'Ready or Not 2: Here I Come' Can't Hide from Repetition
Ready or not, here comes another unnecessary sequel. But is it fun? Only if you enjoy more of the same. Which, judging by Rotten Tomatoes, many folks do. That’s perfectly okay. Not everyone has to agree on the same film. If we all liked the same movie, then the cinema would be boring. Speaking of cinema, the way this movie is shot can’t help but make me wonder if I’m high. It might be a nitpick, but digital cinema is an eyesore for the big screen. Whenever the camera whips or pans or there’s a lot of movement on screen, the image blurs because digital, even after 50 years, still can’t match the natural movement (or really non-movement) of a single frame of film going through a shutter. Like the limitations of digital, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come displays the confines of its concept.
If you’ve seen Ready or Not, then you’ll be caught up to speed on the film’s inception without having the plot re-explained. The picture wastes no time getting into the story. It spoils what happens in movie one from the get-go, as it takes place the second the first film ends, then heads to the hospital, where the movie almost took a Halloween II route, but luckily doesn’t. Or unluckily. When the picture reaches its second act, it regurgitates the plot of the first film with few changes. What was a tense cat-and-mouse game regresses into a snooze-worthy chase fest, with a forced relationship thrust into the lead to give Samara Weaving someone she can relate to. Unfortunately, that relationship doesn’t work very well, since the movie feels very rinse-and-repeat. When the sister comes into the picture, it feels like something the writers added her to give the protagonist someone to relate her problems to. That’s a logical writer’s conclusion, and it could work if the relationship weren’t handled with as much dramatic heft as a soap opera.
For most of the movie, Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) argues with her sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton). At some point in their lives, Grace and Faith lost contact. After being admitted to the hospital following the events of movie one, Faith visits her sister, rekindling a heated sibling rivalry. Faith is one of those characters who come into the sequel and were never established in the first film, but were clearly conceived without much thought for the second film. Faith is a bit like Nathan Drake’s brother from Uncharted 4. We don’t know of his existence, and he only comes in to add more to a narrative that has already long concluded. The only difference is that Uncharted (although a video game) has more material to carry itself, making Nate’s brother Sam a contrived yet effective narrative tool. In RON 2, it’s just padding. Faith’s character wouldn’t be that major a complaint if she weren’t the entire emotional arc of the story. When that arc doesn’t work, the film sinks.
The movie hits the same beats to the point of Grace reacquiring her bloody wedding dress from the first film, like it’s Michael Myers finding his white William Shatner mask. Is this her superhero costume all of a sudden? It’s hard to find tension in a movie where we know the protagonist will be okay, since this isn’t her first rodeo with murderous psychos. If the film has a bright spot, it’s Samara Weaving’s acting, which is far superior to the film she’s actually in. Samara screams and cries her way into another spectacular performance, this time asking her to do the same thing as last time. After playing hide and seek with the worst family in the world before, wouldn’t she be more like Sarah Connor from T2 and less like Sarah from Terminator 1?
A switch from panicked to pissed would have been a great shift in Samara’s character that would have made her development come full circle. There’s some stuff in this film to like. Such as famed psychological body horror director David Cronenberg playing the evil head of the Danforth’s estate. Or Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, playing a bad girl instead of a hero. Or a great scene where two women are trying to kill each other but are swinging at the air due to blinding each other with mace. Have more creative kill sequences like that and fewer of the same scenarios. You know the scenes. One person is on top of our hero, so they free themselves by reaching for something made of glass or a knife to impale the other character with. Overplayed action scenes like that. Also, playing hide-and-seek again is lazy. Have everyone play a different game or try to hunt Grace in public instead of sticking her in another mansion.
Stories about evil rich people are getting old. We all hate the rich. Or at least, the selfish rich. Which, admittedly, is most of them. Yet how many times can we see the narrative about the rich people who commit heinous acts of illegality that they can get away with? It’s hard to be disgusted by these antagonists when real life billionairs do worse things than the satan worshipers in this film. They might murder, but at least they’re not racists, and they don’t rape. If you want to make a real horror film, make a movie where a girl is trapped on an Epstein-like island. It’ll have the same elements of the protagonist killing their way to survival, but it would be something the audience can relate to a lot more. If you’re going to have villains in your story, don’t just take a half-measure by making them not racist. Go for it. Make them rapey biggots like our real-life predators in charge of the world. Then, you’ll have a sequel that’s topical, different, and worth watching instead of this generic slush.
