Ella Skye Heisel | Staff Illustrator

Grace (Samara Weaving) had two really bad days in a row. The first day was the events of the first “Ready or Not” film, and the second day is the second film in the duology, called “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.”

When I say bad days, I mean being hunted by rich families across lavish estates, where each hunter is armed with weapons from a different century, following a rule book written by Mr. Le Bail (the literal devil). In the first film, she is hunted by the family of her husband, the Le Domas family. In the second, she is hunted by six different families who are all part of a council devoted to worshipping the devil. In short, it is the most deadly game of hide-and-seek you can imagine. In the sequel, we follow Grace, who is chained to a hospital bed after surviving the events of the first movie. All members of the Le Domas family that were hunting her were killed, and Grace is thought responsible. Grace’s emergency contact is her sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), a newly introduced character. Grace and Faith have a turbulent relationship; Grace is the older sister who left Faith alone with their foster parents to pursue a scholarship in New York City. Between the drama from their past and the traumatic experience the two go through, the life-or-death scenarios awaiting them are a sort of sister therapy event. Grace and Faith are promptly attacked by a crazy man with a knife named Bill Wilkinson (Kevin Durand). Both the audience and Grace do not know who he is, but we can infer that he is related to the Le Domas family due to his violent nature. After Bill is defeated, Grace and Faith are promptly kidnapped by a tall threatening man named Titus (Shawn Hatosy) and his equally threatening sister Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) of the exceedingly prodigal Danforth family. What follows is a day wrought with explosions, pepper spray, and devil worship as we watch these sisters fight for their lives.

Grace is just as great of a character as she was in the previous film; she is a brave woman who is done with being hunted and has been since the first film. Weaving does a fantastic job of making Grace’s pain feel genuine, which makes her ultimate triumph over her hunters even more satisfying. Yet despite her disdain for the physical torment, fear, and devil worship she has to face, she keeps moving forward like a badass. In the sequel, she is less of a relatable protagonist and more of an action hero. In the first film, Grace reasonably should have died, but it was her ability to hide that saved her. In the sequel, she kills almost everyone who is after her. Her character changes from being reactive to being proactive. Although the film’s tone feels like a shift from its predecessor, partially because of Grace’s change from barely surviving and being saved by luck to being an unstoppable force of destruction, it is a welcome development. There is still struggle, but she and her sister actively fight back and put an end to a majority of the people hunting them, rather than running away the entire film. At a certain point in the movie, it feels like the hunters become the hunted; the sisters obtain weapons, they thin the quantity of seekers after them, and, most importantly, they damage the morale of their seekers with each victory. This is an appropriate evolution of the prior film. Making Grace feel more powerful is what you would expect given the experience she went through.

Faith is a more divisive part of the movie. As a newly introduced character that gets the same screen time as Grace, she has to make quite the impression. The two characters feel very similar to each other, which may seem expected at first. It is a little more jarring, however, when you realize that Faith is a normal person. Grace has gone through these horrors before, but sometimes Faith feels just as, if not more, war-hardened than Grace. It is strange to see them on the same page and both being mentally composed, almost like Faith is only a character for Grace to bounce off of, not one who makes sense in the context of the situation. Sometimes while watching the movie, it felt like the writers had planned all the events out but needed an additional character to keep Grace emotionally grounded. However, they did not want to retread themselves and make Faith have a panic attack or immediately lose her nerve after almost dying, so she just adapts to their situation in a rapid and inorganic way. The drama between them also distracts from the events that are taking place. It began to feel predictable that after the sisters either avoided or confronted one of their hunters, they would start to argue about their past. 

I think something that should have been considered more thoughtfully when writing this movie is the mantra “show, don’t tell” because we learn all about these characters by them telling each other about things that they should already know. In a movie like this, with no flashbacks and constant action, it is difficult to build a believable bond by relying on a relationship built prior to the events of the movie.

The original “Ready or Not” accomplished this by having a longer setup period for its characters before all hell broke loose. Grace’s relationship with her husband Alex is also underdeveloped, but most of her scenes are on her own, making her feel like an independent character. In the sequel, these two characters are literally chained together, which makes the faults in the writing of their relationship stick out even further.

The rest of the cast, the seekers, are very fun in their own right. Elijah Wood is the main stand out, playing a goofy embodiment of Mr. Le Bail who is a stickler for the rules of the game. The twins, Titus and Ursula, are the two main threats to the sisters. Both are extremely well-written characters. At first they seem quite similar, but as we learn more about their relationship, we see that Titus is quite an unpredictable and dangerous man, even more so than the other killers competing in the game. Ursula’s plan to impersonate the police to lure out the sisters shows her cunning nature, and she feels like the leader and planner of the duo. However, near the end, it is revealed that Ursula has been afraid of her brother and has been trying to control his rage the whole film. Ursula and Titus’ arc of feeling like they are on the same page but watching it fall apart through Titus’ struggle for power and Ursula’s need for control mirrors Grace and Faith’s relationship with each other. Grace, as the older sister, is calculated and leads the two throughout the movie, whereas Faith is impulsive and drives much of their internal conflict by arguing with Grace. 

Alex’s (Grace’s fiance from the first film) ex-girlfriend (Maia Jae) and her beef with Grace is very entertaining as well, with the action scene between the two in the wedding venue being my favorite set piece in the film. Wan Chen Xing (Olivia Cheng) was also an interesting albeit short-lived character. Xing’s attempt to find a loophole in the rules of the book to both save Grace and Faith while also putting herself on the top of the totem pole was interesting. All of these seekers are unique and in their own right and a strong reason to go see this film.

In conclusion, “Ready or Not 2” is a thrilling sequel to the already fantastic thriller comedy. Despite my qualms with some aspects of the writing, all of the characters are still fun and the action is great. I would recommend watching the first before the second, however you could still pick up from the second and have a great time without having seen the first.