“Crazy night LOL 💀💀💀”

Story: The continuing adventures of newly married/newly separated/newly widowed Grace, and her quest for a cigarette. This time? It’s more than one family. Plus her younger sister. Where TF can a gal get a light around here?

Genre I’d put it in: Successful Sequels
Release Date: 2026
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Based on, and a sequel to, Ready or Not.

Gotta say: I adored the original Ready or Not. It was surprisingly engaging, delightfully gruesome, and proved Samara Weaving is one of the horror greats. This sequel, as per Randy’s Rules, amps things up, with more blood, more action, and even a cute goat. Y’know what? It works. It absolutely rocks.

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence Productions) come back to steer the ship, and the story blends seamlessly into the original film. I mean that literally and figuratively; the action of 2 begins with the final minute of Not, complete with Grace’s “In-laws” quip. Then we cut to David Freaking Cronenberg as Chester Danforth, the head of another family with similar ties to the mysterious “Justin Le Bail”, and the head of the joint families’ Council. Seems the death of the Le Domas family caused a clause in their contracts that required another…game. This time, for the head of the Council, with similar dead-by-dawn rules for Grace, and the families. It’s an interesting premise, and the creators did an excellent job of making sure the story was one worth telling.

As for the folks playing it out? Naturally, Sarah Michelle Gellar is amazing as heartless Ursula Danforth, Chester’s daughter. Beside her is The Pitt’s Shawn Hatosy as her twin brother Titus, channeling his Animal Kingdom character. Titus is slick and unhinged, and seeing Gellar and Hatosy portray sibling discordance remarkably well. Then there’s Elijah Wood as “The Lawyer”, a quiet figure who acts as the voice of “Mr. Le Bail”, overseeing the contest, and making sure no rules are broken. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to anyone inadvertently. Okay fine, maybe he does.

As sisters Grace and Faith, leads Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton – carving out her own place in the horror hall of fame – also have their own sibling issues to deal with. Their back-and-forth is believable, thanks to their performances, and dialogue that sounds like actual siblings digging at each other. They both have lots of experience in the genre, so moments of action and gore feel almost balletic. Special shout-out to one of my favorite character actors, Kevin Durand, as the coked up, knife loving Bill Wilkinson. If “rip-roaring” was a character, it’d be Bill.

The action in 2 moves around a bit, with The Danforth Lodge and it’s grounds the starting point, but then their gigantic hotel and casino adds additional ways for characters to potentially meet their demise. (Though I do want to know what kind of phone can survive a professional grade washing machine’s sanitation setting…help a gal out here, Searchlight Pictures.) Makeup and SFX are bloody fantastic, though never really hitting gross-out levels. That’s fine by me, as 2 is more comedy than horror in this horror-comedy. It can feel a bit draggy here and there, as it’s about ten minutes longer than the original film. Some thoughtful editing to tighten up a few scenes would have kept things as whip-smart as the original. Still, it’s a whole lot of fun even with those brief laggy moments.

2 wraps up nicely, with it’s t’s crossed and i’s dotted. The Lawyer would approve. Still, this film could easily become a trilogy; there are a few items in the climax that could be furthered if the creators wanted to. (Or the studio wanted them to.) But I think it’s perfectly fine as a duology, and hope this story doesn’t get run into the ground like other franchises. (See: Scream 7) Let Grace and Faith kick back and relax. They’ve earned it.

#Protip: As with the first film, there’s no post-credits tidbit. So hit the restrooms at your leisure. Want a tiny wee spoiler? THE GOAT LIVES. All hail Goatsie!!!