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The original Ready or Not ended exactly the way it needed to. Grace standing in the smoking wreckage, covered in blood, finally free, and then the credits roll before you can breathe. It is one of the cleanest endings in modern horror comedy. I have recommended that film to everyone I know who will sit still long enough to watch it, and I will keep doing that until I run out of people.

That ending is also the reason every sequel to a film like that walks into a wall before it even starts. You cannot top it. You can only try to justify the next chapter. The question with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is not whether it is as good as the first film. It is not. The question is whether it earns its own place in the room.

The Game Gets Bigger. Messier. Longer.

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett pick up exactly where they left off. Grace is still reeling. She is also, almost immediately, back in a game she never asked to play. This time with her estranged sister Kathryn Newton at her side and four rival families hunting them both for the High Seat of the Council. The stakes are bigger, the mythology is expanded, and the body count climbs accordingly.

What the duo does well, they have always done well. They understand that the engine of this kind of film is tension, and that tension and comedy run on the same fuel. Bettinelli-Olpin has said that the goal was always for the audience to not know where a scene is going, whether it is about to be emotional, scary, funny, or all three at once. That instinct is alive and working in the best stretches of this film. There are sequences here that are genuinely, painfully funny in the way the first film was funny, dark and mean.

The problem is the size of it. This film is roughly twenty minutes longer than it needs to be and the extra weight shows in the second half. The first Ready or Not worked in part because it was tight. One house. One night, one terrible house rule. Here I Come stretches the mythology outward and some of it holds and some of it does not. By the time the finale arrives, a few of the threads the film introduced have been quietly abandoned. This is a film that wanted to say more than it had time to finish saying.

It is still fun. I want to be clear about that. It is loud and bloody, and it commits to its own absurdity with the confidence of a film that knows what it is. That counts for something. I just wanted a little more of what the first one was.

You Cast Sarah Michelle Gellar. You Use Her.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is in this movie. She plays Ursula Danforth, a member of the rival coalition hunting Grace down. It is a role with real potential, the right kind of villain for a film like this, the kind that should crackle with energy every time she is on screen.

It does not crackle. This is not Gellar’s fault. She does what the script gives her, and she does it with commitment, but what the script gives her is not enough. You do not cast Sarah Michelle Gellar in a horror comedy and then leave her at the edges of it. Her whole career has been about anchoring exactly this kind of material.

Buffy exists because of what she does with a role like this. The fact that Here I Come does not fully deploy that resource is probably the most frustrating thing about the film. Someone in a future project is going to cast her correctly and the rest of us are going to feel it.

Samara Weaving Is Holding This Together

There is one non-negotiable reason to watch this film and her name is Samara Weaving.

She is carrying this movie. Not in the way that lead actors carry a film by anchoring the narrative, she is doing that too, but in the specific way of a performer who refuses to let the material drop below the level her commitment sets. Every scene she is in has a floor. Nothing sags when she is present because she will not let it. Watch how the other actors respond to her in the scenes they share. They step up. She does that to a room.

Her scream in this film is the best single moment in either movie. I will not tell you where it lands or what triggers it. You will know it when you hear it. It does not sound like acting. There is something genuinely dark buried inside of Samara Weaving that the camera catches when she is not thinking about it, something that lives right at the surface of Grace and occasionally breaks through completely. She is the best final girl of this generation and I do not believe that is a close call. Not Jennifer, not Sydney, not any of them. Weaving.

Whatever is living underneath that performance, she keeps it just barely in check. God help the franchise that finally lets it out completely.

Two Audio Commentaries and Why That Matters

Most disc releases give you one commentary track if you are lucky, and it is usually the director talking over their own film for an hour and a half in a way that confirms they made all the choices they made. Here I Come gives you two, and they are genuinely different products.

The first pairs Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett with Weaving and Newton, the talent track, the one that gives you the room energy of the production. The second is the craft track: directors, writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, producers James Vanderbilt and Tripp Vinson, and editor Jay Prychidny sitting down to walk through how the film was actually built. Those are two different experiences and both of them are worth your time.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is now on digital via Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. Blu-ray and DVD arrive on June 16 from Searchlight Pictures. It is a bigger, messier, slightly overstuffed version of the first film, and it is still fun, and Samara Weaving is still the best in the business at this. The bonuses make this one worth owning. Buy it for her. Stay for the extras.

About the Release

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Radio Silence) and written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. The film stars Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Nestor Carbonell, David Cronenberg, and Elijah Wood. Distributed by Searchlight Pictures. Verified Hot on Rotten Tomatoes with a 90% Popcornmeter score.

The Game Goes On: The Making of Ready or Not 2 (4-part featurette) — Part 1: Written in Blood / Part 2: Casting the Chaos / Part 3: Designed for Destruction / Part 4: Blood, Guts, and Practical Mayhem. Rules of the Game. Gag Reel. Audio Commentary by the directors with Samara Weaving and Kathryn Newton. Audio Commentary by the directors with writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, producers James Vanderbilt and Tripp Vinson, and editor Jay Prychidny.

Available now on digital. Blu-ray and DVD June 16 from Searchlight Pictures.

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The Horror Make-Up Show at Universal Studios Orlando has closed its doors after 36 years of entertainment. But not permanently.

The long running show that combines horror, comedy, and interactive demonstrations is next in line for a makeover at the Florida theme park. Besides the E.T. Adventure, The Horror Make-Up Show is the only other remaining attractions at Universal Orlando from its opening day.

A Brief History of the Make-Up Show

The idea for the show originated from an attraction at Universal Hollywood called The Land of A Thousand Faces. Land ran from 1975-1979. The twenty minute show entertained an audience of up to 1,700 visitors in an open air venue. The show taught the audience about movie makeup. Additionally, two volunteers were chosen to be transformed into the Frankenstein monster and his bride.

Despite the show’s popularity, The Land of A Thousand Faces was closed to make room for a new experience at Universal Studios Hollywood.

An Era of Gods and Monsters

Lon Chaney

Explained with movie clips, Universal’s Horror Make-Up Show explains the humble beginnings of makeup and special effects in horror movies. Starting with the classic Universal monsters such as Frankenstein’s Monster, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Phantom of the Opera, this era heavily features the work of Lon Chaney.

Lon Chaney’s contribution to the world of horror makeup greatly impacted the industry for decades to come. Many of his creations were the results of self experimentation.  In fact, his extreme dedication to his craft earned him the nickname “The Man of 1,000 Faces”.

While we do know how he did some of his makeup effects, Chaney took many of these secrets with him to the grave when he died in 1930.

Rick Baker

 Another important name in the industry that Horror Make-Up mentions is Rick Baker. Baker created the incredible werewolf transformation in An American Werewolf in London (1981). It was his work in this movie that earned him his first Academy Award for Best Make-up in 1982. This would be the first win for the make-up artist in a long line of achievements.

Perhaps Baker’s second highest achievement was his work in Michael Jackson’s music video Thriller. Baker’s make-up transforms the pop singer into a werewolf among a hoard of zombies. The makeup artist even makes a cameo in the video as one of the undead.

Other movies Baker helped bring to life with his craft include; The Howling, Men in Black, and The Wolfman (2010).

A Blending of Technologies 

As seen in An American Werewolf in London, Rick Baker did not only use prosthetics to create horror movie magic. Baker and his team designed the animatronics and “change-o” heads, limbs, and other props to create the groundbreaking transformation from man to werewolf.

The combination of prosthetics placed directly onto the actor in combination with robotics began the blending of technologies used to create the next generation of monsters.

The Horror Make-Up Show continues its education of the genre as technology expanded into the computer era. The final clips shown on screen demonstrates the latest evolution of horror make-up in Universal’s The Mummy (2017).

Computer generated imagery is layered over physical practical effects to create the amazing hieroglyphics covering the character of Ahmanet, played by Sofia Boutella. It is the partnering of these two technologies that the host of the show claims creates the best and most convincing effects in modern day horror.

Moving Forward

Hardcore horror movie fans of the Horror Make-Up Show will be some of the first to say while entertaining, the show is indeed outdated. The names Lon Chaney, Rick Baker, Dick Smith, and Tom Savini certainly deserve to be immortalized in horror history. However, there is so much new blood that should be acknowledged for their contributions to the genre that continues to propel it forward.

Artists such as Damien Leone (Terrifier), Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), Todd Masters (Final Destination), and Eryn Krueger Mekash (American Horror Story) are all examples that have continued the evolution of visuals in the genre.

As touched upon in the original Make-Up Show, the best results in movies is when practical effects are blended with computer generated effects. Using just one style versus the other runs the risk of looking “too fake.” Using both techniques can also be more budget friendly and less time consuming for the actor in the make-up chair during the creation process. 

The Future of the Horror Make-Up Show 

Universal Studios Orlando is expecting to re-open their doors to the new Horror Make-Up Show during the winter of 2026. However, they have not yet announced what changes will be made, or what the future show will look like. The most the theme park has announced is the show will be:

“featuring classic and modern horror properties along with shockingly fun surprises – all while staying true to the comedic and irreverent vibe that guests love.” 

What were your favorite moments of Universal Orlando’s original Horror Make-Up Show, and what do you hope they bring to the table when they reopen? Let us know in the comments!

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There is a specific kind of damage Ringu does to you, and it is entirely the phone call’s fault. You get through the whole movie thinking you are watching it from outside, and then Sadako’s voice comes through the receiver, and you realize you were inside it the whole time. Koji Suzuki, who wrote the 1991 novel that started all of this, died May 8 at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 68.

The premise fits on a napkin. There is a cursed videotape, you watch it, a phone call tells you that you have seven days. What Suzuki actually built inside that premise is harder to shake than the premise itself. Sadako is not a slasher villain. She is not hunting you because you wronged her. She is the embodiment of a child who was dropped into a well and has been there ever since, and the curse moving out from her is not really about revenge. It is about the impossibility of forgetting that something terrible happened and nobody came. You cannot outrun a concept like that. You can only try to understand it before the seven days are up.

What He Built

Ring came out in Japan in 1991. Spiral followed in 1995 and immediately went somewhere people who thought they had the series figured out were not expecting, pushing the mythology into science fiction territory that still catches readers off guard. It won the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers. Loop completed the trilogy by becoming a meditation on simulation, biology, and what memory actually is, none of which you would expect from a book that started with a videotape.

Suzuki was not a writer who wanted to do the same thing twice. His 1996 collection Dark Water was adapted into a well-regarded Japanese horror film in 2002 and an American remake with Jennifer Connelly in 2005. The story in that collection about the water tank on the roof of the apartment building is one of the most quietly devastating things in his bibliography. The man knew how to use one small wrong detail.

What It Became

Hideo Nakata turned Ring into Ringu in 1998 and something got loose. American horror had spent the 1990s being very clever about how clever it was, doing the Scream thing, making sure you knew it knew the rules. J-Horror walked in from a completely different direction and did not know what a knowing wink was. It was slow and sincere and interested in grief and possession and the residue violence leaves in physical spaces long after the people involved are gone.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse, Takashi Shimizu’s The Grudge, Higuchinsky’s Uzumaki: the entire movement traces back to the ground Suzuki’s novel prepared, and Sadako crawling out of that television became one of the most recognizable images in horror’s last fifty years.

Gore Verbinski made The Ring in 2002 and ensured that anyone who had somehow missed the Japanese original was now on board. Two separate horror renaissances on two different continents inside a decade is not a record that gets broken easily.

What He Meant

Horror has a short list of writers who actually changed what the genre thought it was allowed to do. Suzuki is on that list. Every cursed-content story since, every found footage premise, every creepypasta, every haunted stream, every piece of internet horror built on the idea that something terrible is already moving through the medium you are currently inside: all of it lives downstream from what he started. He wrote a novel about a videotape and it turned out to be about something much harder to shake than a videotape.

He received the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel in 2012 for Edge. The Horror Writers Association gave him the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.

Sadako is still in the well.