by Patrick Bromley
Warning: Spoilers for 2019's Ready or Not ahead.
The charms of 2019's Ready or Not were simple: a game of hide and seek with life or death stakes, a bit of class commentary, and a fantastic final girl in Samara Weaving, a genre secret weapon for years finally getting her Coming Out Party. It told a complete story, one that ended with Weaving's character alone and covered in the blood of her new in-laws, all of whom exploded when they were unable to fulfill their end of a deal with the devil.. The idea of attempting to sequelize seemed almost impossible, because where could the story possibly even go from there?
Ah, but it's 2026 and Ready or Not is recognizable IP, so prepare yourselves for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. Picking up the very moment that the first film ended -- Grace (Weaving) smoking on the steps, covered in blood -- the sequel rushes her to the hospital, where police are questioning her for what appears to be a whole bunch of murders. Also arriving at the hospital is Faith (Kathryn Newton), Grace's emergency contact and estranged sister who hasn't spoken to her in years. It isn't long before the two of them are kidnapped and hunted down in another game of hide and seek, this time by a bunch of wealthy and powerful families (instead of just one) looking to please Satan and basically take a place at his side, gaining control of...everything?...in the process. Among the ruling class playing the game this time around are twin siblings Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy, Nestor Carbonell, Olivia Cheng, and Kevin Durand.
There are so many rules and so many wrinkles to the game of hide and seek in Ready or Not 2 that I don't even want to attempt to explain the plot in any further detail, especially because the overwritten exposition (by R. Christopher Murphy and Guy Busick, returning from the first film) only affects the outcomes for individual characters, not the overall structure or story being told. The mythology is deeper, the larger world is opened up, but it all boils down to rich people hunting Samara Weaving and her sister for sport with varying degrees of success. I guess this is what we want from a sequel: the appearance of bigger and bolder but really just more of the same. It's the John Wick approach to sequelizing.
That's not automatically bad! At least two of the John Wick sequels made my year-end top 10 lists. I just want to be upfront about the fact that once you strip away complicated rules and loopholes, more characters, and a higher body count, Here I Come is more or less a remake of Ready or Not. Here, as was the case with the John Wick sequels, it all comes down to execution. In that department, I can't say the second film is an improvement over the first, more a lateral move thanks to most of the creative carrying over, including Weaving, Murphy, Busick, and directors Tyler Gillette and Matt Bettinelli-Olphin, better known as Radio Silence. They do their usual good work behind the camera, but for every check in the plus column -- a great cast, some spectacular violence, deeper emotional resonance thanks to the relationship between Weaving and Newton -- there's a counterbalancing check in the minuses. There are too many characters, most of them underwritten. The female body is brutalized to an almost fetishistic degree. There are fewer surprises this time around, because once you know the big twist of the first film, you're not getting anything new here. A big needle ironic needle drop was used better in a horror film just a few years ago. The humor is less playful. It all feels like a wash.
Am I recommending Ready or Not 2: Here I Come? Sure, to people who liked the first movie and are invested in what happens to Grace or who are looking for more of the same. I enjoyed most of my time with it because there's a lot to like in it: not just the buckets of blood being splashed about, but also the weaponizing of David Cronenberg in a small role early on, or the performances from Gellar and Hatosy as the hateful twins, or the addition of Newton, who, like Weaving, has become horror royalty for a new generation. Those for whom Ready or Not failed to click, however, may find themselves frustrated all over again with a follow-up that achieves many of the same goals but also commits the same sins. As a horror kid who grew up in the 1980s, I was getting one of these a month, whether it's explaining more of Freddy Krueger's backstory in Dream Warriors or adding Druid mythology to the Halloween franchise in what is now referred to as the "Thorn trilogy." What I'm saying is that this is not the first horror sequel to spin its wheels in the name of Expanding the Universe. It won't be the last.
No comments:
Post a Comment