Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

​“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” stars Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Néstor Carbonell, Kevin Durand, Olivia Cheng, Nadeem Umar-Khitab, David Cronenberg, and Elijah Wood.  Released on March 20, 2026, the film has Grace MacCaullay teaming up with her sister to survive against the wealthiest families on Earth.

The film is directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who worked on films like “Devil’s Due”, “Scream”, and “Abigail”.  It is the sequel to Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s 2019 horror comedy “Ready or Not”.  “Hide and Seek” may be perceived as a harmless children’s game in which players try to hide from the seeker; if they get caught, they become the seeker.  But for the wealthiest of the wealthy, if the hiders get caught, they meet a grisly end.  This summed up Radio Silence’s horror comedy, “Ready or Not”, featuring Samara Weaving being hunted down by her fiancé’s dangerous, filthy-rich family.  Spoiler alert: she fought back and won.  However, it turns out that her survival was just the beginning of a much larger game helmed by even more wealthy people.  You might want to add that to the list of reasons why wealthy families deserve to go poor.  Hence, we have a sequel in which Weaving’s Grace MacCaullay reluctantly participates in another game of “Hide and Stay Alive”, but this time she has an extra hand from her sister.  Is this second round ridiculously fun to compete in, or should audiences hide themselves away from this deadly competition?  Let’s find out.

The story is set after the events of “Ready or Not”.  Grace MacCaullay (Weaving) has recently survived against the Le Domas family’s twisted game of “Hide and Seek”, resulting in their explosive deaths.  Unfortunately, she later discovers that her victory comes with an even deadlier price, as she’s now captured by the most influential and wealthiest families in the world, including the Danforth family.  They are forcing Grace to compete in a new game of “Hide and Seek”, where the winner gains control of everything on Earth.  Grace refuses at first, but reluctantly accepts after discovering that her estranged young sister, Faith (Newton), is also marked for death.  As a result, the two sisters must join forces to survive, outmatch the elite families, and even put an end to their twisted game once and for all.

I was pleasantly surprised at how fun and delightfully twisted “Ready or Not” turned out.  While not completely terrifying, it was a highly entertaining and well-directed horror comedy that understood the absurdity and demented nature of this seemingly “harmless” children’s game.  More importantly, it’s also a film where Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett from Radio Silence found their visionary footing in their blend of dark comedy and adult-rated violence, a major step up from the disastrous “Devil’s Due” back in 2014.  They managed to continue that streak with the “Scream” sequels and even the surprisingly solid “Abigail”, highlighting the duo’s worthy place in the horror genre.  After departing from the “Scream” franchise that recently went downhill with “Scream 7”, the Radio Silence duo returns to helm a sequel to the movie that started this successful trend, and I was here for it.

While I would like to see them helm another original project, “Ready or Not 2” is one of the sequels I didn’t mind checking out, given how much I enjoyed its predecessor.  Though with the approach of going bigger and gorier, it could be either a step backward from what worked before, a game that’s as fun the second time around, or a cinematic disaster that puts the directing duo back to square one.  After witnessing the second round of this blood-splattered, twisted game, I would confidently say that it is the former.  It’s basically the same, deranged game of “Hide and Survive”, but with a larger playing field, a la a manor’s golf course, new rules, and double the butt-kicking female protagonists.  While it raises the stakes regarding survival and villainous rich people, “Here I Come” also shows that bigger and bloodier doesn’t mean better.

To say that it’s as bad as “Devil’s Due” is akin to saying children shouldn’t have fun playing “Hide and Seek”.  That’s not my style, as I believe children should have fun playing games like “Hide and Seek”, and adults should have some fun playing this bloody version of the game, too.  Like its predecessor, “Here I Come” is a violent, darkly twisted, and consistently fun horror-comedy that utilizes the deranged nature of a “harmless” children’s game.  However, its narrative ultimately loses much of the initial spark in the world’s expansion and shock value, diminishing the element of surprise present in the first film.  What I'm left with is another sequel that should please those who enjoyed the original, but may leave much to be desired for those hoping for more.

What I admire most about “Here I Come” is how Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett continue to grasp the essence of dark humor and horror violence.  It’s clearly not about focusing on one element over the other, but rather the blend between the two elements.  It’s fun to see people get killed off in gruesome ways, but it’s even more entertaining to see it played off humorously.  The duo managed to accomplish that in “Ready or Not”, adding to the film’s twisted amusement.  I was able to rewatch it before seeing the sequel, and its kills still made me laugh, especially because the Le Domas family was so dumb.  Of course, this was part of the film’s satirical display of the high-and-mighty rich, in which they’re all talk and no brains.  “Here I Come” has the duo repeating the same process as before, with the film's dark humor and subtle satire aimed at the elite families and their system.  The result is just as enjoyable and delightfully wicked as I would expect from the Radio Silence duo, with the one kill involving a giant washing machine being the highlight.  Its strong display of dark comedy and horror violence further emphasizes the duo’s talents in the horror genre, revitalizing it in a way that is genuinely entertaining and crowd-pleasing.

While the duo’s vision remains a strong aspect of their filmography, the film also sets itself back by not finding a better way to hide its narrative shortcomings.  Aside from “Scream 7”, co-writer Guy Busick has a pretty impressive track record in the horror-comedy genre, especially his work on “Ready or Not” with R. Christopher Murphy, which is known for its subversion and wit.  That alone is enough to convince me of his ability to provide refreshing ideas to frighten us silly.  Busick and Murphy returned to pen “Here I Come”, as they expand on the original’s world-building through the rich family’s satanic tradition while maintaining its predecessor’s smaller scale.  It certainly has the blood-splattering elements we’ve seen in “Ready or Not”, emphasizing Hollywood’s traditional rule of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and it’s more amusing than what “Scream 7” brought to the slasher table.  However, this new game surprisingly lacks a few other tricks in its expansive narrative to retain the concept’s freshness.

With the introduction of Grace’s younger sister, “Here I Come” is another movie that features the estranged sister dynamic, in which Grace must make amends for what she did to Faith years ago.  Guy Busick and the Radio Silence duo are no strangers to this element, having previously explored a similar dynamic between Sam and Tara Carpenter in the fifth and sixth “Scream” movies, which is one of my favorite aspects of those installments.  While this dynamic for Grace and Faith has its moments of heart regarding the lead actresses, it’s not at a level that makes this trope any special regarding its formulaic approach.  It also doesn’t help that the script lacked any interesting surprises to keep the revisited concept from losing steam too quickly before the third act.  Add that to the film’s 108-minute runtime, which is needlessly longer than its predecessor, and you get a familiar double-or-nothing round that’s more of the same, but bigger and with more people exploding.  It retains the wickedly brutal entertainment value of the protagonist’s survival skills, but the subversive storytelling of the first film proves tough to find amid the scuffle.

Another element I enjoyed from “Ready or Not” was Samara Weaving herself.  After watching her performance in “Ready or Not”, I became convinced that Weaving has what it takes to become the next “Scream Queen” of the current generation.  At least once, you look past her screams that sound like an exotic bird.  She has starred in other movies outside of horror that I admired, like “Bill & Ted Face the Music” and “Eenie Meanie”, but her role as Grace in “Ready or Not” stood out to me as a performance that really defines her talents in the genre.  So, it’s no surprise that I ended up appreciating her compelling, often humorous performance in “Here I Come”, which sees Weaving further convey Grace’s trauma from the first film’s events.  It’s another strong performance in the horror genre that underscores Samara Weaving’s capabilities as the new “Scream Queen”.  Kathryn Newton also did very well with her performance as Faith, despite her character being a tad annoying during a couple of moments.  She retains the usual spunk we see from the actress in her previous roles, especially in horror, making her sisterly chemistry with Weaving a delightful sibling treat to endure.  I also enjoyed Sarah Michelle Gellar getting her “Buffy” on as Ursula Danforth, which was a much-needed improvement over her cameo in the disappointing “I Know What You Did Last Summer” sequel.  We may not be able to see the Buffy revival series, but Gellar’s involvement in “Here I Come” is enough to compensate for that misfortune.

Overall, “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” doesn’t hide itself away from its lack of freshness, but it provides a bloodier and wickedly serviceable follow-up to the 2019 surprise hit that’s worth seeking out.  This is another sequel that offers exactly what fans of its predecessor want from its premise, while expanding on its rules and narrative stakes.  In this case, it’s a deadly game of “Hide and Seek” with the wealthiest families on the planet.  This approach doesn’t have enough ideas or subversive tricks to keep its familiar concept from losing steam due to its middling screenplay and runtime.  Fortunately, the Radio Silence duo maintains its predecessor’s tone that blends dark comedy with grisly violence to provide enough entertainment value to keep me from quitting too early.  Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton delivered an enjoyable “estranged sister” dynamic through their performances, and the twisted humor continues to satisfy, for the most part, through its satirical portrayal of wealthy families.  I had fun enduring the second round of this blood-soaked scenario, but I can also admit that its storytelling makes me want to play a new game instead.  If you enjoyed the first film, you’ll likely have a good time with “Here I Come” despite its shortcomings, although whether you like it more or less will depend on your expectations towards the screenplay.   

C+