Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin/Tyler GillettRelease Date(s)
2026 (June 16, 2026)Studio(s)
Radio Silence Productions/Searchlight Pictures (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: C-
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: B-
Review
Radio Silence’s Ready or Not was a breath of fresh air when it was released in 2019, although some of the wind was taken out of its sails when Knives Out landed a few months later and dominated the cultural moment. But Ready or Not’s saucy blend of social satire and balls-out horror still beat Rian Johnson’s satirical murder mystery to the punch, and it generated a respectable $58 million against a $6 million budget. That’s certainly enough to generate a sequel, but codirectors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett got busy making Scream (V) and Scream VI instead, as well as their 2024 locked room vampire mystery Abigail. But they weren’t yet ready to let go of Ready or Not, so it was inevitable that they’d work their way back into figuring out how to continue the saga of Grace MacCaullay (played by the luminous Samara Weaving).
The problem is that Ready or Not functioned as an entirely self-contained story (quite literally so, since it takes place at a single location), with a pitch-perfect ending that couldn’t possibly be topped. Where could you go from there? The solution that they worked out with screenwriters Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy was to take the John Wick approach by expanding the original film’s mythology, elevating it to the next level (and beyond). But as the John Wick franchise has already proven, it’s too easy to get lost in your own mythos and forget the simplicity that made the original film work. So, Bettinelli-Olpin, Gillett, Busick and Murphy expanded their original film’s lore for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, but shoehorned the exact same game of hide and seek into it. The result is an uneasy blend of the old and the new that doesn’t necessarily take anything away from the first film, but it doesn’t really add anything to it, either.
To leave no doubts about the connection, Ready or Not 2 begins right where the first film left off, with Grace (Weaving) having survived her in-laws from the Le Domas family, but she’s been left battered and bloody in the process. The additional carnage that she left behind her leads to obvious legal issues, but those prove to be the least of her problems. She’s reunited with her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) while still in the hospital, but soon both of them run afoul of the remaining five families of the previously unmentioned Council: the Danforth family (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, and David Cronenbert); the El Caido family (Néstor Carbonell, Juan Pablo Romero, and Maia Jae); the Rajan family (Nadeem Umar-Khitab, Varun Saranga, and Masa Lizdek); the Wan family (Olivia Cheng and Antony Hall); and the Wilkinson family (Kevin Durand). Oh, and the Council’s droll lawyer (Elijah Wood), who explains that the bylaws require Grace to play another deadly game of hide and seek with the heads of each family. Carnage ensues.
The other problem faced by Ready or Not 2 is that the first film left the sanity of the Le Domas family as an open question until the very end of the film. Oh, they were clearly mad, but there was still room for doubt regarding whether they were simply mad as hatters or if there was a sinister method to their madness after all. That question was finally answered in explosive fashion during the finale, with their deceased patron Le Bail (producer James Vanderbilt) making a ghostly appearance to exact far more than a pound of flesh for the failures of each and every member of the Le Domas family, its newest member excepted. Yet all of that was brought back down to earth by Grace’s final line, which perfectly summed up her own familial travails and capped everything off on a whimsical note.
So, as Ready or Not 2 begins, there’s no question that Le Bail’s influence is quite real, and there’s exactly zero doubts about the price that people have to pay for failing him. That doesn’t leave much room for surprises in the second film, other than relatively trivial narrative ones. Like John Wick before it, the only solution was to double down on the carnage, and that’s exactly what Ready or Not 2 does. Radio Silence truly found their calling with the exploding bodies in the first film, which were reused in Abigail and then became the primary theme of Ready or Not 2. The social satire is largely absent, but the great gouts of splattering blood aren’t just back, they’ve been raised to the Nth degree. That all pays off during the truly explosive finale, which finally offers the veritable La Magra that Blade promised but failed to deliver—it’s a blood wind, and then some.
Still, it’s great to have Weaving back as Grace, and Newton is a welcome addition as well, matching Weaving’s defiant fortitude step for step. The rest of the cast is fine, with Wood, Hatosy, and Durand standing out in particular, but Ready or Not 2 is Weaving and Newton’s film through and through. Yes, the story lacks any real surprises and much of it feels exactly like what it is: namely, a retread. And no, it doesn’t add anything essential to the lore of the first film. But any journey led by Weaving (and now Newton) is a trip worth taking, even if the sights are familiar ones. Ready or Not 2 may be an unnecessary sequel, but as unnecessary sequels go, it has its moments—and it still has Samara Weaving, so God’s still in his heaven, all is right with the world.
Cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz captured Ready or Not 2: Here I Come digitally at 4.6K resolution (in ARRIRAW format) using Arri Alexa 35 cameras with Cooke 5/i lenses. Postproduction work was completed as a 4K Digital Intermediate, framed at 2.39:1 for theatrical release. While Radio Silence’s Abigail was initially released on Blu-ray only but later received a 4K upgrade, just like the first Ready or Not, this one is currently Blu-ray only with no indication that a 4K version is forthcoming. That’s disappointing, because while the video quality is stellar by Blu-ray standards, there’s room for improvement with a good HDR grade.
Still, as standard Blu-rays go, there’s little to complain about here. Fine textures are nicely resolved, from subtle facial details (Kathyrn Newton’s skin isn’t quite as smooth as it may appear at first glance) to the grass on the green where Grace and Faith start the new game of hide and seek. The warm orange-teal grade from the first film has been traded for a greater emphasis on cooler greens and blues, but never fear, the omnipresent reds of the blood are still deep and rich. The blacks are deep as well, and while an HDR grade might have wrung a little more detail out of them, there aren’t any major issues here with noise or other artifacts.
Primary audio is offered in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Just like the first film, IMDb states that Ready or Not 2: Here I Come was released theatrically in Dolby Atmos, but there aren’t any logos for it at the end of the closing credits. Regardless, it’s a solid 5.1 mix that responds well to the Dolby Surround and DTS:X upmixing algorithms. The LFE channel gets a good workout with the pounding bass at the club early in the film and the abundant explosions later on. The surround channels are also kept busy with whizzing bullets and gouts of blood splattering, well, everywhere. But like the first film, the music is a huge part of the experience, from the score by Sven Faulconer to the various pieces of source music. The needle drops arguably aren’t quite as memorable this time, but they still work well enough.
Additional audio options include English 2.0 Descriptive Audio; Spanish (Spain) 5.1 DTS; and French (France), French (Canada), Spanish (Latin America), German, and Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital. Subtitles options include English SDH, French (Canada), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), German, Italian, Czech, Polish, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish.
The Fox Searchlight/Disney/Sony Blu-ray release of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come comes with a slipcover that duplicates the theatrical poster artwork on the insert, and it also offers a Digital code on a paper insert tucked inside the case. The following extras are included, all of them in HD:
- Commentary by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Samara Weaving, and Kathryn Newton
- Commentary by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murphy, James Vanderbilt, Tripp Vinson, and Jay Prychidny
- The Game Goes On: The Making of Ready or Not 2:
- Part 1: Written in Blood (2:25)
- Part 2: Casting the Chaos (5:41)
- Part 3: Designed for Destruction (3:30)
- Part 4: Blood, Guts, and Practical Mayhem (3:06)
- Rules of the Game (2:13)
- Gag Reel (11:00)
The first commentary features Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett joined by cast members Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton. With outsized personalities like Weaving and Newton involved, it’s a less focused but more entertaining track, although they’re a little more down to business than you might think. There’s a lot of emphasis on finding the right tonal balance in the film, from hashing out the performances to eliminating material that didn’t quite fit—they shot a lot of footage to hone things down to what worked best. They also discuss the athleticism that was necessary in order to have the stamina to get through such a strenuous shoot, and a few practical details like having to deal with the makeup effects and not having enough stunt people available for everyone to jump in the pit at the end. All that, plus they wish each other Happy Birthday every time someone explodes, so there’s that.
The second commentary is more technical, with Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett joined by writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy; producers James Vanderbilt and Tripp Vinson; and editor Jay Prychidny. (While they’re all recorded together, Murphy wasn’t physically present and joined via Zoom.) They explain the complexities of the open shot, which picks up right where the first film left off and then continues from there, and that leads to a discussion about how the new story was developed. They also talk about the “language of the movie” (primarily the tone), the casting, the setting, the effects, and more, but the bulk of the track is taken up with them analyzing the story on a scene-by-scene basis.
The Game Goes On: The Making of Ready or Not 2 is a four-part—oh, come on now, let’s call it like it is: this is a perfunctory 14-minute EPK featurette that’s been pointlessly divided into four parts, most of them lasting barely two or three minutes. Fortunately, there’s a Play All option, or else some of them would be over before you have a chance to put down the remote. It includes interviews with all the usual suspects like Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Samara Weaving, plus, Kathryn Newton, Shawn Hatosy, Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Cronenberg, production designer Andrew Stearn, costume designer Avery Plewes, makeup artist Colin Penman, and more. They cover topics including the story, the casting, the production design, and the makeup effects. They also address the challenges of coming up with a new story for the sequel, although Weaving gives it away a bit when she admits that it’s just the same game on a bigger scale.
Rules of the Game is a separate two-minute featurette that recaps the rules of hide and seek from the first film, and then breaks down the modified rules for the second game. Why? You tell me.
Finally, there’s a Gag Reel that for once is a genuine collection of outtakes, rather than one of those annoyingly edited reels that are only amusing to members of the cast and crew. There are plenty of improv moments and proof of the challenges involved with having a real goat on set (and also the challenges that Elijah Wood faced from his headdress at the end of the film).
The commentaries are fine, but the rest of the extras are pretty weak tea. The first film at least offered a full-blown documentary, but no such luck here. Still, that’s appropriate for a film that suffers in the shadows of its predecessor anyway. It’s recommended only for hardcore fans of the franchise—casual fans are better off sticking with their memories of the first film.
-Stephen Bjork
(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).