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A horror sequel involving David Cronenberg and exploding heads… is it the Scanners sequel we dared not dream about? Well, not quite. The Canadian horror legend is in front of the camera in a follow-up that sacrifices Ready or Not’s insurgent sneer in favour of an upscaled premise and many more detonating bonces.
Horror collective Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Scream) return to the blood-soaked wedding dancefloor to pick up exactly where their wild 2019 comedy-horror left off. Samara Weaving’s blood-drenched bride Grace is puffing a ciggie, in shock after the happiest day of her life descended into a lethal, viscera-soaked game of hide-and-seek. Behind, her rich fiancé’s mansion burns with his sick and twisted family cindering inside.
The lack of time jump offers a propulsive energy, skipping onto a new chapter that swiftly introduces Grace’s estranged sister Faith (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s Kathryn Newton) – the emergency contact she forgot to update – and more peril. Entertainingly, Ready or Not: Here I Come answers that age old question: what do the police really think when they encounter a blood-soaked final girl? ‘Yeah, you’re going to prison,’ notes her sister when she’s heard the incriminating recap of the events in the first film.
The world is much expanded here, though, in a way that’ll feel (over) familiar to anyone versed in the John Wick, Hunger Games, Squid Games or any number of other modern exploitation franchises – as well as Succession.
One encounter with an industrial washing machine is a gleefully disgusting highlight
Cronenberg is Chester Danforth, the dying billionaire head of a Satan-worshipping cabal who summons four of the world’s richest clans for another Grace hunt when the first film’s events come to light. This 4chan fever dream comes with rules and regs, outlined by Elijah Wood’s immaculate lawyer: you can’t kill members of other clans; spectators must step up if their relatives die; and weapons must be specific to the century their family first joined the secret society. The mysterious Mr Le Bail oversees it all.
Disappointingly, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett don’t go the whole hog and equip these super-rich psychos with trebuchets and halberds, but they don’t miss too many tricks when it comes to offing this despicable bunch. One encounter with an industrial washing machine is a gleefully disgusting highlight.
Sisterly squabbles provide a new dimension to the sequel, with Grace and Faith handcuffed together, Defiant Ones-style, as they try to survive on the golf course, grounds and casino of the new killing grounds. Their bitching is mirrored by Sarah Michelle Gellar and The Pitt’s Shawn Hatosy as the siblings who try to bury their mutual hatred long enough to hunt down Grace.
Newton is a fun addition as the bubbly Faith, but the game Weaving is MVP again: a sharp finger in the eye of the one percent. This is a broader sequel, though, that only has more of the same for her to do. It’ll pass an evening but it won’t blow your mind.
In cinemas worldwide Friday March 20.