Crew
Directors – Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, Screenplay – Guy Busick & R. Christopher Murphy, Producers – Bradley J. Fischer, William Sherak, James Vanderbilt & Tripp Vinson, Photography – Brett Jutkiewicz, Music – Sven Faulconer, Original Themes – Brian Tyler. Visual Effects Supervisors – Jesse Kawzenuk & Matthew Whelan, Visual Effects – Lola VFX (Supervisors – Brian Hajeck & Jeremiah Sweeney), Mavericks VFX, Rocket Science VFX, Saturn Rings VFX & Suplex VFX, Special Effects Supervisor – Conor Craig, Production Design – Andrew Stearn. Production Company – Vinson Films/Mythology Entertainment/Radio Silence.
Cast
Samara Weaving (Grace McCaullay), Kathryn Newton (Faith McCaullay), Shawn Hatosy (Titus Danforth), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Ursula Danforth), Elijah Wood (The Lawyer), Maia Jae (Francesca El Caido), David Cronenberg (Chester Danforth), Nestor Carbonell (Ignacio El Caido), Varun Saranga (Madhu Rajan), Olivia Cheng (Wan Chen Xing), Kevin Durand (Bill Wilkinson), Daniel Beirne (Kip Danforth), Masa Lizdek (Martina Rajan), Juan Pablo Romero (Felipe El Caido), Nadeem Umar-Khitab (Viraj Rajan), Grant Nickalls (Detective Roger Bassett), Antony Hall (Wan Cheng Fu), Kara Wooten (Pernilla)
Plot
Grace McCaullay has survived the massacre in the Le Domas mansion following the game of Ready or Not on her wedding night. She is taken to hospital where a detective seeks to question her, believing her responsible for the murders. She is also visited by her long-estranged sister Faith who was listed as her emergency contact. The death of the Le Domas family had created panic among the family of patriarch Chester Danforth who call an international emergency among the other elite families. Grace and Faith are gassed unconscious and wake up at the Danforth family estate. It is explained that Grace’s elimination of the Le Domas family has precipitated a succession crisis among the families for the ring that grants control of much of the world to the wearer. The only solution is a re-run of the game of Ready or Not where the gathered families must eliminate Grace before dawn again. Grace is released into the grounds handcuffed to Faith as the families comes hunting her.
Ready or Not (2019) was the second film from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, two of the four-person team that make up the collective Radio Silence (along with Justin Martinez and Chad Villella). Radio Silence first appeared with 10/31/98 episode of the Found Footage anthology V/H/S (2012) and one of the episodes of the anthology Southbound (2015). Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett went out on their own to make the Found Footage diabolical pregnancy film Devil’s Due (2014). Ready or Not was a success that saw Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett hired to go on to direct Scream (2022), Scream VI (2023) and Abigail (2024), all of which come under the Radio Silence banner, as well as producing Scream 7 (2026).
Ready or Not: Here I Come (which everybody is calling Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, although that title only appears on the end credits) is the same as before but more of it. Thus we get another game where Samara Weaving is pursued through the grounds of a large estate. There are other families hunting her this time and Samara gets the addition of being paired with a sister (Kathryn Newton). Much more is expanded on the concept of the diabolical pact in the original where this now become full on Devil Worship with the families forming a Secret Society seeking a ring that allows the wearer control of the world.
The other aspect of Ready or Not: Here I Come that gets embellished is the sense of Black Humour that ran through the original. It was there but this time Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett expand on it and give it life in ways that quite make the film. The devil worship plot and the contortions around the rules and their interpretations adds another whole element that becomes appealingly over-the-top. I felt on the fence about Ready or Not but by the time of the sequel this larger-than-life plot really pushes the humour home and makes the film zing. The funniest of the new scenes is an all-out fight between Samara Weaving and Maia Jae with both blinded by pepper spray, flailing about in every direction, all to the accompaniment of Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart (1983) on the soundtrack. And of course the climax and Samara Weaving’s subversion of the rules is hilarious.
One of the surprises about Ready or Not: Here I Come is what a sensational cast it manages to assemble – everyone from Elijah Wood as a lawyer, to Sarah Michelle Gellar as one of the principal family members in the hunt, and even celebrated genre director David Cronenberg as the family patriarch. And these contain some surprisingly strong performances too – Cronenberg, at age 83 when the film comes out, plays his couple of scenes with an autocratic control and fierceness. The face that surprised me was Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself Sarah Michelle Gellar who plays with a harsh edge that one has never seen her do before that quite adds something to what has been a limited mid-range acting repertoire she has shown up to date. Although the face that surprised me the most is Kathryn Newton, who has slotted into assorted teenage girl roles (still at the age of 29) up to this point, who brings unexpected strength that makes a fantastic foil for Samara Weaving throughout.
Trailer here