Pod Insights Pop Culture Happy Hour Ready or Not 2: Here I Come About this episode The cheeky horror comedy Ready Or Not starred Samara Weaving as a bride who’s forced to partake in her new family’s game of hide and seek, which turns quite deadly. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come picks up right where the previous story left off, but this time with more lore, more gore, and more stars like Elijah Wood, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kathryn Newton.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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0:47 Aisha Harris? The cheeky horror comedy Ready or Not took the familiar premise of dealing with hellish in-laws and kicked it up like 100 notches. It starts Samara Weaving as a bride who's forced to partake in her new family's game tradition on the night of her wedding. The game is hide and seek, and as you might recall, it turns out quite deadly. Well, Ready or Not, here comes the sequel. It picks up right where the previous story left off, but this time with more lore, more gore, and more stars like Elijah Wood and Sarah Michelle Geller. I'm Aisha Harris, and today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're talking about Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.
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2:32 Aisha Harris? Joining me today is my co-host Glenn Walden. Hey Glenn.
2:35 Speaker 03 Hey, Aisha.
2:36 Aisha Harris? Also with us is filmmaker, pop culture critic and iHeartRadio producer Joelle Monique. Welcome back, Joelle.
2:42 Speaker 04 Thanks for having me, Aisha. Appreciate it.
2:43 Aisha Harris? So great to have you both here. So Samara Weaving plays Grace in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. And it opens with Grace having just barely survived her wedding night. In the first movie from 2019, her wealthy new husband's family tried to kill her before dawn as part of a satanic ritual. You know, totally, totally normal stuff. They didn't succeed, and so everyone in the family, including her husband, spontaneously combusted. Now she's traumatized and hospitalized, and the police suspect her of murder. And her estranged younger sister Faith suddenly shows up because Grace still has her as her emergency contact. She's played by Catherine Newton. But even worse than all of that is this. Grace's survival has messed with the power structure of a secret international council
3:27 Aisha Harris? that's kind of like the Illuminati. The highest seat is up for grabs, and the heads of each family make Grace play another high-stakes round of hide and seek. Wow. Ready or Not 2 is in theaters now. Joelle, I'm going to start with you. Were you ready or were you not for this sequel?
3:44 Speaker 04 Listen, the first time I saw the original film, I was completely unready. I had no idea what I was stepping into, and I absolutely fell in love. So I was very ready for this one. And I will say, did I enjoy as much as the first one? Not quite, but still had a really good time. Some of my favorites are in here. Great, like, character actors throughout, good murders. And then a lot of fun playing up of some of the tropes established in the first one. I'm kind of all in on this series. It's a good time at the movies. I enjoyed it.
4:13 Aisha Harris? Glenn, what about you? How are we feeling about this one?
4:17 Speaker 03 Yes.
4:17 Speaker 05 I mean, this is the same directing team, Matt Bettinelli, Olpin, and Tyler Gillette. It's the same writing team, Guy Busek and R. Christopher Murphy.
4:25 Aisha Harris? Yeah.
4:25 Speaker 05 That's a good thing. I mean, we're going on vibes here, but it certainly feels like they just wanted to keep telling the story, not necessarily wanted to build a franchise. I'm sure they did, they did, but it doesn't feel like that, and that's important. But as Joel mentioned, that first film was such a revelation to me. It was a surprise. It came out the day of August. It was this nasty piece of work that felt like a very worthy addition to what is a surprisingly robust film genre of Samara weaving, kicks butt, and ends up covered in blood. There are many, many films in that genre. There should be a Letterboxd list if there isn't already.
4:56 Aisha Harris? Yeah.
4:57 Speaker 05 And it was so smart in how it did it. Like, it was so smart that the lace of her wedding dress acted as capillaries that kind of soaked up the blood and then carried it throughout the dress. So you kind of could mark time by how red her dress was. It was very lean and brisk and streamlined. This film can't be any of those things. I mean, this film can't be a surprise. It's not lean or streamlined because it is an expansion of this world and this mythology.
5:21 Aisha Harris? Yeah.
5:21 Speaker 05 I still had a great time. I am me. So obviously, I thought we wasted way too much time on the sister emotional baggage stuff. This film finds so much time for these two to have a surprising amount of heart to hearts that relitigate old, you know, family baggage.
5:36 Aisha Harris? Yeah.
5:36 Speaker 05 That should not be their priority at that moment in time.
5:39 Aisha Harris? No.
5:40 Speaker 05 I understand the narrative impulse behind it because you want us to invest in the sister. She can't just be a plot device.
5:45 Speaker 06 I wanted to invite you to the wedding. I wouldn't have come.
5:51 Speaker 06 I know, but I wanted you to know that I wanted you there.
5:54 Speaker 05 I still felt every one of those scenes when they hit was just wasting precious time from what this film wants to be, and it should be, which is a rich jerk snuff film. That's what I paid my money for. I do envy the folks who see this in a theater because I watched it alone. This film is made for the catharsis of the hissable villain meeting a hilariously violent death. The fist pump factor is very high in a film like this. I had to do it on my home couch. I'm in.
6:21 Aisha Harris? Yeah. I think we're all kind of in alignment here. I know that's not that, maybe not that interesting, but what What I loved about the first film, and I remember seeing it all those years ago. My goodness, it took a really long time for the sequel to get here. But what I I loved about that movie is that it was just very lean and very like, we got just enough information about Grace, you know. She's from a foster family and that's all we need to know. Like, that's why they're not there. She has some baggage, but we don't need to know what that baggage is exactly. And, you know, that movie also had Adam Brody and Andy McDowell. But like, every character, they were rich jerks, but also they had a little bit of, just a little bit of like difference between them, enough to make it feel a little bit different.
7:05 Aisha Harris? And you're in and out and you're following this journey. And with this one, I agree that the sister, I don't think we needed her to be there. It it just felt forced in many ways. But what I did appreciate about this movie is the expansion of the fact that it's this, isn't just about this one family. Actually, there's like an entire circle, living in these times and learning about certain things. It's like, oh, everything is connected. And actually, maybe conspiracy theories are true to some extent. I'm not putting my tinfoil hat on fully, but I will say that aspect of this movie and the way they choose to do it with these clauses and these rules. And the rules are fun. Like, there are rules that pop up in this movie that help explain why people are dying or why they might not die or might not deserve to die.
7:49 Aisha Harris? And it was fun to see Elijah Wood sort of playing the facilitator here as the lawyer.
7:54 Speaker 02 Your family must be represented by the eldest member or legally appointed head of household in all trials of succession. For Article Two, Section Three, Subsection C.
8:04 Aisha Harris? He's very good at these kinds of roles. He's good at just getting in and getting out and making weird faces and being kind of sinister.
8:11 Speaker 05 Cherubically sinister, yes.
8:14 Aisha Harris? Yes, man, that man has not aged.
8:18 Aisha Harris? He's like on the Pharrell track. I don't know what he's doing, but he still looks like he is a baby. But yeah, I thought overall this was, it was fun. And I mean, what did you make of the big bads? Because one thing I do have to say, like, since this first one came out, not that they didn't exist before, but since this movie has come out, there's been a lot more movies that are kind of similar in terms of like, rich, wealthy people are awful, and we want to watch them die. What did you call them, Glenn? Rich jerk snuff film? Like, we've seen quite a few of those movies. Do we think all of that time passing has maybe affected the way this movie hits you? Given that we've seen this many, many times before in recent years?
9:00 Speaker 05 Well, what this film does is it kind of mixes things up a bit. So it's not the same waspy, white, rich jerks who get snuffed. It's, uh, they bring in, uh, folks from other lands and they flirt with stereotypes. I think it acknowledges that it does that, but it's a rich bag. I can only say, as someone who hates golf and all that golf stands for, setting this at a satanic golf resort felt both fitting and inevitable. I was here for that. And, you know, I don't think I'm going to return to this film as often as I have the first, but I'm glad it's out there, man.
9:32 Speaker 04 Yeah, I think what made the first one so deliciously enjoyable was not just that they were like mustache twirly, but that the crime was so egregiously sinister and personal. Like in meeting this woman who's like, I have no family and I'm completely alone. And I'm so excited to marry into this family and watch them completely turn against her. And then I think in giving her a sister in this one, some of that lone survivor stuff is obviously removed. And so the stakes feel a little lower. And then on top of that, it's so much less personal, the stakes for the wealthy folks. They're not directly connected to her. It's kind of broad. It takes away some of the like, yes, I'm so glad they got their comeuppance.
10:13 Speaker 04 What I do think they do really well in this film is the initial setup. You know, at the end of Ready or Not, spoilers, she lives. That's how we got a second one. They come right back to that point at the top of this movie and she's cool and she's smoking. And then she passes out. They completely undo the final girl moment for her. They take her to the hospital. They clean her up. Her putting back on, before we started recording, we're talking about how. Part of her getting back into the chaos is, you know, as she's attacked, she's like, okay, so the game's not over. I can't fight in my hospital gown. I have this dress that is covered in blood and shredded. I'll put it back on. Now, if you're a logical person,
10:56 Speaker 04 you're like, somewhere in this hospital, yes, there are additional gowns, but there might also be just a lost and found. There might be a gift shop downstairs.
11:03 Aisha Harris? There are other.
11:03 Speaker 04 Do you want to look around for anything else? But for me, as someone who did really enjoy watching the dress transform over the first part, I was kind of excited to see her back in it. I wish the sister bits had been played a little bit better. I don't mind stopping to talk in a horror movie. I always think it's kind of funny and silly when we figure it out. But I think if the conversation is the exact same beat every time, you're kind of like, okay, we get it. As much as I think the relationship between Grace and Faith could have been pumped up a little bit and had a little bit more dynamic, I kind of did enjoy Catherine Newton in this movie. I thought she was a lot of fun. I thought the energy she and Smara had was really fun.
11:43 Speaker 07 Listen, you guys seem like good people, and I don't even know why I'm here. We haven't seen each other in like, seven years.
11:53 Speaker 05 Why not?
11:54 Speaker 07 It's complicated.
11:57 Speaker 04 And also, what really works for me is the murders in this movie. You're like, how does this girl just keep getting away? At some point, you're like, this is illogical. They've got all of the weapons. She has nothing. She's been beat to hell. But these people are so incompetent in their ability to kill, that it makes it kind of enjoyable. Bazookas are pointed the wrong way. They're shooting like, storm troopers just completely missing in an open field. There's no reason. And that kind of works for me as a how is she still on her feet situation.
12:23 Aisha Harris? Yeah.
12:24 Speaker 05 Yeah, the film flirts with realism in the beginning because it kind of has to. It doesn't want to return Grace to butt kicking mode right away. She's traumatized. She's in shock. Because she needs an arc, right? We have to, she has to go through some kind of narrative arc of gaining her power. But they do away with that so soon. I was so grateful for that. Because as soon as you realize that the only way this movie can work is if in your head, you kind of slide it into the superhero genre, because Grace clearly has Wolverine's healing factor. But again, who cares? Who cares?
12:55 Speaker 04 Yeah. I mean, at one point, she gets injured in this way that is very similar to the way she got, she was injured literally like 24 hours before. And yet somehow.
13:06 Aisha Harris? She's still able to wield whatever weapon she needs to in the moment. And I think that like regarding the wedding dress, which which I find again, very, very fascinating that you would put that back on. Um, they should have probably called it like, I don't know, Ready or Not, Back in the Wedding Dress. Like, that's what it should have been called instead.
13:22 Speaker 05 Something borrowed.
13:24 Aisha Harris? Something.
13:26 Aisha Harris? Something new. Um, but yeah, I, one of the relationships, you know, the sisters relationship, but then you also had a brother sister relationship between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sean Haddacy. And Sean Haddacy, who I recognize from The Pit, he's one of the Doctors on The Pit. I was like, oh, look at him. He's like playing a full on villain here. They're playing siblings who, this is another thing about sequels is that often with sequels, they have bigger stars, including a cameo from David Cronenberg, who's playing the Sean Haddacy and Sarah Michelle Gellar characters dad in a scene.
13:57 Speaker 04 I would say if you invite David Cronenberg to a movie, give him more to do.
14:00 Speaker 05 Yeah, sure.
14:00 Aisha Harris? Yes.
14:01 Speaker 05 Yeah.
14:01 Aisha Harris? But you have that sort of their brother sister relationship and they're supposed to be twins. Sure.
14:08 Aisha Harris? I found that those relationships a lot more interesting just because, you know, they are vying for the win. Like, all of them want this, whereas the Grace and Faith character don't want to be involved in this at all. And I thought that sort of dynamic was interesting to see. And it did make the deaths of some of them, because a lot of them inevitably are dying. It did make it a little bit more satisfying in a way that I wasn't expecting to see. Overall, I don't know how much there is to say about it, other than like, it's a fun time. There are going to be a lot more deaths. It's a little bit longer. You can cut, I felt like it kind of felt long towards the end. But, you know, there's some great needle drops. There's Amy Winehouse at the beginning.
14:49 Speaker 04 I was just gonna say.
14:50 Speaker 05 There's a great fight scene in a ballroom that really, it's really, really funny.
14:54 Aisha Harris? Yes.
14:54 Speaker 04 Good comedy, yeah.
14:55 Speaker 05 I'll admit this, there was a part of me that thought this was treading old ground by going back to hide and seek, uh, hide and seek until dawn, that same premise once again. Because if you remember the OG family, they played all kinds of different games. I thought, why are we going back to hide and seek? And then I realized, Glenn, it's called Ready or Not. It's got to be hide and seek. That is, that's the franchise, right? I mean, it's always gonna be hide and seek, just deal with it.
15:21 Speaker 04 No, bring out that creepy card thing again. Play the weird song. It was part of it. I feel like that creepy like crank up song and maybe even you can't, I don't know if you can do this a third time. But in the second time, if she pulls hide and seek again, I think I'd have been like, wow, here we go. Super funny. I think some of that Gothic tone is missing from part two.
15:40 Speaker 05 Yeah.
15:41 Aisha Harris? Well, well, yeah, you're not gonna get Gothized on a golf course, right? Like, that's not, that's inherently not what it is. I mean, having recently rewatched the first one again, part of the issue, I think, and what I, if I remember correctly, like, hide and seek is the only game that actually is like
15:59 Speaker 05 The bad one.
16:00 Aisha Harris? The deadly one. Like, the other games are just like simple parlor games or whatever, games you play with your family. And so then we would have no movie unless they invented, I don't know. Maybe they play Mafia next time? Maybe it's like Traders? Maybe there's a Traders version of it?
16:12 Speaker 04 Would love to see it.
16:13 Aisha Harris? Except people actually die.
16:14 Speaker 05 It can't be Parcheesi, that's definitely true.
16:16 Speaker 04 I would like to see a third. I'm just letting the studio know. If you guys wanted to put a third out, I would still be in theaters. This franchise is, it's just fun. I love a final girl. I love a good for her moment. Uh, and this movie has that in spades, so I'm real, I'm excited to see a gen pop reaction to this. I might go to the movies. I think you're right, Glenn, seeing this with an audience, it's gonna hit.
16:36 Speaker 05 Yeah.
16:37 Aisha Harris? Yeah.
16:37 Speaker 05 And I will say, I have a request for a third. If they do do a third, the one thing that both of these films kinda let you down a little bit on is in the dialogue. You want, given this premise, you want crisp, biting, withering. You want witty and what you get, I mean, they'll, they'll start something and then, this happened a lot in the first film, instead of saying something biting and withering and sarcastic, they would just curse. And, you know, okay, that's a fun rug pull every so often, you can't keep doing that. It is the same writing team, same merely functional dialogue, but again, I'm in.
17:08 Aisha Harris? I don't know. I, I think we've given them an idea for the next movie. It needs to be more like Traders. People can get banished, but they can also actually get murdered and that would be very, very fun. Have a little Alan Cumming cameo. And we need Ryan Johnson to come in and punch this up a bit. I think that's
17:22 Speaker 05 Exactly what I guess what I'm saying.
17:24 Aisha Harris? That is what we are saying here.
17:26 Speaker 05 Maybe that's unrealistic.
17:29 Aisha Harris? Well, we still had a good time. And hopefully, Joelle, you will have a good time seeing it in theaters. Hopefully, more people see it in theaters. Bring back theaters, especially for movies like these. This is what they are made for. That brings us to the end of our show. Joelle Monique Glenweldon, thanks so much for being here. We were ready, and we were here.
17:48 Speaker 05 Thank you.
17:49 Aisha Harris? Thank you. Thanks for having me. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Carly Rubin, and Mike Katsoff, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, Kamin provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. And if you're not already following the show, do that right now. I'm Aisha Harris, and we'll see you all next time.
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