Film Review #9: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
"I don't need tips because my fake boyfriend, Derek, makes bank."
If you weren't satisfied with Grace MacCaullay outlasting her husband and his entire family in that initial, twisted game of "Hide and Seek", Samara Weaving is back to reprise her role seven years later -- as several elite families attempt to murder Grace and her estranged sister, Faith.
Warning: there are spoilers ahead.
Elijah Wood enters the fray as "The Lawyer", explaining the rules of this new game to the remaining family members (because nobody knows more about mysterious rings than that man).
Contenders for the High Seat include siblings Ursula and Titus Danforth, Wan Chen Xing, Viraj Rajan, Ignacio El Caido, and Bill Wilkinson.
As the story unfolds, Bill goes completely rogue, snorting some cocaine and pursuing Grace while she is still in the hospital -- which, of course, is a violation of game rules.
Thus, Mr. Wilkinson curses his entire bloodline and promptly explodes.
And then there were four.
Grace and Faith manage to kill Viraj using an industrial washing machine.
Viraj's death necessitates that his brother, Madhu, replace him in the hunt -- yet in a stunning turn of events, Madhu surrenders his status and places the responsibility on his wife, who instead flees the premises.
And then there were three.
The sisters are soon confronted by Chen Xing, who begs Grace to marry her son, which would cause the game to cease and grant her family the High Seat.
When their discussion is interrupted by Ignacio, Chen Xing inadvertently stabs him through the throat.
Of course, killing a fellow hunter is also a violation of game rules -- thus, the entire Wan family must explode.
And then there were two.
Ignacio's daughter now pursues Grace, but it's clear by this point that our protagonist is wearing particularly thick plot armor.
Francesca El Caido proves to be an even worse shot than her father, firing a missile in the completely wrong direction, and ultimately meeting her demise.
This leaves the Danforth siblings.
Grace now cleverly agrees to marry Titus Danforth to ensure safety for herself and her sister.
When Titus murders his own sister to assert his dominance, he lets slip that there is no rule against killing family members.
Thus, moments after Titus and Grace are married at an underground altar filled with Satanic cult members, Grace stabs her new husband and kicks him into a pit of decomposed corpses.
As the owner of the High Seat, she then removes herself from the organization and throws the Precious (or whatever Gollum might call this ring) into the pit, causing a mass of humanity to toss themselves in after it, murdering each other in the process.
Fortunately, no one succeeds at claiming the ring before dawn, and the entire Council explodes, leaving Grace and Faith to walk free.
My rating? 7 out of 10.
Typically, film sequels struggle to recapture the magic of their predecessors. In this case, there's an argument to be made that the sequel to Ready or Not is even more captivating. This 108-minute ride is still (quite literally) explosive, yet contains more emotional depth.
The inclusion of the Council undoubtedly heightens the stakes of this game. With five additional families now in the mix, viewers learn that there is much more to the madness than a single, unhinged household.
Additionally, the exploration of such a tenuous relationship between Grace and her sister adds a dynamic that was lacking in the original, when viewers believed our protagonist had no remaining family members.
Perhaps this will be labeled by critics as another unnecessary sequel, but if it pleases the target audience, does it really matter?
What were your thoughts on Ready or Not 2: Here I Come? Feel free to leave a note in the comments below, let's discuss :)
Here are some other films I've seen lately:
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