Movies

New Releases • A-D • E-H • I-P • Q-Z • Articles • Festivals • Interviews • Dark Knight • Indiana Jones • John Wick • MCU

Go behind the scenes of Ready or Not: Here I Come with Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton and more.
Featurette: Searchlight Pictures

Ready or Not: Here I Come
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
Rated R
Married 20 March 2026
#ReadyOrNot2

“I’m really not used to people combusting all over me.”
Faith MacCaullay

“I’m not much of a horror fan, but I do like a good blood cannon
every now and again and again and again.”
Matthew Anderson

Clearly, Radio Silence received a text from John Wick.

New Vows

When Ready or Not came to its bloody end, that seemed to be all she wrote (and cut and shot and pummeled and combusted and set ablaze) .

But no.

Here I Come starts precisely where the first episode ended, on the steps of the Le Domas mansion, with Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) lighting a cigarette. Her last word then is her first word now: “In-laws.” When asked by a first responder about her recent marriage, she simply says, “It didn’t work out.”

What an understatement.

It’s a cleverly shot ride from the steps to a gurney to an ambulance. Before Grace can even heal, however, new nefarious forces are at play.

This is where the John Wick effect enters the picture. For Wick, it was such a humble start. A retired assassin – grieving his wife’s passing – seeks vengeance after the Russian mafia kills the puppy his wife left him for consolation and comfort. The success of that movie led to a phenomenal series, with each chapter broadening Wick’s world and adding new rules it must follow.

With Here I Come, there is a similar level of world building and a lot of the terminology is the same: the High Seat rules the Council which rules the world. With the Le Domas family now extinct, other family dynasties in this wretched gaming world descend on the Danforth Country Club to assume control of the High Seat. The clash of interests comes from around the world – Madrid, London, Shanghai, and Newport – after a text message alerts them to changes in the control of the gaming empire.

At the head is Chester Danforth (David Cronenberg in a way-too-brief cameo). He’s got the power. With a simple text, he orders a ceasefire in an escalating international conflict and almost instantly the ceasefire appears in the TV news ticker.

Bigger Blood Cannons

As with many sequels, everything here is doubled or tripled or more.

Here, the blood cannons are back in abundance and there are now two families to track.

While the "extended families" head to Newport, Grace has her own family matters to contend with as she reunites with her estranged sister, Faith MacCaullay (Kathryn Newton, returning for more blood after her gig in Radio Silence’s Abigail). Faith is – after all these years – still Grace’s emergency contact and Faith visits her traumatized sister in the hospital. For the record, Faith believes in the inherent goodness of humanity. She’s in for a treat, then. That sentiment won’t last long; it won’t even survive the hospital visit.

Like the Wick saga, Here I Come ups the ante and brings in the stars. While the first movie featured Andie MacDowell and Henry Czerny, Here I Come stacks it up with Elijah Wood as the empire’s lawyer, the aforementioned directing legend David Cronenberg as the occupant of the High Seat, and Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, as Chester’s cutthroat daughter, Ursula. It’s fantastic casting that mines relevant pop culture while also adding an extra dimension to the fun amid all the (extremely over-the-top) bloodshed.

And, of course, there are new rules about marriage and passing on the responsibility of the hunt to successive family members. By-and-large, the new rules work. When dealing with a massive volume of by-laws and rules, it’s easy for any given player to forget about stuff. Even the lawyer.

One rule is constant, though: Grace and Faith need to stay alive ‘til dawn so they can take the high seat. Everybody else? Well… Brace for impact.

More Twisted Logic

Radio Silence (collectively, co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and executive producer Chad Villella) have made a career out of splatterific action-horror-comedy and it’s a relief to know they’re leading the charge in advancing blood cannon technologies. It’ll be interesting to see where they take The Mummy series with a new installment set to bring back Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.

Whatever the story is that brings that couple back together, hopefully it’ll be more even from start to finish. Here I Come certainly holds the interest throughout, but it’s front heavy on the fun side of things.

Seeing Grace get back into that blood-stained wedding gown and those now infamous yellow sneakers (pulled out from sealed police evidence bags) is both a hoot and a stretch, with a smidge of logic. What can the girl do? She can’t run around in an open hospital gown; that wouldn’t be sanitary.

But it’d be nice to see meatier villains. Ursula and her brother, Titus (Shawn Hatosy), are fleshed out the most, but the other adversaries could use a little more depth, including Francesca (Maia Jae), Alex Le Domas’ ex-fiance. But, even with names like Titus, none of this is intended to resemble a Shakespearean tragedy.

So it is the climax is both a little disappointing and a little satisfying. It’s also actually wholly appropriate.

But is there a future adventure for Grace and Faith? That part’s hard to tell.

All it’d take, though, is a new rule.

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.