Movies
‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ Review – Crowd-Pleasing Sequel Doubles Down on Comedic Carnage
Directing duo Tyler Gillett & Matt Bettinelli-Olpin have an affinity for blood canons and exploding characters that’s unmatched, and they’re eager to double down on the gory insanity in sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. A bigger cast means more horror-comedy carnage and set pieces, but it also brings a shift in tone.
Ready or Not 2 picks up immediately from the previous film, with Grace (Samara Weaving) emerging from the burning wreckage of the La Domas estate and into the arms of first responders. She comes to in the hospital just long enough to greet her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) and draw suspicion before both sisters get pulled into a frantic power grab for the head seat at Mr. Le Bail’s high council.
The rules remain mostly the same in an even higher stakes game of hide and seek; Grace must survive until dawn to win while six High Council families compete to slay her.
The prize? Ultimate power.
Read on for Bloody Disgusting’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come review.
Kathryn Newton in READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME. Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Pief Weyman, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2026 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
There’s a lot of ground to cover in introducing the new Satanic clans and their familial dysfunction, which means Ready or Not 2, while it still moves at a rapid clip, takes a bit to really get the lethal game going in full swing. It’s the introductions that also make clear that this sequel goes much broader with comedy than its predecessor.
Elijah Wood elevates his exposition delivery role as Le Bail’s lawyer with mischievous glee, but writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy prioritize twins Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus Danforth (Shawn Hatosy) more than the rest of the newcomers as the antithesis to the constantly bickering Grace and Faith. Ready or Not 2 is prone to pausing the action to let the sisters work through their issues, and it can overcrowd an already crowded playing field, including the contrasting Danforths.
Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin have fun playing with scale, giving Grace even more places to hide and fight than before. Sometimes that leads to ruthless combat, in which Faith proves she can take a brutal beating as well as her older sis. Sometimes action sequences veer too far into silly, like a cat fight between two jilted women at the scene of an abandoned wedding.
From L to R: Kara Wooten, Shawn Hatosy, David Cronenberg, and Sarah Michelle Gellar in READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME. Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Pief Weyman, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2026 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
The filmmakers never treat the carnage as silly, though, and the deaths and beatdowns remain as effective as ever. Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin’s dedication to practical effects means that bursting Satanists still hasn’t grown stale, or Weaving’s reaction to them.
Kathryn Newton shares an effortless rapport with Samara Weaving on screen, bringing an infectious energy and fighting spirit to Faith that complements Grace’s disillusioned exasperation. But Weaving remains the star here, even in this all-star cast, and Grace’s slow switch from defense to offense heralds in one satisfying finale. Special mention to costume designer Avery Plewes for topping Grace’s iconic battered bride look with new elegant perfection in the climax.
From L to R: Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Samara Weaving in READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME. Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Pief Weyman, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2026 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
More is more in Ready or Not 2. Bigger stakes, larger playing field, a higher (and more gruesome) body count, and even double the protagonists. All designed to deliver maximum crowd-pleasing fun. It more than delivers on that front, even if it loses some of the original magic in the process.
Watching the ultra-rich and privileged get blood-soaked comeuppance in cheeky, violent fashion makes it pretty difficult to leave Ready or Not 2 without a big grin on your face.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is now playing in theaters.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published March 13, 2026.
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!
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