Ready or Not 2 Movie Review

Thankfully, this picks up right where the first movie left off. I like it when they get that right. That’s how a sequel should be done. The first movie blew me out of my shoes. The game-playing idea was, or is, a huge positive for me. Samara Weaving was ridiculously awesome, so when I heard there would be part 2, color me in!! I thought it would be just as good, perhaps better! ​

She’s back, there are great new characters and actors… they could do no wrong, right? Wrong. Okay… Here, Grace (Weaving) has a sister. She’s Faith, played by Kathryn Newton from “Lisa Frankenstein.” Grace and Faith’s (I wonder what their parents would think of them now, marrying into a family that made a deal with the devil and all) relationship is a bit strained. Faith feels Grace left her behind, not considering that Grace left the child behind (to stay with their decent foster parents) to start her life. She, at eighteen, had to leave behind her fifteen-year-old sister! It makes sense, but there’s still going to be abandonment issues. When the hospital called, Faith was still her emergency contact; she wasn’t happy about being in her sister’s phone or returning to her life. But she did the sisterly thing and met Grace at the hospital, where she was told about what had just transpired. She very quickly gets a lesson in what led to Grace playing Hide and Seek. They’re both now running for their lives (but oddly looking freshly showered)? I’ll leave that alone.

What we see back at the mansion is that the demon Le Bail decides to have a bit more fun with the game thing. Thank you. Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy), what’s left of Danforth’s, and members of three other families will fight for the High Seat on the Council to become the most powerful people in the world. That position currently belongs to Grace, but that’s just semantics. Chester Davenforth (David Cronenberg) has his lawyer (Elijah Wood) gather everyone and informs them that when the High Seat becomes vacant, they have a chance to win it; it doesn’t automatically go to a Davenforth. “Hail Satan!” But remember! As with any game, there are rules. The big one again is Grace surviving until dawn, and now, they’re chasing down two women. Why not both and don’t upset Le Bail while you’re at it? Nobody cares about Grace and Faith. Faith is just there to slow her sister down, so she had better take this seriously and keep up. She’s younger, so I’m guessing she can? When they’re found, not surprisingly, they fight well, and everyone with a gun is a bad shot. Do they want the girls to win? There’s even an abdication. Leave a family of devil worshippers? Why not. Grace gets some strange offers along the way. Poor Faith can’t deal with people combusting all over her. My audience loved it, especially when they heard Bonnie Tyler belt out “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It’s not just about the song. This is a great scene overall. Outstanding. Searchlight Pictures and producers at Radio Silence know their dark humor. They could do no wrong with giving us another movie with poor Grace running away from devil worshippers, right? You be the judge of that.

To save her and her sister… Grace makes an interesting proposal. We loved the first “Ready or Not,” but did we need a second? How to say this? I wouldn’t put my money on this being the new big “Scream” franchise or anything. No. I’m not saying don’t see this because it’s not any good. This is good… it’s just not as good as I would have liked. Why? Typical reason is why. More of the same. More blood splatter. When used, you’ll love it, but give us something new! Instead, you get more of what you got the first time around. I liked the first movie; it’s better because it was original. It did have a better ending, as well, so luckily, this was kept under two hours. No matter what I just said, ignore the negatives and see this in theaters this weekend. You’ll have a good time.