Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) (NOW SLAYING)

Let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby, lobby.

The Chainsman and Robbie could go as long as he could.

Ah!

Hello, horror hounds, and welcome to Now Slang,

and it's Les podcast production where we break down the latest and greatest in the world of horror.

I'm your not-so-humble host, Colton.

I'm Rowan.

And today on the show, we'll be reviewing

Ready or Not 2 here I come, which was released March 20th, 2026 exclusively in theaters.

Now, Rowan, the original Ready or Not is a little bit of an embarrassing omission

for us on the It's Les podcast, considering how well it's done in our annual

anniversary polls over the years, and the sheer amount of listeners that have reached out

asking us to cover it.

So, without completely spoiling your thoughts on the first movie,

just in case we do eventually cover it on the main show,

I want to know, were you looking forward to Ready or Not 2 here I come?

I had messaged you.

I'd never seen the first one.

I was like, oh, we gotta do the second one.

So, uh, I mean, sure.

And it's because you've been holding out, right,

expecting us to wind up covering it on the main show.

It's literally in the polls every year.

Yeah, I feel like it never makes it that far,

but it's always there.

It's one of those like consistent ones that is always there.

I might be misremembering,

but I feel like there was one or two years it made it to kind of like the semi-final.

Yeah, it was like one of the last four to five picks.

But I remember, because I own it on Blu-ray, and I remember there was like a big thing about

this Blu-ray that it was like super, I don't know why, but it was super expensive,

even if you were buying it like second hand.

I have no idea why it was just like this period of time.

Okay.

I don't know if it was like they didn't make enough for or whatnot,

but I remember like even used like it was like 40 bucks to get your hands on.

Yeah, okay.

I managed, you know, I didn't pay that.

I think I found it like at a store for like 15 bucks.

But yeah, so I just know the popularity of it,

and then obviously, you know, when Radio Silence did like the screams,

it's like, oh, the ready or not, people.

And I was like, I've never seen this,

so I don't know what to expect.

The only thing I'd ever seen from them is Southbound,

the anthology film.

And Abigail.

Oh, Abigail.

Yes, we did do it.

Abigail, which I feel like we both didn't love.

I'm pulling it up right now as you speak.

See where we landed.

We both gave it an okay.

Yeah, I remember thinking it was all right,

but the anthology movie from when they were first starting out,

I remember really liking.

I thought that was fantastic.

Yeah, fantastic.

So yeah, I did go watch the first one,

and it did get me a little excited about this one to see this one.

Obviously, I knew my guy, Adam Brody wasn't in this.

He sadly had a very explosive ending.

So, yeah, sad to hear.

Sad to hear.

But Elijah Wood, all this kind of stuff,

you know, this had me excited as a 90s kid,

you know, Sarah Michelle Geller stuff.

I was like, oh, okay, all right, we're rocking and rolling.

So yeah, I was like a little bit excited to see it.

What about you?

You have seen the first one before this weekend,

so yeah, I saw the first one with actually a decent group of friends as well,

because there were some like lesser-known actors

that were in prominent, I think Canadian TV shows at the time.

I think Winona Erp, or why not?

Yeah, I don't know how you pronounce it.

Yeah, there was an actress or two from that TV show

that was in the original Ready or Not,

and then some of my friend group was fans of that show.

And anyways, so there was a good gagal of us

that went to the first movie,

and I think without spoiling exactly where I land on that movie,

I think we all enjoyed it.

You know, it was a good time.

Samara Weaving is one of those actresses

that I think she's turning out some pretty consistently good work in the horror sphere.

And you know, she's even popped up in other movies

as kind of like the horror it girl, let's say,

in like a scream six for, you know,

having that person who's killed off in the opening

as like being someone who you all recognize.

And similarly, so Catherine Newton,

she's not as quite as strong as what I would say

as Samara Weaving to me,

but she's often times used in movies just correctly,

where she's a lot of fun to watch.

I don't know if she gives me completely like leading girl energy,

but I do overall like these two actresses

were a couple that I was interested in seeing

in a Ready or Not movie.

And honestly, I even like the trailers.

You know, there's lots of familiar faces, as you mentioned.

You know, there was obviously a Sarah Michelle Geller,

but there's Elijah Wood and there's some other people

that you know, we'll get into as we further discuss it,

that overall this looked like,

I don't know if it was going to be as competent as the first one,

but it seemed like it was going to be an entertaining ride nonetheless.

So seeing these trailers for the past couple of months

was getting me more and more excited for the Ready or Not sequel.

Even if I would say, I don't know if I'm as hot on radio silence as everybody else.

You mentioned that some of their movies, you know,

were for or not really for you.

I'm one of those weird people that I really like scream six.

And outside of that, I mean, a lot of their work,

I'm a little bit more mixed on, or I think like,

yeah, it's all right.

So yeah, I was interested to see exactly where I landed on this one.

So are you ready or not for our hot takes?

Well, here they come right after the trailer.

What happened?

After the wedding, my husband tells me I have to pull a card,

some kind of initiation ritual.

So they come to me by one.

Welcome back, Grace.

The game has only just begun.

It's much bigger than us.

Back ground, too.

Yeah.

Ready or not, too, here I come.

Ready or not, too.

Here I come was directed by Matt Betnelli Open and Tyler Gillett,

the directing duo known as Radio Silence,

and written by Guy Bussick and our Christopher Murphy.

And the story is as follows.

After surviving a deadly game of hide and seek,

Grace, newly accompanied by her estranged sister Faith,

must survive yet another game where four powerful families

compete for a seat on a throne with the power to change the world,

and the winner takes all.

Now here on NowSlay, we like to keep things relatively spoiler free up front

before getting into the more in-depth spoiler-filled discussion.

So Rowan, what are your spoiler-free thoughts on Ready or not, too?

Here I come.

Yeah, so I will start off just saying that I do think,

unfortunately, I could have stayed with the first one.

I wasn't running to this one here.

I come.

Yeah, not necessarily a sequel that you think was necessary

based off the events of the first one.

I thought it was interesting for a sequel just basically on the fact that, you know,

big spoiler, even though we're in the spoiler-free section,

spoiler alert for the first one.

If you haven't seen it yet, skip ahead 20 seconds.

But everybody explodes and dies in it.

So I was like, oh, that's kind of weird that they're doing this second one.

And I mean, we've been inundated with the trailer,

so we know it's, you know, like, rich and powerful families,

and, you know, a council, and all this stuff.

And I said, okay, you know what?

Like, let them have fun, obviously.

Radio silences plans of continuing on with a screen franchise.

Kind of got derailed, so they got some free time.

The do stuff they did Abigail, and, you know,

so I guess why not visit this that was successful for them at the time.

And I don't know.

It's just one of those things that I felt like we were just going through the motions,

but not as quickly or as steadfully as the first one.

I think the first one has so much energy as a music guy.

The first one, like, Bob's just all,

it's all this, like, 80s punk rock music, like, you know,

and obviously, like, the iconography of, like, her and the chucks and,

like, you know, I'm always talking about, like,

oh, this is punk rock.

Like, you know, the first writer you're not,

really has this, like, punk rock feel with the music and the look.

And it's fun.

It's something different where, to me, my big thing,

as a music guy that I noticed in this,

I'm just like, we've gone to, like, a traditional original score.

The couple of songs they do use in this are, like,

it's more pop.

It's not really this punk feel anymore.

It's just like, to me, this just feels like sanitized and commercialized.

The first one didn't necessarily have that feeling of casting wise,

like I said, you know, it's kind of cool to see a bunch of people

that if you're kind of, like, 90s, 2000s movie watchers,

like, obviously, Elijah Wood, who, it's, like, you know,

him and the horror movies are really surprised anymore,

but it's always fantastic to see him,

but, like, Sarah Michelle Geller,

I did, like, see in Sean Hattice,

is it Hattosee, or how are we saying this?

I've seen him.

Okay.

I mean, obviously, I've very fond memories of him from the faculty,

you know, a brethren of Elijah Wood.

Although, more so than the faculty,

I think of him as an alpha dog.

Okay, you know what?

I'm a fan of alpha dog as well.

Yes.

Remember him in that role, but alpha dog, banger.

Fantastic.

I don't know if this boy would free section.

I want to drop the dad yet.

If we, like, want to, yeah, I think he's in the trailer,

but yeah, let's just leave it for now.

Well, keep a very prominent well-known horror director

in the movie for a little cameo.

That's a lot of fun.

Yeah, and this, you know, I think this was

a lot more focused on kind of giving nods

to the horror community than necessarily the first one,

but that doesn't always make it a good movie,

where it's like, I felt the first one was so original

and a cool idea, where I just felt like this was so much

of like tipping our hat at other things

and like having these kind of stunt casting up like,

oh, you know, like, you know, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Oh, what?

Like, we have Catherine Newton dressed

inspired by the pilot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

And like, it was just things like that

that I was like, all right, like, too cute.

Too cute and too focused on that kind of stuff.

The comedy, I think, is turned up way more in this

and it's not good comedy, like,

well, that's kind of what I wanted to ask you.

You're still doing your opening thoughts,

but my feeder, there's only probably about 10 of us in there,

you know, it was the very early screening for this

and nobody laughed the entire movie.

And this is one of those movies where it's definitely going

for a joke probably every five minutes or so.

And it was pretty painful to sit through this

and just have so many jokes just completely miss.

Yeah, nothing landed.

Nothing landed in my audience too.

There was, there was probably like 10, 20 people in my audience

and as I saw this, like, you know,

at a three o'clock screening on a Saturday.

And it was just silent.

Yeah, it was kind of like that humor that was almost like,

I thought almost cringe worthy of like, like, I don't know.

It's, I don't even know how to describe the humor.

Like, I'd expect someone like in Zezanzari

to like, say these, like, say lines.

Like, it's kind of that schmarmy, just like,

but it just none of it land, none of the actors really landed it.

And I thought it was just very, it was very like confusing,

especially as it goes on later and kind of what comes to be

like our big bad, our villain in this is like,

pretty reprehensible, which I thought was an interesting choice

because I was thinking about like kind of the villains

of the first one or like the family.

Like, you know, I'm not saying that, you know,

murdering people for a game.

I'm not saying the husband's a good guy in the first one.

I'm not saying that, but like this guy makes those guys

look like angels, like this guy to me,

they go into like some very dark territory

or suggestions of dark territory.

And I was like, ooh, this like,

it just like really didn't fit the tone I thought

of this series of what it's been presenting me with so far.

Shot-wise, this is where I feel like I depart from most people.

I don't know if you have the same idea.

I've never thrilled about how radio silent shoots their stuff.

I don't think they have a distinctive enough like camera style.

It just kind of looks like I'm watching the con dreamers.

Like, you know what I mean?

It's just like, I'm watching.

It's probably even less so than the con dream,

because I know you're not a big fan of the conjuring,

but at least one kind of style.

I just feel that way.

It's very just like sanitized commercial,

like we're doing as little as possible with like camera work.

It gets the job done, but it's not snazzy.

It's certainly not pushing to do any creative camera work.

And realistically, in really any of their movies,

there was probably a little bit of dazzling

with Abigail and Abigail in the ballet sequences

or whatnot.

But honestly, I completely agree with you.

It's not something that I really think of them.

It's kind of like a critical piece of their movies.

So there's been a lot of time crafting engaging camera work.

I thought for the size of this cast,

when you're introduced to it, when everyone's on screen,

I really thought this was kind of really lackluster

in terms of like the kills and who dies.

And like there's so many like uninventful

or uninspired kills in this.

Like I almost felt bad.

Like I was like, were these guys like held like at gunpoint

having the right to make this?

Or like it just felt like no effort.

It was basically like, we are giving you

Samara weaving in this role again.

And with like that, we've done our job.

That's all we really had to do.

We don't have to do anything else to impress you with it.

And yeah, I just, I thought this movie isn't long.

Like this movie is not a long movie in modern standards.

I think it's like an hour 40 maybe.

I thought by halfway through this,

it felt like a two hour plus long movie.

I was just like completely agree with you.

Like this just needs an end.

And which is a shame because when we get in the spoiler section,

like I did like some of the ending.

Maybe if they cut 20 minutes out of this,

I thought the ending was where this kind of really shined for me.

And I thought it got into maybe more of the silliness

I'd like to see out of it.

But I also thought the silliness of the ending

didn't match the tone of the rest of the humor in it.

So I was like, even all the humor in it just felt really disjointed.

What about you? Like what are some of your thoughts on this?

Yeah, I think one of the core things that you said

was going through the motions.

Yeah. And then you also mentioned later on

in your kind of your spiel about how.

It feels like they were forced to make this movie at gunpoint.

And to me, it's strange because I, you know,

I'm not as huge of a radio silence fan of some people

and probably a lot of our listeners.

But I seem to remember there being this narrative

of them wanting to make this movie for quite a while

and wanting to do it for the fans

and having this such a great idea to expand on

and kind of come back to these characters.

And I don't want to yuck anyone's jump

even though that's what I do all the time.

On the show, I don't like being the contrarian

just to be a fucking contrarian.

But this has a lot of positive reviews

and obviously based on what we've said,

a very fervent fan base.

Our listeners love the first one.

And I found this to be an absolute chore to sit through.

I think a lot of it comes down to giving you two viewpoint characters.

And it really just killed the energy of the movie

because you wind up having to kind of spend

double the amount of time with each character

kind of bogging things down

and then also explaining their backstory.

And then this movie pulls a John Wick 2

and very much expands the world

in which the first movie existed

and it spends so much time kind of getting bogged down

on the rules of this world

and even having a character who's there

basically just the state, the rules.

And honestly, I just don't think this movie

was very exciting or energetic

or fun as the first one whatsoever.

With John Wick 2, the first one, it's so silly

with how everyone knows John

and the cops show up and they're like,

John rough night and everywhere he goes,

everyone knows John Wick.

And then the second one, they spend all this time

kind of getting into the continental hotel

and this league of hitmen and assassins

and how this world functions.

And they do it with what I consider with those movies

is a very deft hand of introducing you to the world,

peaking your interests, but not getting bogged down

and at the end of the day they know we're here to see John Wick

have some crazy action scenes and kill 100 people.

In this movie, it felt like they really loved

the lore building of this world,

but it wasn't interesting really in any capacity to me.

And it was a lot of stuff we've seen before,

just wealthy, elite, powerful families.

Oh yeah, they're getting one up on the little guy.

It's like, yeah, it's a tale as old as time.

And a lot of it was just kind of taken

from something like a John Wick,

but it's done 10 years later.

A lot of this just, I don't know why they went in this direction

and it feels like to me that they had no idea

where to go at this sequel.

Outside of one inspired, but also very obvious kill

when you see the staging of the fight and where they are,

there's nothing here to report that's unique or interesting

on like a gore or splatter front at all.

They overused one very specific gore technique

from the first movie so many times

instead of creating anything novel

to remember any of this cast.

And overall, I just kind of feel like this jumped the shark.

There was a lot of points in this where it seemed like

everyone was in on the joke, winking at the camera,

going for jokes and stuff that just didn't really work.

And even Samara Weaving and Catherine Newton,

which I usually like them when they're used correctly

in these movies, I didn't like either of them here.

And Samara Weaving, it's been a minute

since they've seen Ready or Not,

but I'm sure she was probably doing something very similar

to her character in the first movie.

But once again, it was just the writing,

and a lot of the dialogue choices,

like everyone spoke in this movie

as if their parents just told them as a teenager

that they can use certain curse words.

It was just everyone was just like cursing all the time.

No one spoke like real people.

And it's just, once you get into that third act,

like what you're saying,

where you're kind of building up some certain characters,

the main one that they're building up

as kind of the big bad,

I absolutely hated that character the entire movie.

And you wind up spending a good amount of time

with that character just to make things work.

And yeah, I mean, I just didn't think any of it was interesting.

So when you have a movie that kind of boils down to,

you like the two main actresses in the movie,

but they're not really giving you what they usually like

in the movies.

And then basically every single scene construction

is them kind of fighting or bickering against one another.

In the middle of the room,

not engaging in hide and seek

or whatever game they're playing,

only for someone to burst into the room

right before they have that moment,

like a breakthrough in their relationship.

And then they die or whatever the people

that break into the room over and over and over again.

I agree, this felt so long.

I checked my watch like 45 minutes in

and I said, oh my God,

I still have another hour of this.

Like, what am I going to do?

I felt trapped just as much as grace felt trapped

in the first one.

You know, like this was not at all the way

I expected this to go when I walked into the theater.

I was at least expecting

that it would be stupid,

but a lot of fun.

Yeah, at worst was kind of what I was expecting.

And yeah, I don't know.

I don't know if it really got there

for me even on that entertainment level really.

Yeah, no, all I really have to add to that

is I agree with kind of the lore building.

Because sure, let's build out the lore

and how this is influenced in the world

and families and stuff.

But I thought even the lore didn't seem very well thought out.

It seemed like there were so many moments.

Absolutely not.

So many moments in this where instead of like going back

and fixing your entire movie,

they're like, oh, well,

the lore isn't going to work for this.

So we're just going to spin it like,

oh, we'll just ignore that or oh, I don't know.

It's not in the rule books, sir.

Yeah, there's so many moments in this where

somebody interjects and they're like,

well, you can't do that.

And they go, well, actually this clause in this rule book

actually says they can do that.

Or they will explain something crucial

that they left it out in the first half of the movie

right before it becomes pertinent to the plot.

Yeah.

And once again, it is just like all this sloppy writing,

which I don't know, it's like once again,

not the biggest fan of these guys,

but I don't think a lot of their work is bad.

But usually I don't think I come down on the writing

as the issue behind the whole movie.

It's just like the whole movie was like,

I was all right, it was just disposable.

It wasn't bad.

And this one, it's like, the writing is so,

yeah, it's just bad and uninspired.

And I don't really know if it really made a good argument

as to why this sequel to exists.

It needs to exist to me.

So would you recommend that people go out

and check this one out in theaters?

I mean, I'm gonna say no.

If someone, like I said, I'm obviously not a seasoned

ready or not person.

I just watched the first one before I had to go see this one.

But like the first one I thought was,

you know, it was like energetic.

It really had like a tone and a mood.

This one, I just, like you said,

work on the opposite because everyone seems to be telling you.

I already liked this.

So let's go see it.

Maybe there's something in the air.

I don't know, but.

But like I'm looking at it.

Like to me, it's like, I don't know,

go spend your money on undertone.

Like go see something an original horror.

Like I was literally just looking

as you were talking at.

Just like I was like, what have we done for now,

slaying like so far in the year?

And I'm thinking about like what are the bad ones we've done?

And like I can't believe it,

but like I'd probably rather spend my money

to go see Return the Silent Hill again

and then go see this.

Because at least Return the Silent Hill

is like trying to do something,

even if it doesn't work, where I rather something

fail miserably and try rather than see something

that just seems like uninspired

and just going through the motions,

to make money on a recognizable title.

And yeah, to me, I wouldn't recommend going see this.

Like I'd be waiting for streaming for this one.

What about you?

Yeah, I don't know if I'd go so far

and say that I'd rather watch Return the Silent Hill

over this or some of the other bad movies

we covered on the pod recently.

But where I'd land is if you're a huge fan of the first,

you've probably seen it all righty

by the time you're listening to this episode.

But if not, sure, go see it.

But otherwise, wait until it's on streaming.

This is, it almost feels like a straight to streaming movie

to me and I think it's just purely because,

like once again, when I was watching it,

I just felt like everyone's heart wasn't in this

or that this premise wasn't interesting enough

to kind of service the world and the characters

they built in the first one.

So I mean, if they're kind of half-assing it,

I don't know why you need to go spend your hard earned cash

on rushing it to see this in theaters.

You could probably just wait until it's on Netflix

or 2B or wherever later in the year.

So it seems like neither of us are recommending you to rush out

and see this one in theaters.

And with that, I think it's time to cut

to our spoiler discussion for Ready or Not 2.

Here I come.

We are now in our spoiler discussion for Ready or Not 2.

Here I come.

So if you've not seen Ready or Not 2,

it's time to tune it and come back once you've seen the movie

or keep listening if you simply don't care.

Rowan, I mean, this is one of those movies

where I don't even know if there's a whole lot really

to discuss in the spoiler-filled section.

It is very much a re-treading of the first one,

but I did think kind of what was interesting

was basically picking up frame for frame

right after the ending of the first one.

That ending, you only experienced it yesterday

of the day before, but I'm sure you've probably seen

screen grabs of it over the years.

It's kind of one of those iconic horror endings,

I would say, of like movies that have been

in the last 10 years or so, you know,

you have Samaritan weaving in the bridal gown,

covered in blood, chucks on, smoke in a cigarette,

and with a whole like mansion burning behind her,

it's a badass, final frame of this movie.

And I thought it was a neat choice to pick it up immediately

right from that moment and do some unique camera work

on getting on the gurney, all this sort of stuff,

to kind of set things off where, you know,

for 10 seconds or so, I was like, all right, here we go.

And right away, I was thinking like John Wick,

John Wick too, and I was like, oh,

I hope the ambulance drivers are in on it

for some reason, you know, they pick her up

and they bring her right to this new, much more fucked up game.

You know, they're not playing hide and seek this time,

they're playing something else.

I was hoping that we were gonna get like this influx

of energy and reinvention into what the sequel

was going to be, and then it's like, oh no,

we're just gonna go to the hospital with her

and we're gonna get this slow opening

of a lot of movies we've seen.

This is like the Halloween II beginning of this movie,

you know, where I was, I was let down, basically, right away.

Which is the shame, because yeah, when you're in the hospital

and we kind of get the first explosion with Kevin Durand,

which is a shame I like him as like,

yeah, he's like him as an actor.

Yeah, exactly.

And I feel like the character he's playing,

this like Coke, Dauke guy that, you know, I was like,

man, I kind of wish they had to kept him

for longer in the movie, because I was like,

I feel like, because I like him as an actor,

and I think he played crazy really good.

I was like, oh, we should like keep this guy.

So at least we can have like some fun,

because I just found like all the villains

are either like super comical or like super deep and dark,

which like neither fits the tone of these movies.

Yeah, this movie should be basically controlled chaos.

Yeah, a lot of energy should be people like stocking

around, you know, rampage around a lot more like this

Kevin Durand character is in the beginning of this movie.

And it's a shame that they use him basically

just to set up the, what is it called, the combustion.

Yeah, the spontaneous combustion aspect of this

and about how it's tied to these rules that are still ongoing,

even if, you know, our characters might not know that

after the events of the first movie,

they basically invoked a second set of rules and a game

that's being played.

The whole council of people.

Exactly.

And basically him being used to show that there's still

some forces at work here.

I just thought was incredibly dull.

And the fact that they use this like spontaneous

combustion gag throughout the movie over and over and over

again, so much so that it's hard to even think of any

sorts of other unique kills in this movie outside of

just spontaneous combustion is a huge missed opportunity

for this sort of thing in a sequel.

What you usually do is you like ratchet up the kills,

you make things crazier.

Sure, most times they jump the shark,

but it's interesting to see a sequel that's like this

first one where or based off of a movie like this first one

where all of a sudden it's just like, oh,

let's make everything safe and boring.

It's just baffling, you know,

well, that's the thing and you basically within like 20

minutes of this movie, you're pretty much as an

audience set up to understand like, okay, so all I'm really

doing in this movie is waiting for members of all these

different families to break rules that they don't know.

So they'll explode where the first one, a majority of the

kills are like innocent, I don't know how innocent they are,

but it's like the staff that works for the rich family.

And it's like, yeah, because they're just rich ditsy idiots,

like they accidentally get scared and they shoot their

butler in the head or whatever, right?

Like there's more kills like that where it's not, yeah,

like you said, it's not just, all right,

everyone's gonna explode at some time.

So let's, you know, let them just fight figure it out.

Now, I mean, they did like, there were some stuff that I

thought, you know, was like, okay, this is kind of funny.

Like I did like it when Grace is like fighting Alex is like

X fiance and they miss each other in the eyes and then they're

just like, you know, they're just punching there and there's

like music playing in.

Yeah, it's like total eclipse of heart or something like that.

I can't, something like that.

I don't know if that's the, it's like a very wedding,

a very wedding song, which I thought was funny,

except this scene goes on like five minutes too long where I was

just like, okay, we got the joke like they've been punching

at the air now for four minutes.

Like is something gonna happen other than them just missing

each other and sometimes bumping in each other and not being

able to see, and it was just stuff like that where I was like

the gags just went on for so long.

Well, for me, the only other kill that was inspired in this movie

was the washing machine kill earlier in it, which of course,

that was the one I was alluding to in the spoiler free section.

It's just, they're fighting in a big laundry processing area

that it's very obvious.

He's not going to go in the washer or the dryer or something.

That's the only interesting and unique thing you can do

in a setting like this, right?

That I thought like that was a little bit fun,

but like it's a shame that you think a one or two things

in this entire movie, that's kind of interesting, right?

In a movie that everyone is loaded up with weird weaponry

in the beginning indicative of the time in which their family

joined this weird satanic order and they have like RPGs

and simutars and crossbows and all this stuff.

There's so much fun you could have had with all this weaponry

or even like swapping out the time period appropriate weaponry

with the families that it could have added a nice flavor to it.

But honestly, it's just, everyone essentially just explodes

at some point and everyone finds this exploding gags

incredibly gross and incredibly funny at all times in the movie

that I was honestly, I was tired with it in the first one.

So I was kind of hoping that this was something that once again

was going to be kept to the very end of the movie

and you can kind of just ignore it.

But now I mean, it's in our face the entire way through this time.

Yeah, and I mean, there was just stuff like,

I thought they rode way too hard with like the med who character,

who like, like I said, is that the one who's basically

like a little bitch that doesn't want it?

Yeah, I thought his performance was fine,

but apps, I mean, his entire character is just like,

he's a complete.

Well, I was like, I've never seen people that love parks

and wrecks so much and just were like,

we're literally going to write in Z-Synz Ari's character

into this film.

But it was, it was stuff like that that I was like,

this is an uninteresting take is obviously, you know,

he's a little bitch.

So he's like, no, I'm giving up my power to my wife

and then the wife just takes off.

But then I'm like, all right, well, this is kind of stupid.

Like, no one explodes because of that

because they decided they want to keep him around

for comedic purposes.

Yeah, I didn't understand that either.

I thought they made it clear that they couldn't just like,

choose not the plan to leave, but I guess she can.

Well, yeah, and then they try to make the, you know,

Elijah Woods character, the lawyer, you know,

does the like, oh, well, guess what?

Now she's in charge all your money and you've lost everything.

And I'm thinking like, okay, until when tomorrow morning,

when y'all fail, like, okay, sure, yeah, you have the family

inheritance and wealth for six hours.

It's like, okay, cool.

In other aspect of this movie,

I kept kind of alluding to it in the opening

or the spoiler-free section is just this nature

of these estranged sisters.

And how much Samarri Weaving's character I think

didn't really have much to say about her family

in the first one or certainly that she's has

an estranged sister, which is fine, whatever.

But this is like a core theme and character motivation

for both of these characters for the entire movie

where every single scene they're in,

they have to be talking about this traumatic experience

of when grace left faith to go across town

or go across the United States to go to school,

which is a very normal thing for everyone to do by the way

when you reach that age, but whatever.

And it's just every single scene,

it's basically they're both at each other's throats

and also trying to work towards this reconciliation,

where, dude, I feel like they had the same conversation

six to seven times in this movie throughout its runtime.

I was just like, is this Groundhog's Day?

Like, what are we watching here?

I was so bored by this conversation.

I've just clearly they have to be stuck in the same rut,

stuck in the mud, spinning their wheels until the end of the movie,

of course, where obviously they will reconcile.

It was just so tired, so boring.

See to me, it was just like,

I guess I was a little bit interested,

like obviously they get handcuffed together,

and I was like, okay, so I was like the entire movie,

they're gonna have to like fight these guys handcuffed.

And that would have been cool

if they worked it into the fight choreography

or something with the clothesline people,

and yeah, I can see.

I was like, they gotta do this, but this movie is like,

we need to get rid of this so quickly,

because we don't wanna go in that direction,

and we just wanna go in more like,

I guess, normal killed fight direction.

And to me, it was just things like that.

I was begging for anything to make this interesting.

And you know, I alluded like,

I thought Titus' character was like a little weird.

A, yeah, he's the one that you keep hinting at is two.

He was kinda the big bad.

Now, I feel like you knew it was gonna be him from the get-go,

because they make him out the B like,

you know, they make it out that Ursula is the,

is easy, you know, in charge.

And I'm like,

Geller's character.

Yeah, and I'm like, okay.

Like, you can just tell the way they're talking about him.

You're like, at some point this guy's gonna snap and stuff.

Yeah, I just thought it was almost like extra mean,

because they keep hinting like,

basically once he gets on loose,

like, he loves beating the shit out of women.

There's like definitely some like hints of like, you know,

like, he's gonna like fucking rape these girls and stuff like that.

And I was just like,

I thought about the meanness of the tone of the first one,

and I'm like, it never goes into like, stuff like this.

That's almost like uncomfortable,

which would be fine if this movie was like ultra serious and dark,

but I just thought it was a weird tone where they were trying to make

this even funnier than the first one.

You know what's crazy about this is that I didn't even read,

because Sarah Michelle Geller's character is the one

who has to deliver a lot of this and kind of explain it to Grace.

And like, you're literally marrying such a monster,

which will put a pin in that and get back to it.

That I didn't even read this as like,

her being honest or earnest.

I was like, okay, she's like trying to manipulate this situation.

She's concocting a ploy.

She wants to, you know,

seed some hatred already here to kind of seize power for herself.

And it's like, oh no, she's just being completely honest.

And she's gonna get her next snap here in a minute.

And I was just so disappointed and underwhelmed

and not in the way of like subverting expectations

of having Sarah Michelle Geller in your movie

and just like snap in her neck

and her just going out like on ceremonyously.

Just like once again, this was all structured and built up

so incorrectly that I couldn't even read her final scene

in the movie as sincere.

I just thought it was complete like,

weird manipulation, power, tactics,

all this nonsense that I was just so disappointed by it.

And I absolutely hated the character of Titus

throughout this whole movie.

I know you mentioned it was like nice seeing him

because you know, from the faculty and whatnot.

But like, I just hated that character.

I thought he was such a wet blanket of a character,

especially compared to Buffy.

And the fact that they're both David,

Cronenberg's children disappointment

should have had David Cronenberg in the movie.

Going around in a wheelchair with a shotgun

or something would have been more fun.

I did love seeing David.

I mean, definitely I was like,

that could be excited at the beginning,

especially, you know, I was hoping he was kind of

overseeing like the war.

I was like, oh, this is a little,

because at first I was like, oh, shit,

they're gonna make like some little statements going on here.

Like, you know, and then he's like calling off the war

like the scene is fire.

It's showing that how much power these families have.

And it's similar in a, once again,

I just keep going back to John Wick.

So I'm sorry audiences if you've never seen John Wick.

But they do all this sort of shit in John Wick,

where they live in a very much like a heightened reality,

where the movie you're watching can exist in this reality.

And it's not so dissimilar from our world,

but basically it functions

by a completely different set of rules.

And it usually makes it a little bit interesting

if you can completely nail it.

So I like to kind of hinting at that sort of stuff

in the beginning, but this movie completely abandons it.

The more it goes on.

Yeah, I want to talk about the marriage stuff

because we introduce it by this mom kind of coming in.

She's a Japanese woman with a samurai sword.

She has this son who's clearly on the spectrum.

He's just playing Switch all the time

asking about the Wifi password.

And she kind of comes in and she's like,

I have a secret.

I have a way that you can break the rules

without having to kill anybody.

You can get out of this.

You just have to marry one of the people hunting you

and it then prompts another wedding

instead of the game and all this stuff.

And the person who's getting wed gets the seat of power.

And I'm just like, what are you going on with a woman

like right in the middle of this?

And as soon as like the words left her mouth,

I said, okay, they're going to use this as a comedic way

to kind of kill her and the child.

But this is going to be wind up being important

in the third act.

And I sat there the whole movie waiting for,

when is this going to rear its ugly head?

Because it's such a stupid contrived plot point

to get out of this set of rules

that they didn't even have to set up this way.

And of course, they have the shocking

and disgusting revelation of,

imagine having to marry Samara weaving.

Imagine all the women in this world

that you have to marry Samara weaving.

Yuck.

How disgusting.

Gross.

Yeah, I was just, it was just so stupid.

Like when this plot point came up with it's like,

they're stuck in between these thick sheet of glass

and our sisters on the other side

with a shotgun named Adder and she's on the other side

and can't escape and, oh my God,

it's just like the way they put them in this scenario

where the only way out was for Samara weaving

to ask Titus for his hand in marriage.

I just hated the way all this was done.

I mean, it was just, it was awful.

I didn't love it either.

Now, like I said, I was a little kinder to the third act

when we get into the wedding and stuff.

Once she dons the black wedding dress and all this stuff,

there's a couple of little unique kind of stylistic things

in there I didn't mind.

But the way you get there is tough.

Yes, it's tough.

And this is really the problem throughout this whole movie.

Is that third act that I did enjoy in Elijah Wood?

The lawyer are in totally different movies.

Like that scene in Elijah Wood,

I think are in a very campy movie.

Yes.

And Elijah Wood knows 100% what he's doing.

That's well.

Yeah, fantastic.

And that was kind of my issue is I was far more interested

in this lawyer than I was anyone else.

I was like, to me, he's like kind of the weird,

he's not trying to be funny,

but he's kind of funny just because he's so like,

just playing the straight man in it.

And I was like, yeah, I'm enjoying my time with him

and just kind of his, you know, he's the lawyer.

Like he doesn't give a shit about any of these people.

And I'm like, oh, this is interesting.

You know, he's, he's losing, you know,

he's Satan's lawyer essentially.

And yeah, it's basically you make a deal with the devil

and he's gonna tell you all the points of the deal.

Yeah, it's actually his character is.

But that was my issue is I was just like,

so much of it and it's not that,

like I do feel like all the other actors

were trying to be campy, but it just wasn't successful.

I will give a salute.

I mean, you gotta give a salute to your boy,

a Nester Carbonell, the mayor from the Dark Knight series,

Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight series.

It took me forever to be like, where do I know this guy from?

And then I was like, oh shit, it's the mayor

from like the Dark Knight and stuff.

Listen, I love Nolan, love the Dark Knight.

I can't picture him in my head.

Oh yeah, he plays the mayor in all those movies.

Okay, all right.

So I was just, I was trying to figure out,

I was like, why can I not play some?

But yeah, I mean, honestly, most of my love notes on this

are, you know, once we get some air weaving

in like the black bridegown and we're having the,

the Satanic wedding.

Yeah, just a step back, just a moment before that.

Just once again, going back to Sarah Michelle Geller's death,

because that moment isn't just like a quick beat

to get her out of the picture.

It also sets up another rule,

which is gonna be very important in five minutes time of,

of course, family members can kill family members

without recompense and it's completely fine

for the rules of this game, which of course,

makes a lot of sense when our lead characters

just about to wed somebody and become part of the family

and that person she's being wed to

is an irreprehensible, complete, terrible character

who's completely villainous and unhinged.

And I just sat there and I was like, okay,

we all know she's gonna kill them and throw them

into the pit.

Let's get through this.

So anyways, this final sequence, the Satanist wedding.

Yeah, lots of like neat set dressings,

lots of good costumeing.

I think it's all like over the top and ton of sheep

and all that's intentional, of course.

You know, as is like Satan appearing in a glimpse

of fire or smoke or whatever there near the end of it

and they're like, oh, did you see that?

It was fun, completely like tonally incongruous

to the rest of the movie that I felt like I was watching.

That movie would have been fun,

but we didn't get that movie.

No, I think the scene of her like,

once she does her deed, what you like you said,

you know, it's coming.

It's like, okay, she's gonna murder Titus and all that.

But you know, I was getting a good chuckle

when she threw the rain in the pit

and then you're just like seeing everybody

from the, you know, the servants to everyone

trying to game power.

So everyone's jumping in the pit like, you know,

some guys are, some people are like jumping

like they're off the top rope and WWE

and it's just like, and I was like, this is fun.

Like to me, I was like, this is fun,

but yeah, I was like this whole aesthetic

and funniness of it.

I was like, this doesn't match anything I just saw.

So it just totally doesn't fit the movie whatsoever.

And especially like once we go into the pit

and then we're getting all these like slow mo

like I'm watching some like period epic battle movie

of like people trying to fight over this rain.

It was filmed so poorly, especially for how much fun

that sequence should have been.

I hated that, I was just filmed essentially

against a black backdrop without being able

to discern any of the chaos that was supposed

to be, you know, undergrowing unfolding there.

Yeah, and that was kind of my issue with the two.

I was like, I wish this had have been shot a little better

because I think you could have had a lot of fun in this pit

and all these different characters in the pit.

Like, because you know, obviously I'm waiting.

I'm like, so who's punching this little kid in the face

that's trying to get it?

And it's just like, it's stuff like, yeah,

you get to see him get punched in the face,

but I was just like, I felt like you could do so much more

than just have fun in this.

And of course, it all just ends with them all dying

in an eruption of blood anyways,

where they all spontaneously combustion.

You know, okay, great, it all didn't matter at all.

It's just in the, and basically they walk off

with the goat in the movie and shortly thereafter,

but even disappointingly, they don't pick a good frame

or like a powerful frame or a fun frame

to end this movie on.

I, you have these two sisters reconciled.

They're kind of lighting up cigarettes, sun glasses on.

You gotta goat.

And they just ended in like a super wide shot.

They're just walking in the deep background

along with their goat.

There's like boring, uninspired shot.

They could have definitely did some like cool angle shot.

You know, you put the goat in the foreground

and both of them are kind of in the mid ground,

like looking really cool.

You could have done something just like both of them,

like close on their faces sort of thing.

There's a bunch of different ways you could have shot this.

I made it a cool kind of throwback, final shot

to the previous film.

And yeah, they just, they just didn't do it.

Yeah, just once again, like the lowest hanging fruit

could have spent 10 minutes out there

figuring out what would have been a cool camera angle

to capture something at least somewhat similar.

And yeah, they just, they just didn't.

Last little thing I wanted to mention before you,

we get into reviewing this is the weird

video you get when you log it on letterboxed.

And this is the first time I've seen this.

I don't know if letterbox is gonna be rolling this out

more often, but when you log this,

you get a video from Sean Hatozi

or had to see basically Titus,

the character I hate it in this movie.

And he's, you know, he's thanking you

for the coming to see the movie

and talking about how this movie was for the fans

and everyone, you know, all this sort of thing.

Hope you enjoyed it.

It's very bloody and a lot of fun.

And someone who left the theater thinking that it wasn't

very fun and I really didn't like his character.

I don't know if it improved my sentiment

and feeling towards the movie when I saw that video.

Very, very strange little choice.

They should do different videos,

depending on the stars you give it on letterbox.

Oh, that, so that I would have been fine with, you know,

you give it like a fat two star, one star,

and some air weaving just tells you to go fuck yourself.

Yeah, I, all right, never mind.

They are all here for that, you know?

Yeah, all for the degradation from some air weaving.

The only last one I wanted to bring up

that I absolutely hated, which wasn't a video

when you logged it in was, of course,

to me, I just didn't like the final ending

because of course, what do we kind of do?

We got to make everything very ambiguous

in case we want to come back for thirds

where they kind of hit at that maybe they could go

after other families.

They also leave it where the lawyer basically explains

she can get out of the system,

but it doesn't break the system.

So it's like, they'll just find other families

and it'll continue on.

And I'm just like dear Lord, like we're getting a third one.

I had blocked those details and now I'm upset again.

I'm sorry to upset.

So if you're new to the podcast,

our review of Rubrik is nay, okay, yay or slay.

So Rowan, what would you give?

Ready or not to here I come?

Yeah, so I really didn't enjoy this

compared to the first one.

But I will say, I don't think it's like nay territory.

I don't think it's so egregiously bad.

I mean, I think we both agree.

I mean, you know, you got to see an hour and 40 minutes

of smear weaving, that's a plus for most people.

So, you know, that's good.

And you know, like I said, it was cool to see

some like 90s icons back on the screen.

I like the little Cronenburg cameo.

I thought the washer kill was fine.

And the ending, like I said, I like the ending better

than I liked anything else.

And I thought the ending was really cool.

I got a chuckle out of it.

I feel like there was enough in this for me to give it an okay.

Like a pretty light okay, but you know,

I don't want to throw myself necessarily in a pit

after I've seen this.

Maybe I'd rather just explode quickly or something.

So I feel like I'm gonna land on an okay.

What about you?

Yeah, it's funny because I don't know

if either of us really said any good things

about this movie really whatsoever

as we discussed about it.

I think I literally called it bad multiple times.

But also, I don't feel like it's bad enough

to warrant a nae either.

It's, this is one of those ones that I left.

And I was like, yep, that was completely mediocre,

boring, uninspired, not really anything to redeem the movie,

but also nothing really bad enough to sink it into

like the return to Silent Hill territory

or scream seven or whatever else we've made recently.

So I'm gonna land on like the weakest of okay as well.

But this was a big disappointment.

And when I'm coming in and just being like,

okay, the worst case scenario is gonna be fun.

And I didn't find it basically remotely fun.

That's, that's tough.

That's, especially when the first one,

it was just like so effortlessly fun

is what it felt like to me and entertaining.

So yeah, big, big disappointment here

for Ready or Not to here I come.

And I'm gonna land on an okay, the weakest of okays

for this one.

And if you're not following us on our socials already,

you could do so at its Slays podcast.

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If there's a social media, we're probably there

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Be sure to head on over to patreon.com slash its Slays podcast

and choose whatever tier works best for you.

Rowan, we didn't really mention the music in this movie

in any sort of favorable way.

So in a notable way.

But you know, let the people know

where they can find the playlist anyways.

Yeah, so you can go to Spotify and look up

the its Slays podcast, Terrific Playlist,

if you have any problems finding it,

you can go to the social media, the Colton Just Mansion,

go into the bio, click the link tree link,

and there's a button that'll take you directly there.

We upload scores and license music

from iconic horror movies, horror movies,

we review or just horror movies we love.

We update it regularly.

So follow it, get your spooky music on

because why the hell not?

And next time on the show, Rowan and I are currently beefing

on whether they will kill you, counts as a horror.

Let's just do it, let's just do it.

Let's just do it.

Okay, I was gonna say, if we still strongly disagree,

we can turn it over to the audience,

see if what they think if we should cover it or not.

But we'll be back soon, I guess, with they will kill you.

We'll check that one out.

And with that, I think that about wraps things up

for this episode.

So until next time, I'm Colton.

I'm Rowan.

And as long as you keep listening, we'll keep slaying.

We'll be back soon, we'll be back soon, we'll be back soon.