Ready or Not Sequel Premieres at SXSW with Early Praise

The sequel to the 2019 horror hit Ready or Not premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 13, 2026, earning strong early praise from critics and generating buzz ahead of its wide theatrical release on March 20. Titled Ready or Not 2 Here I Come, the film reunites directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett with star Samara Weaving, who returns as Grace, the resilient survivor of a deadly family ritual in the original.

The story picks up immediately after the events of the first film, where Grace, a bride targeted in a satanic game of hide-and-seek by her wealthy in-laws, emerges victorious as dawn breaks and her pursuers meet gruesome ends. In the sequel, Grace awakens in a hospital, facing arrest for the deaths, only to be thrust back into danger. She reunites with her estranged younger sister, Faith, played by Kathryn Newton, whom she left behind in their foster family years earlier. The sisters' tense reconciliation is interrupted when they are captured and forced into a new ritualistic game orchestrated by a council of powerful families. With the Le Domas clan eliminated, representatives from four rival dynasties compete to kill Grace and claim the...