The first Ready or Not made a bride run for her life. Six years on, the follow-up proves surviving isn't the end: it's just the opening round.
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett return to helm the horror romp, with Samara Weaving reprising Grace, the bride who survived her murderous in-laws. Big Little Lies star Kathryn Newton dives into the maelstrom as her estranged sister.
Sarah Michelle Gellar wields a slayer's edge as a dangerously calculating adversary, while Elijah Wood abandons Middle-earth for mayhem, becoming a delightfully deranged master of chaos.
A candlelit banquet, governed by baffling rules, collapses into something deliriously madcap, with pandemonium spilling over into every corner.
The satire is sharper this time, taking a chainsaw to generational wealth where the original only nudged it. The unfolding madness is grounded by pitch-black, bone-dry humour.
Ready or Not 2 star Elijah Wood chats to RTÉ Entertainment:
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Elijah Wood praised the patient craftsmanship behind the film, commending the co-creators for resisting the urge to rush a sequel.
"I've been following Matt [Bettinelli-Olpin] and Tyler [Gillett] of Radio Silence for years, and I've always admired what they were doing in the genre space," he said. "We got to know each other a bit, and through my production company, SpectreVision, we'd been waiting for the right project to collaborate on. Then they sent me the script for this — and it was such a surprise."
What made it even sweeter? "It was a sequel some six years down the line, which is wonderful in the sense that they didn't just immediately jump on trying to make a sequel," he added. "They really waited for there to be a story or an idea that was befitting the original concept, and the script really delivered."
Ready or Not 2 isn't without its flaws. At times, escalation substitutes for depth, and certain threads feel included more for body count than stakes.
Yet, it largely delivers what it promises - it's louder, wilder, and bloody good fun.
