Spontaneity can’t be summoned, and Ready or Not 2 doesn’t bother. It goes bigger and louder, increases the stakes and adds sibling dynamics. It also abandons horror in favor of action and jokes.
This is fun. Class warfare to the extreme while maintaining an impish sense of humor. No one is safe or sacred, Bodies explode at regular intervals, and there is no shortage of creative kills.
Performances sell the ludicrous, standout being a fantastically weird Elijah Wood and runner-up Sarah Michelle Gellar vamping up her villainous side. Both are a blast. Always quality leads, Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton, play siblings with a great dynamic.
And their chemistry is great, but subplots are not. Their estrangement and constant squabbling grate. Banter and quips are eye-rolling, and there is overindulgence in lore dumps. But Wood bearably delivers the exposition on pacts governing conspiracies of occult oligarchs and satanic tech bros. Unfortunately, the film is painfully self-aware and the commentary delivered via hamfisted thud.
This is action-comedy cosplaying horror tropes. There are moments of brutality and violence that momentarily let its horror roots show, but these are outliers. This film is in it for the lolz, and the similarly flavored They Will Kill You is the better horror (and action) option of the year.