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Sequels to sleeper hits have one of the worst success rates in Hollywood and I say that with enough confidence having watched this happen over and over again across twenty something years of being addicted to movies, because studios hear the word "hit" and immediately start throwing money and committee notes at something that worked precisely because it did not have those things. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come had every single red flag on paper, a five year gap since the original, a setup built around one perfect contained night that nobody asked to revisit, truth is that idk how the hell the "audience" on RTT like it so much, I didnt hate it although it was kinda meh, and a sequel title that lacks so much more imagination, hhhmmm lets add a 2 to the name and we golden. So when I tell you that Matt Bettinelli Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the Radio Silence duo, actually pulled this thing off in a way that surprised me I was looking for something, dont want to say worst because the movie not bad bad but its not so good as everyone describes, understand that I walked into it fully expecting to be let down. The move from that suffocating old mansion to a sprawling resort sounds like a lateral upgrade on paper but it changes everything because now the geography is unpredictable, the threats keep multiplying from different directions, and there is no corner of this world that feels like a safe house. The Radio Silence guys clearly came back because they had something specific to say with a bigger canvas and more money, the movie does scale the chaos from the first one without feeling forced but doesnt add that much new to it, well we already know how things going to play out if you saw the first one.
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Here is where things get a little complicated though, because the script gets seriously bogged down because of certain specific situations that the original never needed or wanted. Elijah Wood shows up as this deadpan lawyer type for the whole devil worshipping power council situation and he is great in the role, weird and funny just as he should be but he spends a big chunk of the movie stopping the action to explain new rules and legal loopholes and ancient family hierarchies and all of it feels like it belongs in a different and much more self serious movie than the one surrounding him. The first Ready or Not worked because you understood everything in about ten minutes and then it was just a completely insane chase through a house and Ready or Not 2 keeps pumping the brakes to make you understand a much more complicated world that the story probably did not need. The pacing also takes a hit from the emotional conversations the script forces between Faith and Grace about their past and their childhood trauma, and you can see the intention there, the writers wanted to give the sequel some actual weight and meaning between sisters ans much more context that they probably didnt have enough time for, but it comes across as manufactured fake depth in a movie that is at its absolute best when it is not slowing down to manufacture anything. You could see where some of the later developments were heading from very early, which kinda suck when you want the movie to keep surprising you.
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Sarah Michelle Gellar makes the cast and immediately reminds everyone that she has been doing genre work at a very high level for decades, her character is calculating and cold in a way that cuts right through all the screaming and craziness happening around her, and she brings a specific kind of controlled menace that makes every scene she is in feel like a slightly different movie with sharper edges, reminds me of Dicaprio in Jango. She is part of this new council of elite families all competing for the big seat of power while also trying to take out Grace, and the way these families despise each other even while theoretically sharing a goal gives the movie this kind of unpredictable chaos that the Le Domas family from the first one could never really provide on their own. Then there is Shawn Hatosy as the main threat of the whole thing, quiet and unhurried where everyone else is stumbling over themselves and that particular kind of stillness makes him scarier than pretty much anything the original could gave us because you can never quite tell when he is about to do something devastating. The multiple family angle keeps you guessing about where the next danger is coming from, which is a smart structural choice that keeps you guessing and doesnt make it too predictable but we have had almost every type of horror movie under the sun so dont take this movie as ground breaking, its also what gives the resort setting a real sense of scale rather than just being a bigger location for the same type of chaos. Each family also has a distinct appearance, dress code and personality which tells you the production team put real thought into building this world out rather than just widening the frame.
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