Ready or Not 2: Here I Come – saving the sequel?

“It’s papyrus in bold!”

In his SNL skit, Papyrus 2, a long-haired Ryan Gosling uncovers a vicious conspiracy: that the million-dollar budget for the poster of Avatar 2 was spent not on radical redesigns, but on nothing more than putting the previous title in bold. And presumably, more than a few nice dinners. Such is the greedy nature of the sequel.

You’re lured to the cinema under false senses of security. ‘Ah, I saw the first one of those, didn’t know they were making a sequel. Hopefully it lives up to the original!’

How naïve you are. For a long time, the sequel has existed as a way for smarmy executives to milk the cash-cow of a successful debut for more than it’s worth. Preying on the good-natured curiosity of initial fans, the sequel promises to be just like the original, but bigger and better in all the ways that made the original good in the first place.

Invariably, this fails. The sequel almost always misunderstands what it is about the first film that made it such a hit. If there were explosions and car chases in the first, then surely double the explosions and car chases in the sequel will be doubly as good, and bring in double the profit. This is a misunderstanding of how movies work, and why we like them.

Occasionally, a movie barges through the monotony and proclaims its understanding; these are the sequels that we celebrate

This is a bleak state of affairs. But occasionally, a movie barges through the monotony and proclaims its understanding: these are the sequels that we celebrate. The Godfather 2, Toy Story 2, The Empire Strikes Back. Sometimes, sequels show you that they care about keeping their exciting franchise going, that they’re just as invested as you are.  

Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come is one of these standout sequels. It’s a typical horror-comedy follow up that promises the same tried-and-tested concept as the first, but bigger, stronger, louder. Except, this one sticks the landing. It understands what made the original Ready or Not good – an absurdist angle on the weathered class critique, dressed up in nuptial overtones and with strong performances all round.

Picking up immediately after the events of the first film, Ready or Not 2 wastes no time reintroducing us to Grace – still donning her blood-soaked wedding dress. Having survived the Le Domas’ family ritual, she wakes in hospital only to find a new bounty on her head, as the remaining devil-worshipping council of elite families competes for the High Seat left vacant by the Le Domases . Here, the stakes are higher, the playing field wider, and the body count considerably larger.

In a year when stories about unchecked power, tyranny, and institutional control have felt particularly resonant, there’s something almost cathartic about watching Grace tear through it all

And crucially, so is the satirical target. The original focused on one grotesque family and their inherited rituals, the sequel widens the crosshairs to take aim at an entire network of obscenely wealthy dynasties, each as ridiculous and monstrous as the others. In a year when stories about unchecked power, tyranny, and institutional control have felt particularly resonant, there’s something almost cathartic about watching Grace – ordinary, furious, and seemingly indestructible – tear through it all.

The addition of Kathryn Newton as Grace’s estranged sister Faith is a bonus, bringing remarkable chemistry that persists through the film. Where Grace is all survival instinct and barely-suppressed rage, Faith brings a jolt, something more unpredictable, and their dynamic gives the film an emotional throughline that the original, being essentially a one-woman show, never needed but now appears to lack. It earns its sentimentality, rather than simply asserting it.

Samara Weaving, for her part, remains the beating, blood-soaked heart of the film. Her ferocious commitment to the bloody bit is a large part of what allows the film to cheat the curse of the sequel. It would be easy, in a film such as this, for Grace to become a superhero rather than a survivor, but Weaving remains human and resonant throughout.

The film is not without its excesses. It really is bigger, louder, and meaner – and possibly not quite as sharp. Some of the new villains feel more like targets than genuine characters, and occasionally the mechanisms of the expanded mythology clank noticeably, even audibly. But these feel like acceptable costs of ambition, rather than failures of understanding. It feels the whole time that the filmmakers know what they’re doing and why.

Ready or Not 2 is not papyrus in bold. It is not a money-hungry, gluttonous tug at the available heartstrings of fans. It’s a sequel to a strong first act, and it’s asking the right questions. What was the first film about? Why did it succeed? How can we make it better?

In a landscape of franchise maintenance and box-office bait, this alone is worth celebrating.

★★★⯪☆