that in this movie and the first one as well. These movies are wild in the fact that they’re so action packed that they feel like a horror film inside of an action film (especially this 2nd one), and it’s so tonally all over the place but it still works. One moment you’ll be laughing at the ineptitude of these pampered rich people, the next minute you’ll be worried about our main characters getting beaten to death at the hands of the very same group of people. I think this movie definitely increased the level of violence, characters, scope, and overall backstory compared to the first one, but I can’t say with certainty that I liked it any more or less than the first one honestly. They feel like 2 sides to the same story in some ways, like the A-Side and B-Side of the same record. They pulled off the Halloween-Halloween II thing and seamlessly transitioned the first film right into the second one while beefing up the overall story to make it feel like one uniform thing and I give major kudos for that.
There’s not a whole lot I can really complain about with this movie either honestly. If the first one was your thing, this one likely will be too. Samara Weaving is becoming one of our modern horror icons and this is another stud to add to that crown of hers, and honestly another notch on the belt for Kathryn Newton as well who’s quickly rising into a star in her own quirky right as well. I would recommend, support original horror stories and ideas and go see it in theaters now! That’s going to do it for this one though folks! Make sure to like the page on social media or bookmark the website to keep up with all my latest posts on newly released films, horror films (both new & classic), WWE wrestling, and much more! Until next time, be good to one another.
