Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 48 minutes, Directors – Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Having survived the Le Domas family, Grace (Samara Weaving), alongside her sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), now finds herself in another deadly hide and seek game against a high council of wealthy families, who all want to take the influential throne that her death (or survival) controls.
There’s a gothic tone to the look of the mansion in which the bloody events of Ready Or Not played out in, and to the Le Domas family who Samara Weaving’s Grace had to fend off. That tone isn’t in place in this follow-up which instead leans more into the satanic rituals and beliefs the family held with an increasing sense of unsettling darkness.
Grace, still recovering from the events of the first film and being visited by estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), finds herself thrown into a new game of hide and seek against a High Council of families (led by David Cronenberg), each wanting control of the council, and in turn the world. The only thing standing in their way is Grace. Whoever kills her gets control, unless she survives then it’s all hers. All of this explained, eventually, with all the needed loopholes, too, by Elijah Wood as the Council’s overseer and enforcer of the bylaws, simply called The Lawyer.
Once the game’s on the main attraction is well and truly underway and the film makes that known. The pace picks up and there’s a well-tracked set of kills and attacks which flow from one to the other without feeling like individual, segmented encounters. From initial near misses to upfront throws, punches and, of course, eventual coatings of crimson. It’s clear who the more disposable figures are, and who the film is building up to introducing into the game, but with the knowledge of comic relief and actual threats we simply look forward to eventual interactions, which still have airs of thrills and tension.
Where the real threat lies is in Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy’s Danforth twins Ursula and Titus. The pair want the council crown the most, to continue their family legacy at the top, and have tampered with the game, unfolding at their family’s expansive country golf resort, to put it in their favour. Halfway through, however, in an up-close encounter between them and the lead sisters a darker side starts to be shown to Titus. Quickly he becomes a dark, angered and threatening figure. Much different to those also hunting Faith and Grace. Violence is his answer, instead of part of blood-written tradition.
It’s the second half of this film where the darkness and threat comes through thick. Titus is a fearful character who wouldn’t be out of place in a drama about toxic masculinity and abuse, he presents the most upfront horror in the form of genuine scares in a film where much of the horror tones are found in the splatter. As his rage and the fury of his attempts to kill Grace and her sister grow the satanic rituals of the High Council also take more of a central role, and themselves are coated in ominous and threatening darkness.
It’s an enjoyably sinister streak in the film that takes some time to emerge, as does this second round of hide and seek, but when things kick in they’ve got a real spark. A sense of fun is when things truly emerge, especially during a pepper-spray-infused fight set to Total Eclipse Of The Heart. From consequences involving people blowing up in a burst of blood to characters struggling to use their weapons there’s plenty to enjoy in terms of the fun that the film has with its ideas, especially when letting loose and not focusing so much on the exposition and workings of the game and various loopholes and bylaws. Even if they do allow for the dark chaos of the closing stages.
Much darker than expected, there’s a real sense of violent threat to Ready Or Not 2 that grows more as the game and its entertainingly splattery offerings take swing.
Just A Little Bit Random 