In 2019, Searchlight Pictures released a small horror film called “Ready or Not,” starring Samara Weaving and made on a mere $6 million. That small horror film grossed nearly $60 million worldwide and launched its directors — collectively known as Radio Silence — into the echelon of in-demand filmmakers, who were then tapped to reinvent the “Scream” franchise before tackling another original of their own in vampire film “Abigail.”
But now Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett return to the world of “Ready or Not” with the sequel “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” one of Searchlight’s biggest releases of the year. And to hear the filmmakers tell it, the cat-and-mouse thriller follow-up couldn’t have happened without its directors briefly stepping away to make those other movies.
In theaters on Friday, the sequel once again stars Weaving as Grace MacCaullay. In the first film, Grace is set to marry into the Le Domas family, but before she can officially be welcomed, she must play a deadly game of hide and seek where the rules are simple: her new in-laws, who are actually Satanists, hunt her until dawn. If she manages to survive, she wins, and they explode.
Grace gets bloodied on the way, but manages to make it through — only for the sequel to pick up later that same day, with her learning that her victory has triggered a larger game with four other wealthy, Satan-worshipping families. Think of it like double or nothing. Only this time, Grace’s sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) is forced to play with her.
According to Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directing duo known as Radio Silence who steered both “Ready or Not” and its sequel, it was meeting Kathryn Newton on the set of their film “Abigail” that unlocked “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.”
“She was the origin of the idea that, ‘Oh man, Grace has a sister,’ and that is such a significant — it’s the beating heart of the movie,” Gillett explained to TheWrap. “And I think without having made ‘Abigail,’ I don’t know how else we would have arrived at some of the very identity-specific things about this movie.”
Indeed, “Abigail” was one of three movies Radio Silence made between the “Ready or Not” films, following 2022’s “Scream,” and “Scream VI” the following year. In fact, those films were the reason that the duo originally wasn’t attached to direct “Ready or Not 2,” despite starting conversations about a sequel immediately after the first film became a box office hit.
“We very respectfully just went on to do other things, a lot of other people did, and we had given our blessing that the movie and the process continue on without us,” Gillett said. “Because as fans of the first movie, we also were really excited by what we had helped design as a sequel, and what Guy [Busick] and Ryan [Christopher Murphy] had written.”
Six years later, working with Newton in “Abigail,” Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett quickly determined that she and Weaving had “similar energies,” describing them as “wildly talented weirdos.” The duo knew they had to get the two actresses into something together, but “Ready or Not 2” had seemingly passed. Then, producer Tripp Vinson called to ask if they could make it on a new schedule.
So they pitched the idea of Grace having a sister, and returning writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy immediately worked it into the script. In hindsight, the duo called it “such an obvious idea” and made fun of themselves for being “scared” of making the film. Because yes, they very much felt pressure crafting a sequel, knowing how bad follow-ups can go.
In returning, the duo also had two other sequels under their belt, thanks to the “Scream” franchise, and they brought lessons from those experiences too. Namely, they had cemented their style of not leaving many loose ends.
Despite the “Scream” films setting up a potential trilogy arc for Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega’s characters — seemingly derailed by Barrera’s firing and Ortega’s subsequent exit — the directors said “we didn’t have any design for those characters beyond six.”
“I would say that that’s the same with everything that we make. We’re really driven to make movies that have a closed story, that feel really conclusive, and really cathartic in their ending,” Gillett explained. “We think that that’s a wonderful experience to have as an audience. But I also think that for us, just creatively, it means that we have to put all of our great ideas into what we’re making, you know?”
“We’re not saving a great character turn or a twist for something that might happen down the line,” he continued. “The only thing that matters is what’s currently in front of us, and packing that full of as many great ideas, character moments, scares as humanly possible.”
Now what’s in front of them is the next installment in the “Mummy” franchise, starring Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser. The directors wouldn’t spill on just how much horror and blood they plan to infuse into the film, but did tease that “It’s romantic, and it’s scary, and it takes some real chances.”
“It’s not unlike how we approached ‘Scream,’ how do we take this thing that we love as fans, and not turn it into just nostalgia, but actually evolve it and create something new for the present day?” Bettinelli-Olpin said.
In the meantime, they’re “overjoyed” at how “Ready or Not 2” came out — though they do wish they could elbow that “2” out of the title so the joke of the nursery rhyme could stay intact. Could there be a third film in the franchise? Well, they don’t have anything planned, but they’d be up for it.
“It’s like what Tyler was saying earlier, we love the idea of making every movie its own complete thought. And this one — just like the first one, with such a definitive end — this one is a very definitive end, but there’s always room to play because of the mythology and the world that it exists in,” Bettinelli-Olpin said.
“And those characters, now two of them, Grace and Faith, are both so good, and we’d watch them in anything. So who knows?”
“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” is now in theaters everywhere.
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