Movie Review: READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: March 24th, 2026 / 10:18 PM

READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME movie poster | ©2026 Fox Searchlight

Rating: R
Stars: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Néstor Carbonell, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood
Writers: Guy Busick & R. Christopher Murphy, based on characters created by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy
Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: March 20, 2026

READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME may be even more fun than its predecessor, 2019’s READY OR NOT. (Those who didn’t find the first one entertaining won’t be happy here either.)

Writers Guy Busick & R. Christopher Murphy and directing team Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett are back, along with lead Samara Weaving as very recently married and widowed Grace MacCaullay (she’s using her maiden name again, thank you very much).

While six-and-a-half years have passed for viewers, READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME picks up exactly where READY OR NOT ended, with a bloodied Grace in her splattered and tattered wedding gown, plus a pair of sturdy sneakers, having a cigarette on the steps while the Le Domas mansion burns behind her.

Police and paramedics arrive on the scene just as Grace collapses. She awakens to find herself in a hospital bed. Her interrogation by a cop is interrupted by the arrival of her younger sister Faith (Kathryn Newton). The siblings have been alienated for years, but Faith is still designated as Grace’s emergency contact, so here she is.

Through quick-cut flashbacks and Grace’s explanation to Faith, we are brought up to speed. Grace married Alex Le Domas who, in fairness, warned her that his family was unusual and intense. What Grace didn’t know was that the whole incredibly wealthy lot of them were Satanists.

Due to a rule in their law book (which is one huge tome that we see here), Grace had to participate in a post-wedding card game and drew one that hadn’t been seen in thirty years. The card, alas, meant that the whole Le Domas clan had to hunt Grace to the death, although she would win if she survived until daybreak. Luckily for Grace, she made it. Unluckily for those Le Domases who hadn’t been killed during the hunt, Grace winning meant that they lost, which in turn meant that they spontaneously and bloodily exploded.

Before Faith has too much time to think her big sister has either come up with the world’s worst alibi or is certifiably insane, or both, things occur that support Grace’s story.

Before Grace’s marriage, there were six ruling Satanic families in the world, a group presided over by Chester Danforth (David Cronenberg – yes, that David Cronenberg). By the time READY OR NOT 2 really gets going, there are only four.

As the ever-genteel Lawyer (Elijah Wood) explains to the gathered clans, plus captives Grace and Faith, Grace’s survival has triggered a new clause in the rules. As before, if Grace survives until dawn, she wins. If any of the heads of the four households can kill her, that person becomes the ultimate boss and de facto rules the planet.

Having families from Spain, Hong Kong and England, along with Danforth’s adult twin American offspring Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy), allows for a wide variety of personalities, attitudes and techniques. There are also bylaws about who can use what weapons and why members of one clan cannot (even accidentally) take out one another. Since absolutely nobody was prepared for the possibility of a victim surviving a hunt, there’s also a slight leveling of the playing field.

READY OR NOT 2: HERE IS COME is all high energy, plentiful gore and smart dialogue, with splashes of brutality and real feeling. The filmmakers deserve special plaudits for figuring out how to keep Grace in a wedding gown throughout nearly the whole movie and designing a spectacular and apt climax, in addition to employing the consistently amusing Wood to fill us (and everybody else) in on what must be known.

Weaving and Newton both lean into the complex bond between their characters, at the same time they exhibit just the right amount of comedic outrage and exasperation at their absurd but dire straits. They also excel at the kickass aspects of the action.

Gellar aces Ursula’s burdened upper-class angst and Hatosy makes Titus alarmingly vicious.

The set pieces are plentiful and wild, the pacing is fast and bracing. READY OR NOT 2 proves to be put together with fine skill and true affection for the genre.

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