‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ Directors Talk Satanic Sequel

The closing shot of “Ready or Not” is hard to forget — a bloodied bride smokes on the steps of a burning mansion after defeating her satanic in-laws in a lethal hunting game on her wedding night. Something old, something new, something battered, something bruised. 

Luckily for fans who’ve waited seven years to revisit this iconic scene, “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” picks up the exact moment where the 2019 movie left off. While Grace’s (Samara Weaving) well-deserved smoke break is cut short as she’s whisked back into another deadly game launched by four rivaling families in the satanic elite, the filmmakers’ break between horror-comedy installments was rather long.

With over half a decade and various horror projects in between, directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, known collectively as Radio Silence, described this filmmaking process as a “homecoming.”

“It was like getting together with your best friends after years apart,” Gillett said. “The experience of making it from beginning to end was really a validation of that. I think that we’d all come back to the experience with new talents, having gone and done other things, and it felt really fun to show up and challenge each other in a new way on a bigger movie.”

The director duo said a “true love” for their experience on the first film — and a ticking clock — inspired their return to the story. Looking to “Aliens” and “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” as benchmarks of sequel excellence, they laced up their yellow converse to develop a second installment that would enhance the first film, raising the gory stakes while maintaining tonal consistency.

While they challenged themselves logistically in this by making the sequel an immediate continuation, Bettinelli-Olpin said the choice was actually liberating, “a playground that we could just do whatever we wanted in.” 

“It’s basically like upending the checkerboard,” Gillett said. “All of a sudden you’re like, ‘Oh shit, the game isn’t what I thought it would be. So what is it now? And what are these very specific ideas and character moments that we can deploy that really make sense in a grounded way in this world?’”

This isn’t Radio Silence’s first foray into sequel work — the two directed 2023’s “Scream VI” as a follow up to their 2022 film “Scream,” the fifth installment of the infamous slasher franchise. They said the freedom they felt on “Scream VI” to steer into fresh ideas prepared them for “Ready or Not 2.” 

“Our approach to [‘Scream VI’] was really similar to our approach with the ‘Ready or Not’ sequel,” Gillett said. “It was, ‘How do you pay respect and love the thing that you’ve made, but also not be afraid to really challenge yourself, and by challenging yourself, challenge the audience’s notion of what the sequel might be?’”

Starting over essentially from scratch with their cast, the directors had plenty of space to explore new characterization and familial dynamics. 

As the only returning cast member, Weaving’s (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “Guns Akimbo”) bulletproof performance anchored the on-screen chaos with tenacity and rage. Horror darling Kathryn Newton joined the cast next as Faith, Grace’s estranged sister who unwittingly joins her fight as a help and occasional hindrance. 

“The first movie has such a strong relationship between Alex and Grace that you watch crumble and fall apart over the course of the movie,” Bettinelli-Olpin said. “For this, it was ‘How do we do the inverse of that and create a love story at the end of the day?’”

Establishing their fraught sisterly dynamic “unlocked everything” for the filmmakers, who explored another side of sibling resentment with villains Ursula and Titus Danforth, the rulebending and hellbent twins played by Geller (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Scooby-Doo”) and Shawn Hatosy. 

With the sisters locked in, the rest of the star-studded ensemble was built up from scratch.

The directors stressed the benefit of having strong performers like genre veterans Sarah Michelle Geller and David Cronenberg who are willing to take the big swings required of both body horror and dark comedy.

Finding the balance between these laugh-out-loud and cover-your-eyes moments was a constant conversation, the filmmakers said. Bleeding from writers’ rooms into on-set direction and the editing stage, an emphasis on grounding both extremes in reality was essential for either to resonate with an audience. 

“That’s what allows us to have a crazy experience feel real enough that you can laugh at it or be scared about it,” Bettinelli-Olpin said. “It’s finding those guardrails and then being really honest about when we’re crossing them, and if we want to cross them, making sure that it’s intentional.”

Intention was the key guide here, Gillett corroborated. He said the main challenge lay in not making the film feel like a video game with action for action’s sake and a never-ending slew of villains who get progressively harder to best.

Instead, the film is inherently hopeful. Bringing levity to a truly hellish situation, Grace and Faith — not so subtly named — continually find new ways to adapt and survive. The directors aimed to do the same. 

“It was really important to us that we didn’t just treat the sequel like this big, precious thing and that we turn away from all of the fun risks and ideas that might feel fresh and new, but actually to do the opposite, to steer into the things that feel fresh and new,” Gillett said.

Catch “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” rated R, in theaters now.