Elijah Wood on Ready or Not 2 and the appeal of horror movies: “The stakes have to feel real”

Though best known as heroic hobbit Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001 to 2003), Elijah Wood is a full-on horror head. Even before his spell as the famed Tolkien protagonist he had a bit part in The Faculty (1998) – essentially a teenage Invasion of the Body Snatchers – while afterwards he played serial killer Kevin in Sin City (2005) and another in Maniac (2012). Now he rolls up as a shady solicitor keeping an eye on proceedings in slasher sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, directed again by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (half of the Radio Silence collective).

The ante is upped in blood-soaked fashion for unlucky bride Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) who is again forced – now with her sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) – into a murderous hide-and-seek game of survival against a mega-rich family pursuing unimaginable power and riches. On this occasion, she’s up against the Danforth family, headed by influential power-broker Chester, played by body-horror pioneer David Cronenberg. Genre fans will also be delighted by the casting of Buffy the Vampire Slayer heroine Sarah Michelle Gellar as his daughter Ursula.

While the MacCaullay sisters and the Danforth clan have a horrible time trying to kill each other and avoid gruesome death, the cast are evidently loving it, with Wood supplying most of the film’s many laughs. Since he co-founded production company SpectreVision with directors Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller in 2010, Wood has also produced several stand-out genre features, including Mandy (2018), Daniel Isn’t Real and Color Out of Space (both 2019). So he’s well placed to tell us about the ingredients of a top horror film and working with two genre icons.

Lou Thomas: We first see you in the film sharing a screen with David Cronenberg. Given everything that he’s done for horror, how much pressure did you feel to be particularly sinister alongside him?  

Elijah Wood: A fair amount, but he’s incredibly disarming. He’s very sweet, gentle and kind. Quite an open book in the best way. When you meet your heroes, you always wonder: can I ask them about their work? Can I ask them about their career? Is that something that they even want to talk about? We had some moments of downtime. He was beautifully forthcoming and told great stories. It was a real surprise when I found out that he was going to be in the film and that I would get to have a scene with him.

In films like this and Sin City, you play sinister pretty well yourself. When can we see you in one of his films, and which of his previous films would you most like to have been in?

Wood: I would love to work with David Cronenberg [on one of his own films]. My friend Viggo Mortensen has worked with him three times in great films. I love those movies so much. He’s still an incredibly vital artist, making amazing films. If it were to be something from the past, Videodrome’s [1983] pretty incredible. I adore The Fly [1986]. But I also can’t imagine his movies without the incredible cast in each of those films.

Speaking of legends, you’ve got Sarah Michelle Gellar in the film with you causing havoc. Her Scream Queen status has long been assured with Buffy, Scream 2 [1997], The Grudge [2004] and so forth. What do you think she brings to this film?

Wood: She certainly brings her legacy in horror. She also brings her abilities as an actress. She’s an absolute pro who brings a great deal of experience to the table. In the context of a movie like this, casting someone like that in that role, I think her prior work lends itself to the character in terms of a shorthand for who this person might be. I’d never had the chance to work with her before. I’ve never met her, and it’s wild. We share a manager, and have done for over 20 years, so we know about each other, know about each other’s lives, but had never met. It was a real treat to finally meet and work together.

You’ve produced some excellent horror yourself, films like Mandy and Daniel Isn’t Real. What makes a great horror film?

Wood: It sounds so simple, but a great story – something that feels that it can tap into not only our fears, and work on that level, but also that allows us to engage emotionally. The best horror films are films where you really care about the characters. You care about what’s happening to them, their plight or otherwise, because you have to invest for anything scary to have any effect on you. The stakes have to feel real. The best horror films do that very well.

What do you look for in films you want to produce?

Wood: At SpectreVision, when we built the company our intent was to make genre and horror that it felt like no one else was making. Films that may not otherwise get made if we didn’t step in. That still applies. We still want to make films that feel they may be too weird or too difficult for the marketplace to get behind them and we want to find a home for them. But at the same time, we are also starting to feel quite genre agnostic in the sense that we just want to make films that are similar in their uniqueness. I don’t think we’d ever make something that feels standard or that somebody else would make. We want the approach to always feel unique and special.

Why do you think people love horror films so much?

Wood: There’s a variety of reasons, but the primary is the enjoyment of feeling a thrill that is also safe – feeling afraid but knowing that it’s in the context of something that’s not gonna harm you.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is in cinemas from 20 March 2026.