‘Ready or Not 2: I’m Coming’ review: Samara Weaving and Sarah Michelle Gellar in a sequel that can’t conjure the dark magic of the original

Pity the poor horror movie hero. If they’re lucky enough to survive their unimaginably horrific ordeal with enough ingenuity and skill, odds are good that the movie gods will only force them to endure it again, with greater intensity and with less acclaim.

And that’s how Grace (Samara Weaving) ended 2019 ready or not The sole survivor of the wedding night from hell, she barely smokes her cigarette before she finds herself an unwilling participant in another dangerous game. But nonetheless Ready or Not 2: Here I come Everything that made the original work is multiplied, and the returns are diminished. It’s a good enough time, but less than the last time.

Lots of fun ready or not It lies in its simplicity: it was nothing more and nothing less than an extremely violent display of hide-and-seek, backed by some straight-up ‘deal with the devil’ tradition. What brought it to the next level was Weaving’s unique performance as the final girl, punctuated by blood-curdling screams that sounded quite operatic, and some nice bits of comedic character in the margins, as most of the new in-laws who go after her prove not only evil, but hilariously stupid.

Here I comewhich reunites directors Matt Bettinelli Olpin and Tyler Gillette and writers Jay Busiek and R. Christopher Murphy, offers more of everything. Where Grace was the only target ready or notThis time, she’s joined by her similarly feisty, equally blonde sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), who has the same name. While the Le Domases seemed like a uniquely satanic family, this film reveals that they were just one of six super-rich, Satan-worshiping clans spread across the world, and not even the most influential.

That honor goes to the casino-owning Danforths, whose patriarch (David Cronenberg, in a brief but entertaining cameo) is powerful enough to cancel entire wars with a single phone call. (At a time when it’s become terrifyingly clear how easy it would be for a foolish billionaire to start a war, the idea that someone else could end it in the same improvised manner is perhaps the most plausible part of the entire film.) But with the Le Domas line annihilated, the high seat of the council of Monsieur Le Bail (aka Satan) is now up for grabs. The remaining families of the Danforth’s sprawling Connecticut estate gather to determine which individual will be the first to kill Grace, thus securing the throne.

The element of surprise was mostly gone, even if Grace told Faith that one never gets used to people spontaneously combusting in front of you. But the gravity is somewhat worse for wear. Here I come He may still not have much to say about the class struggle beyond “The 0.00000001% sure are bad,” but it’s still fun to watch them flail ineptly with their reactionary weapons, whine about their irrelevant problems (“At least clean it up first,” complains one as he hands over a sharpened pen to sign his name in blood), or get killed in gruesome and inventive ways.

The fabric remains an intense magnetic wire, even if she screams to do it less this time. And if Chuck’s look and blood-stained leotard seemed like a revelation in the first film, it might be a good idea here to have Peter Parker don his Spider-Man suit the way audiences rejoiced at the SXSW premiere.

Then there are the new additions to enjoy. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sean Hatosy (the house) They share a believably toxic sisterly energy as the Danforth twins, Ursula and Titus, who have trained their whole lives for just this occasion. Francesca (Maya Gay), the daughter of a Spanish TV anchor (Nestor Carbonell), brings personal revenge into the mix as the jilted fiancée of Grace’s late husband. The viewing room in which the heirs are allowed to watch the game becomes the film’s comedic highlight, as the younger siblings and children go from ranting with each other to shaking in their boots, as the prospect of losing the game, and thus dying out entirely as a breed, becomes terrifyingly real.

But with new pleasures come new dangers. The first is the expansion of lore, which has become so complex that it requires the introduction of an entirely new character to explain and re-explain the rules. While Elijah Wood, who was recently seen in… Yellow vests and I love Los Angeles He excels at playing strange little men, and is perfectly cast as the quiet lawyer of Mr. Le Bel, less a character than an exhibition machine.

The other is the pressure to raise the stakes on a story that already seemed intense enough. Through no fault of Newton’s, Faith serves as a second protagonist as much as a prop to give Grace more emotional investment in the proceedings by burdening her with guilt over their breakup or opportunities to nobly sacrifice herself. Meanwhile, in trying to give Grace a bigger, nastier, and darker villain to face off against this time around, the film oversteps its mark, raising the specter of domestic violence in ways that seem a bit too plausible to match the film’s cartoonish gore.

Here I come It still moves forward, in the end, delivering enough goodies to keep fans screaming, laughing, and cheering throughout. But if its creators are eyeing a third gamble in this universe, it may be time for them to do what many casino-goers on the Danforth hope to do: ponder the wisdom of quitting while they’re ahead.