Are ‘Ready or Not 2’ and ‘They Will Kill You’ the same movie?

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — In the latest case of ironic movie calendar confluence, two bloody movies about a pair of sisters battling satanic death cults were released inside a week of each other. Despite the oddly specific similarities of their premises, one is far more successful than the other.

“READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME” (2026, 108 min., directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett)

I’m hit or miss with Radio Silence, the filmmaking duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The directors are some of the fastest rising stars of 21st-century horror, spearheading the “V/H/S” franchise, reinventing the “Scream” series and catapulting Samara Weaving to genre royalty with the first “Ready or Not.” While I appreciated the breath of fresh air Radio Silence brought to “Scream” in a post-Wes Craven world and I thought their segment of the original “V/H/S” was the best of the bunch, at the same time, I detested “Abigail,” their 2022 reinvention of “Dracula’s Daughter,” and I thought the original “Ready or Not” was kind of lame.

Thus, I am surprised – but not shocked – to report that “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” rocks.

READ MY REVIEW OF “SCREAM 7” HERE.

The sequel picks up immediately after the events of the first film (if you haven’t seen it, no worries. A couple flashbacks and some well-placed exposition will get you up to speed). Weaving’s character, Grace Le Domas, née MacCaullay, has just survived a nightmare game of hide-and-seek with her twisted, devil-worshiping in-laws. She hides, they hunt, and if she survives until dawn, she wins, while they go back to Satan. Fortunately for Grace, she makes it. Unfortunately for Grace, in the absence of the Le Domas clan, a power vacuum has formed among the upper crust of Satan-friendly society. Because Grace was responsible, she is kidnapped for another deadly game of hide-and-seek as members of five devil-worshiping families vie for the toppled “High Seat” of their council. But this time, she’s not alone. Grace’s estranged younger sister, Faith, played by “Abigail” and “Lisa Frankenstein” star Kathryn Newton, is forced into the game with her.

I would contend that the best thing about Radio Silence movies is their strong eye for horror and ear for comedy. As gory and carnal as their movies get, they are often very funny. This is actually an arena where the first “Ready or Not” was lacking. While there were gore geysers aplenty, at the end of the day, “Ready or Not” was a pretty by-the-numbers class satire. “Ready or Not 2,” meanwhile, trades up for a sisterly screwball act between Weaving and Newton.

Weaving and Newton have unbelievable chemistry together. The duo play the MacCaullay sisters with the standard Radio Silence irony, but bouncing off of each other, new layers are revealed in the script’s meta-horror shtick. Their mutual revulsion during a kill involving an industrial washing machine – Radio Silence is nothing if not creative! – is the perfect encapsulation of that positive feedback loop. The Spin Cycle of Suffering could be played as badass victory or a gonzo gross-out, but Weaving and Newton give Grace and Faith a moment to feel relief they survived, horrified at the death they just caused and a witty awareness of the absurdity of their situation, all at the same time. It sounds simple, but the care they put into their performances elevated the emotions of the film.

The supporting cast is having heaps of fun, too. There is much less subtlety to the five families and their prim lawyer, played with poised, hilarious brilliance by Elijah Wood of “Lord of the Rings” fame, but their archetypal characters are a total blast to watch. Unlike the first movie, there are a few horror icons in this mix this time around, including Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Cronenberg, which is an added treat for fans of the genre.

The movie could be read as a metaphor for the changing of the guard inside of the horror genre: Cronenberg, king of 70s, 80s and 90s body horror, plays imperious father to Gellar. Gellar, a scream queen in her own right throughout the 1990s, is trying to kill Weaving and Newton, who have been regular scream queens of the 2010s and 20s. It’s a fun bit of meta storytelling, but don’t worry if you don’t recognize David Cronenberg. It won’t make or break the movie, but it might add an extra bit of context to the gigantic portrait of the “Videodrome” director looming over the characters.

WATCH OUR RANKING OF EVERY DAVID CRONENBERG MOVIE HERE.

Anyway, each of the supporting cast is evil, vain or cruel in their own special way, allowing the audience to relish their inevitable blood tornado explosions. Radio Silence loves making bad guys combust into red mist.

I hate to compare “Ready or Not 2” endlessly to the first film, but I continue to be impressed with how it improved upon its older sister. At the end of the original “Ready or Not,” Grace is wearing a bloody wedding dress with yellow Converse, which became an instantly iconic outfit for its time, but has soured in cool factor like a Hot Topic tee shrinks in the wash. In direct contrast, the finale of “Ready or Not 2” has Grace in a black wedding dress, which is already one of my favorite costumes of the year. It doesn’t call attention to itself in the same way as the camera lingered on those quirky yellow sneakers. It’s cool without trying, which goes for all of “Ready or Not 2.”

Rating: 4/5

“THEY WILL KILL YOU” (2026, 94 min., directed by Kirill Sokolov)

Meanwhile, “They Will Kill You” is one of the most obnoxious flicks I’ve ever seen. The style-over-substance film stars Zazie Beetz as a young woman who infiltrates a hotel run by rich, immortal devil worshipers, fighting the bourgeoisie ghouls floor by floor in an attempt to rescue her younger sister from their clutches.

Kirill Sokolov has directed a Tarantino pastiche to end all Tarantino pastiches. Everything about its slick camerawork, nonlinear narrative and katana-wielding heroine feels like Sokolov built an empty hotel-shaped box out of the other director’s films. I am no Tarantino superfan, but it’s hard to ignore how much “They Will Kill You” feels like discount “Kill Bill.” It’s ironic, considering Tarantino’s movie shamelessly cribs from decades of martial arts movies itself. “They Will Kill You” is regurgitated² and lacks soul, personality and panache, no matter how many dudes Beetz mows down.

There are glimmers of a more interesting movie here and there. The immortality conceit lends itself to some gross potential, and when Sokolov leans into the weird factor of, for example, Heather Graham’s head getting blown off by a shotgun and slowly regrowing, there’s a trickle of something exciting. There’s a kooky sequence with a pig’s head that is admittedly original and depraved. The trouble is that “They Will Kill You” never follows through on that tone, the only thing giving it a personality. When Graham’s sentient eyeball was rolling around onscreen, I would have been rolling on the floor laughing, but the rest of the movie casts a shroud of derivative dullness. If Sokolov was going to rip somebody off, I wish he would have picked Sam Raimi instead.

There are other more basic complaints. The script is rote. The performances are nothing special. The film gestures at making a statement about race or class, but can’t commit to either. In comparison with “Ready or Not 2,” even its cameos are inferior. Would you rather watch Tom Felton, aka Draco Malfoy, flop around moaning on the floor, or have Elijah Wood’s Frodo read Satanic legal jargon like the coolest guy alive? I know which I’d pick. In my Book of the Damned, there is a clear winner in the March 2026 devil-worship-sister-movie playoffs, and it isn’t “They Will Kill You.”

Rating: 2/5