Ready or Not 2: Here I Come Review

by Cineman with a video review by Dean

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come reunites the creative team behind the cult hit original, with directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett returning alongside writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy.

CINEMAN

Because the same team is back at the helm, my expectations were naturally high. Their original film, Ready or Not, struck such a perfect balance between savage satire, inventive horror, and relentless pacing that a sequel seemed like fertile ground for more chaotic fun.

For the sequel, the story follows Grace once again: “After surviving one deadly game, Grace and her sister Faith must now outrun four rival families competing for a powerful throne — winner takes all”.

The film picks up right where the first one left off. Literally. And for a brief moment, that choice feels electric. Being dropped straight back into this strange, goofy, ultra-violent world is exciting. The tone is familiar and the chaos is back. It feels like the sequel is gearing up to double down on everything that made the original so entertaining.

But then the film takes a different turn.

Instead of leaning into the stripped-down survival thriller energy that powered the first film, the sequel spends much of its time trying to deepen the mythology of the world. It digs into the lore, the history of the families, and attempts to add emotional resonance by exploring themes of family dynamics and generational trauma (on both sides).

On paper, this is the textbook definition of where you’d want to take the storytelling. Focus on character. Expand the world. Raise the stakes. The problem is that in doing so, the film forgets what made the original great in the first place.

The first Ready or Not worked because it was brutally simple. A woman trying to survive a night while a deranged family hunts her. That primal instinct for survival drove the story forward with relentless momentum. Every scene pushed Grace further into desperation, and we stayed glued to the screen rooting for her every step of the way.

The sequel, unfortunately, is living in the shadow of that simplicity. Without the element of surprise or novelty that powered the original, the filmmakers try to compensate by expanding the mythology. But the result is an overload of exposition that slows the film down and dilutes the tension. Instead of escalating the survival game, the story pauses too often to explain itself.

The irony is that the first film already had just enough lore baked into its premise to work perfectly. The strange family history and occult details were there, but they were seasoning (or toppings I guess), not the main course.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come flips that balance. What was once a sharp, propulsive survival horror becomes a heavier, lore-driven sequel that struggles to recapture the raw thrill of its predecessor. The fun, violent world is still there, but the instinct that made it pulse with energy has been buried under too much explanation.

And that’s a shame, because when the film remembers to just let Grace (and Faith) run, fight, and survive, it briefly feels like the sequel we were hoping for in certain moments.

There’s also a strange shift in how the villains land this time around. When Ready or Not came out in 2019, the idea of ultra-wealthy families participating in bizarre, ritualistic games felt absurd enough to be funny. The villains were grotesque caricatures of the elite, which made the film’s satire land with a wicked sense of humour. But watching the sequel in 2026, after years of increasingly disturbing glimpses into the private excesses and moral detachment of real-world elites, the joke doesn’t quite land the same way. The villains here no longer feel like cartoonish exaggerations. If anything, they feel uncomfortably plausible. And once that happens, the film’s dark comedy leads to more uncomfortable laughs than ecstatic ones.

Overall, the sequel does not live up to its predecessor, and that’s a shame.

Cineman’s Rating: 5/10

DEAN

Check out Dean’s review on his YouTube channel, Dean on Screen. Also, make sure to subscribe to get his new videos, including reviews, quizzes and games, draft picks, tier ratings and more. For the love of movies!

Dean’s Rating: 6/10

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come releases in theatres on 20 March 2026.

Overall Team Rating: 5.5/10

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