Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come - For the Love of Buffy

She's back...against her will, but she's back.

Samara Weaving returns to the world of Ready or Not as Grace, who after getting married to the love of her life had to play a game. The Le Domas family are a board game dynasty, so Grace thinks it's just a quirky thing. Turns out, they're part of a devil cult and when she picked Hide and Seek as her game, she had to survive to sunrise while the family tried to kill/sacrifice her.

She wins the game and for a moment you think all of it, the lives they took over the years were just for nothing. Then...each member of the family explodes into a bloody mess. As the sunrises, the family is dead, the mansion in on fire, and Grace sits on the steps outside needing a smoke as the police and fire department show up.

This is where the first movie ended...the sequel picks up immediately from here.

When I saw the first one, it was insane. I mean, she punches a kid that shot her in the hand. Her will to survive was strong and as the credits rolled, I, like many people had to be thinking...Uh, she's cover in blood, house is on fire, family's dead; this doesn't end well for her does it?

No...it does not. For a multitude of reasons.

She wakes up handcuffed to a hospital bed and her estranged sister shows up. She's in a lot of trouble, obviously, with the police and has a lot to answer for. Will they buy the family was a Devil cult and she had to survive? Most likely no.

Her surviving and the death of the family created a new game. The Le Domas family were part of a Council. Six families with the head of the table ruling the world. This is literally. We see an old guy in a hospital bed make a phone call and ended a literal war.

Grace is joined in this Sudden Death match with her sister Faith. When Grace was 18, she left her foster family for the city to try and build a life, leaving her sister behind. That put a big chip on Faith's shoulder. She wanted to go with Grace, but Grace was a kid herself and wasn't ready to take care of her sister by herself. The conflict between the two is rampant throughout.

While I understood the need for the internal conflict, it was neither the time nor the place. Stow your crap until you survive the night and THEN hash it out. They're both adults now, Faith had to understand at least in part why she chose to leave her sister behind and Grace should understand why it upset Faith so much.

Despite the tension, the two are paired together into the final game.

Announcer voice: Let's meet our contestants...

Danforth Family: Siblings Ursula (le sigh...Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy)

The Wans: Wan Chen Xing and her idiot son

The Rajans: Madhu and Martina Rajan (married couple) and his brother Viraj

El Caidos: Ignacio and his daughter (former fiance to Grace's husband) Francesca.

Wilkinsons: Loses immediately trying to kill Grace before the game began

Elijah Wood is the fancy demon lawyer. He's not an acutal demon, but kind I got Wolfram and Hart vibes from him so...

The game's afoot and it goes as insanely as the first movie. As the rules are made clear, Grace must find a way to keep her sister safe and survive the night. The Danfroth siblings are ruthless and want the ring to rule the world. With Sarah as one of them, part of me wanted to root for her (she's had my heart since 97), but she was part of a devil cult.

While I was expecting her to survive the night, the way she makes it to the end shows just how clever Grace was. Everything you saw throughout came together with her ingenious plan.

The Ready or Not franchise doesn't really disappoint. Its horror, but its a horror-comedy. You're going to have fun time with it. While light on scares, the horror comes from the tense situation she's in with the families trying to kill her and her sister. You get some emotion as they trauma bond and heal their relationship as they try to make it to sunrise.

They spend most of the budget on blood and the sets. That's where the franchise thrives, in its simplicity. It's Samara Weaving running through fancy buildings and sets in a bloody wedding dress and sandshoes. Its a survival horror comedy.

I always enjoy movies like this for what they're meant to be...a popcorn eating fun time. It's not being anything more than that. You're not leaving it pondering the meaning of life, you're pondering how would you have survived. Would you have survived.

Me? I'd probably die. And if its SMG's character Ursula doing it, then so be it.

4/5 for a swell time.