‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ movie review: Twice the gore, double the fun

The bride is back — no, not Quentin Tarantino’s Beatrix Kiddo from the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. This is Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving), who sits in her blood-stained wedding dress and sneakers outside the graciously burning Le Domas family mansion, laconically commenting, when someone asks what happened, “in-laws.”

Picking up immediately after the events of 2019’s Ready or Not, where Grace was involved in a deadly game of hide-and-seek with her satanic in-laws, the sequel with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett returning to directing duties with their lead actor, sees Grace again in a fight to the death with the followers of Satan, or Mr. Le Bail.

With the death of the Le Domas family, there is a vacuum, and six wealthy families have to decide who will hold the ring of power. The ring will go to whoever kills Grace before dawn as she defeated the Le Domas.

The families involved in the murderous game include twins Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy) from the Danforth family; Ignacio (Néstor Carbonell) the head of the El Caido family; Bill (Kevin Durand) from the Wilkinson family; Chen Xing (Olivia Cheng), the head of the Wan family; and Viraj (Nadeem Umar-Khitab) of the Rajan family.

The twins charmingly suffocate their father, Chester (David Cronenberg), before meeting the other participants at the Danforth family estate to ensure the high seat of the council is vacated for them.

Grace’s estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) comes to the hospital where Grace is being treated, (she was Grace’s emergency contact) and is dragged into the game to ensure Grace’s compliance.

The game begins in deadly earnest with all manner of weapons being brought into play, including an industrial washing machine (how does the phone still work when the person is boiled alive?), and sundry rocket launchers, katanas and shotguns.

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The other members of the families (only the head of the families are in the game), including Viraj’s brother, Madhu (Varun Saranga), his wife, Martina (Masa Lizdek), Ignacio’s son Felipe (Juan Pablo Romero) and daughter, Francesca (Maia Jae), who has special reason to hate Grace as Alex dumped her for Grace, the twins’ cousin Kip (Dan Beirne) and Chen Xing’s son, Cheng Fu (Antony Hall), who predictably only wants to know the WiFi password, watch the proceedings with varying degrees of interest.

Incredibly gory (325 gallons of fake blood), Ready or Not 2: Here I Come moves at a brisk pace anchored by Weaving’s blistering performance and ample support from the ensemble cast, including Elijah Wood complete with twinkling eyes as the lawyer laying down all the bloody laws for his evil client.

It is not a stretch to believe that the rich and powerful have signed over their souls and there is great joy in seeing two ordinary women best them. And yes, the goat survives. Let the games begin.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is currently running in theatres