Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

Picking up from the closing moments of the delightfully gonzo first movie, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come opens with blood-soaked survivor Grace MacCaullay (the ever-superb Samara Weaving) being taken to hospital.

There, she is reunited with her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton aka the MCU's Cassie Lang, daughter of Ant-Man), but they very quickly discover that the games aren't over, when both are kidnapped to the Danforth Estate, another home for the elite and filthy rich.

There the sisters are to be pawns in a contest for the surviving four families of the Satanic cult Grace faced in the first movie. The prize is now for control of the council of families and thus THE WORLD.

With the same directors - Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett - and writers - Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy - as the original, the transition from one film to the next is seamless.

While Ready or Not 2 may initially give the impression it's simply going to be going over old ground, but with two protagonists and four families of antagonists, it is so much more than that.

Once again hitting the ground running, the 108-minute continuation of the story rockets along with the same ferocity as the first movie, blending in some epic, Grand Guignol violence and dark, often dry, humour.

Supervised by Mister Le Bail's representative, the unflappable and nameless Lawyer (Elijah Wood, who you may know from a little trilogy called The Lord of The Rings), leading the charge for the bad guys are Ursula Danford (Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her sadistic twin brother, Titus (Shawn Hatosy).

While all the members of the families, in their own ways, are evil, the psychotic Titus is the most genuinely disturbing. His horrifically savage beating of one of the lead characters being the most difficult scene to watch in a movie filled with exploding bodies and gory slapstick. This exhibition of cold brutality isn't played for laughs or supernatural chills.

Supplementing these powerful performances are a couple of stand-out cameos from big name stars, whose impact on the story far exceeds their amount of screentime.

The developing bond between the feuding sisters is the heart of the film, with the plot twisting and turning around that so that the surviving characters end up somewhere totally unexpected for the grand finale.

There's nice foreshadowing along the way, although you might still be surprised by its implications.

The conclusion is very satisfying, but definitely closes the door on any possible threequels.

However, I wouldn't say no to a Kill Bill: The Whole Blood Affair-style stitching together of 2019's Ready or Not and this year's Ready or Not 2 into a single, 200-minute glorious entity, as - as is joked about at the end - both movies unfold over a handful of consecutive days.

If I had a gripe with the second movie, and it's a silly one, I just find the title is a case of a hat-on-a-hat. Make up your mind, people, call it Ready or Not 2 or Ready or Not: Here I Come. 

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is just awkward.

Eclectic and Beautiful Fantasy Movies From The 1970s

The Silent Flute aka Circle Of Iron (1978)

Cord (Jeff Cooper) is a dunderhead barbarian martial artist who "lives by his own rules". It's this attitude that gets him kicked out of a tournament to select the next warrior to go on the quest to find the Book of All Knowledge, which is held by the powerful and mysterious Zetan.

Nevertheless, Cord sets out on the journey anyway and when the actual Chosen One falls at the first challenge, Cord takes up his mantle and faces a series of tests, and lessons, before he is finally prepared to confront Zetan.

Along the way, he teams up with a Blind Flute Player (David Carradine), who also serves as a reluctant mentor to the zealous Cord.

Several of the obstacles Cord faces are also portrayed by Carradine, including the leader of a tribe of Monkeymen, a nomadic leader called Changsha and the personification of Death as a leopard-human hybrid.

This, and the various Zen lessons that Blind Flute Player imparts to Cord highlight the fact that this is not your run-of-the-mill sword and sorcery flick, despite its mystical setting and the strange characters that the protagonist encounters.

The Silent Flute (also known as Circle Of Iron) was a story dreamed up by Bruce Lee with his friend and student James Coburn and Oscar-winning scriptwriter Stirling Silliphant to bring Lee's personal philosophy to the big screen through a mix of mysticism, humour and martial arts.

Jeff Cooper makes a charming, if slightly stupid, lead but as with the protagonist of many Buddhist anecdotes he must take the wrong path first to learn from his mistakes.

He is balanced well by Carradine's Flute Player - whose appearance here is a clear influence on Tarantino's Kill Bill - who gets to deliver great lines like "tie two birds together and they will have four wings, but they cannot fly".

While The Silent Flute has its share of fights and fisticuffs, that isn't the raison d'etre for the movie and the philosophising could frustrate some who've come along to see people get the snot kicked of them.

Those viewers will probably find the ending particularly obtuse as it's possibly not the sort of high-brow noggin-scratchin' they were hoping for from a martial arts flick that boasts both Carradine and Lee in the credits.

Ten "Banned" Exploitation Classics That Tarantino Recommends

It never even entered my mind that this could be called "controversial"!

Banned on arrival, prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, hunted as video nasties. Fight for Your Life. Eaten Alive. Last House on the Left.These are the grindhouse shockers Tarantino keeps recommending, from Leatherface's heat-stroke nightmare to a one-eyed angel of revenge that inspired Tarantino’s own Kill Bill.