When we last left our new bride, Grace, at the end of 2019’s “Ready or Not,” she was smoking a well-earned cigarette, having survived a night of slaughter. She sat on a stone step as a mansion went up in flames behind her, her wedding dress ripped and caked with blood, dirt and grime (but mostly blood.)
“In-laws,” she’d explained drily, when asked by police what had happened. It was the biggest laugh of the movie — and also well-earned, especially by us, after all that gore.
Now, seven years later, we have “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” which takes off from that same moment. But the mood does not remain light. Uttering that last line, Grace (Samara Weaving) then collapses into unconsciousness and is carted away by ambulance. And her troubles, of course, are just beginning.
It’s hard to pinpoint why this next level of Grace’s very bad wedding night, again directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, feels darker and heavier — and hence, less enjoyable — than the original, which managed to maintain a bouncy feel, even with bodies combusting at an absurd rate. But if we have to blame someone, we’re gonna go with the doctor from “The Pitt.”
Yep, that would be Shawn Hatosy, and we’re sorry, dear handsome Dr. Jack Abbott, but we never thought you could be such a downer. There’s a particularly odious scene where Hatosy’s character, Titus, seems to echo the murderous Shakespearean protagonist that he is, come to think of it, probably named after — Titus Andronicus. His twin sister, Ursula, is played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, and together they’re quite the depressing duo.
But back to the plot: Grace had triumphantly stayed alive ’til dawn in the first movie, thus winning the dastardly game she’d been forced to play moments after marrying Alex, her rich boyfriend. Required by family ritual to draw a game card from a deck, she’d unluckily drawn hide-and-seek, which meant she had to hide while the extended family hunted her down with weapons both antique and modern. Only gritty Grace survived.
The supporting cast of the first movie, including Andie MacDowell and Adam Brody, is not back (duh). In their place is a new group, including Hatosy, Gellar, Elijah Wood as the attorney who runs the grim proceedings, and Kathryn Newton as Grace’s sister, Faith.
Or should we say estranged sister. Faith shows up at Grace’s hospital bed, having not seen her in years, because she was listed as Grace’s emergency contact. There’s a detective in the room, too. Grace is now, annoyingly, suspected of arson and murder.
But soon none of that matters. Because, it turns out, Grace is being hunted yet again — not by her in-laws, the Le Domas family, which is gone, but by four other families jockeying for the High Seat on the council that rules the world.
And so Grace is captured, and everyone converges on a Newport, Rhode Island, estate with a gorgeous golf course, for another night of hunting. Is Grace up to the challenge of this new level of play?
Of course she is, and so is Weaving, who proves yet again that she’s better than the material: expressive in both fear and feistiness, a good screamer, and able to step back for an occasional moment of humor. Lookalike Newton proves an appealing companion, and of course Faith and Grace stop bickering and start bonding — did you expect anything else? “I tried to invite you to the wedding,” Grace says helpfully at one point. Reminder: the wedding ended in a bloodbath.
Speaking of a bloodbath, deep into the movie’s production notes comes an icky statistic: Some 250 gallons of stage blood were used for the film. Maybe all that blood was needed, but the extra 15 minutes of run time, compared to the original, feel unnecessary. You start to wonder when dawn will come.
And while most of the deaths have a cartoonish element, there’s nothing cartoonish when Titus is involved.
No, there is little to redeem this truly mendacious character. So fair warning: If you’re still in the middle of the current season of “The Pitt,” where Hatosy’s Abbott is busy being heroic and also taking off his shirt, it might be better to wait a bit before you watch him here, doing the very opposite of saving lives.
“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” a Searchlight Pictures release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association “for strong bloody violence, gore, pervasive language and brief drug use.” Running time: 148 minutes. Two stars out of four.
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