Ready or Not 2: Here I Come Scores Big With Blood and Chaos

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

★ ★ ★ ½

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is a much better film than a horror-action-comedy sequel should be. In fact, it may be better than the original in many ways.

In the first film Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) marries Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien) in the ridiculously large backyard of the family estate. The Le Domas family has a tradition. When there’s a new spouse added to the family, the new family member must join a midnight game night. The new family member draws a card from a box, and they all have to play the game written on it. Usually, it’s something benign like a board game.

Grace draws the worst of all possible cards: hide and seek. It’s the one card that carries high stakes. The rules are simple. Grace must run and hide while the family hunts her down to try and kill her. If she survives to dawn, she wins. This is all to appease the family benefactor, Mr. Le Bail, who is the mostly unseen embodiment of Satan. If the family loses, each member will become a human splatter bomb as they spontaneously explode.

Samara Weaving as Grace and Kathryn Newton as Faith
© 2026 Studio: Searchlight Pictures

Spoiler alert: Grace survived the first film, and this story picks up right where we last saw her—wearing a bloody wedding dress, smoking a cigarette as she sits on the mansion steps while the house burns down behind her. She’ll soon find out she won the battle, but there’s a war a’comin.’

The Le Domases were just one ridiculously wealthy family to trade their souls to the devil for fortune. The elimination of the Le Domas clan triggers a free-for-all game of hide-and-seek, with several families taking their crack at world dominance. The prize is an ancient gold ring with red speckles. Whoever wears it rules the world and pulls the puppet strings of literally everything.

Samara Weaving as Grace and Kathryn Newton as Faith
© 2026 Studio: Searchlight Pictures

To prove it, the current, from-the-shadows ruler of the world is Chester Danforth (David Cronenberg). He picks up his phone, says, ‘Approve the ceasefire,’ and seconds later the caption ‘Ceasefire Approved’ appears on the news channel’s lower-third graphic.

This time, if Grace wins, she gets the ring. She’ll have a little help when her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), visits her in the hospital and becomes part of the hide-and-seek nightmare.

Ridiculous? Oh, yeah. Fun? Heck yes!

Two sisters against the families
© 2026 Studio: Searchlight Pictures

Here I Come is another variation on Richard Connell’s short story The Most Dangerous Game, in which a man washes ashore on an island only to learn he’s prey to the island’s hunters. There have been several books and films inspired by that story, and this is the latest take.

This is an exceptionally violent, tongue-in-cheek take on the concept, and it works. The script doesn’t make it easy on Grace. Faith and she will be put through their paces, physically and mentally tested at every turn.

Even at the film’s most outlandish, it’s still completely entertaining.

Where the film falters a touch is in a legal-clause detour that grinds the action to a halt. Fortunately, it rebounds quickly, even with the new direction the story takes.

Samara Weaving as Grace and Kathryn Newton as Faith
© 2026 Studio: Searchlight Pictures

The standout performance here is Wood. This is a long way from his portrayal of Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. Wood is delightfully nonchalant about who wins. He’s simply there to remind everyone of the rules and make sure everyone follows them. There’s a glimmer in his eye around Grace, a little anarchist inside him that seems to want her to burn it all down. There’s no clear reason why, except that he seems to thrive in the chaos. It may be a supporting role, but he’s damned fun to watch.

If exploding human bodies isn’t your idea of a good time—I get it. To each their own. I found it delightfully satisfying to watch the fictional evil people who called out, ‘Hail, Satan!’ just a few frames earlier explode in a blood-spattered mess. If any on-screen characters deserve that fate, it’s those folks.