Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the filmmaking collective known as Radio Silence, are most famous for directing the fifth and sixth films in the “Scream” franchise—and for stepping away from the series just before it spectacularly imploded.
(Given the controversies surrounding “Scream 7”—star Melissa Barrera being fired over a pro-Palestine social media post, director Christopher Landon stepping aside due to death threats, and the Kevin Williamson-directed final cut opening to abysmal reviews—Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett should be commended for their foresight.)
Happily, forsaking “Scream”—along with the series’ quasi-religious devotion to the very genre tropes it mocks with meta-jokes—has allowed the gentlemen of Radio Silence to make a sequel to a smarter, more subversive film: “Ready or Not” (2019), their crowd-pleasing, script-flipping slasher.
While most slashers have unlikable, unintelligent protagonists (ensuring that the viewer roots for iconic villains to deliver a violent comeuppance), “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” has Grace (Samara Weaving), a street-smart badass. A ball of righteous anger, Grace is the opposite of her enemies from the first film: the members of the elitist, tradition-bound Le Domas family, who proved hilariously incompetent at completing the Devil’s rituals.
Following the tidy wrap-up of the original, the sequel styles itself as a “World Domination” expansion pack. Picking up where the first film left off, “Here I Come” introduces a High Council of wealthy families who must finish the satanic sacrifice of Grace that the Le Domases failed to complete—or face the judgment of diabolical Mr. Le Bail (played by producer James Vanderbilt, who wrote David Fincher’s “Zodiac”).
Fans of a certain Keanu Reeves film series will find this particular twist familiar. The High Council recalls the High Table introduced in “John Wick: Chapter 2” (2017), while Elijah Wood’s role as The Lawyer, Mr. Le Bail’s mouthpiece, parallels Asia Kate Dillon’s sinister Adjudicator in “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” (2019).
It’s The Lawyer who decrees, per Mr. Le Bail’s giant book of ancient bylaws, that Grace must once again play a particularly brutal game of hide-and-seek—this time, double or nothing, with her sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), by her side. (Hey, if Newton could survive “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” she can survive anything.)
In the first film, Grace indicated that she had no family but foster parents; here, Faith makes her entrance lambasting a hospitalized Grace for their acrimonious falling-out. If they are to survive the game—played on a massive estate dominated by a casino and a golf course—they’ll need to cast aside their differences and remember that blood is thicker than water (especially in a slasher flick).
Not surprisingly for a sequel to a film with one of the goriest finales this side of Dante’s “Inferno,” the bloody combustions of “Here I Come” escalate gleefully. Among the crowd favorites: boiling an enemy in an industrial washing machine (“Bath time!” Grace quips) and bludgeoning by synthesizer (while “Total Eclipse of the Heart” plays in the background).
Amid the carnage, there are multiple international families under Mr. Le Bail’s thumb, with the film focusing on the game’s gruesome hosts, the Danforths: Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Titus (Shawn Hatosy), and patriarch Mr. Danforth (David Cronenberg).
Cronenberg may get precious little screen time, but he makes a great impact. Despite being bedridden, Mr. Danforth can still make a phone call and declare a ceasefire in a war across the planet, then watch CNN announce that breaking news only one second later. (Cronenberg, who directed “Videodrome,” has lost none of his media savvy and savagery.)
While Mr. Danforth is a godlike presence, Ursula and Titus stand out as villains who know they’re in a sequel—and raise the stakes accordingly. Ursula is a master manipulatrix, a crack shot with an antique pistol, and a skillful stake wielder (having been Buffy Summers in a past life); Titus, thanks to Hatosy’s surprisingly sinister transformation, is the dark star of this piece.
Just as Chris Evans doffed Captain America’s spandex to play the venomous aesthete Ransom in “Knives Out” (2019), Hatosy draws a deadly contrast to his performance as the strapping, virtuous fan favorite Dr. Abbot on “The Pitt.” Frequently on the receiving end of humiliating slaps, Titus proves to be more shark than man, his eyes appearing black and lifeless as he viciously beats anyone who stands against him.
It’s a wonder that Grace doesn’t lose her moral center as she faces all these human monsters doing the Devil’s bidding to keep the world in a state of decadent inequality and war. But with Faith at her side, the game is hers to lose—and Mr. Le Bail’s excuse to punish his faithful servants for maximum viewer delight.
