Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
Starring: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien
Rated R for violence, bloody images, language throughout, and some drug use
“Ready or Not” stars Samara Weaving as a new bride, Grace, who is trying to be accepted to her husband’s new family. Grace, on her wedding night, must play hide and seek but the game become deadly as her husband’s family tries to kill her, as a ritual cult. In all it’s gory fashion, we see the deadly game of hide and seek.
“Ready or Not” is an horror/suspense comedic film that is surprisingly a good time. From the beginning, we get to meet Grace as a kind hearted person who is not marrying her husband for money but for love. The film does a well job explaining how Grace does not come from a wealthy family and shows her as an outcast compared to the wealthy family she is marrying into. This is in part of the job done by Samara Weaving, who has done a fair job portraying a new bride who is being hunted down. The pain and suffering Grace goes through is sold extremely well by Samara Weaving. The rest of the cast are amusing as well, in part because their roles are more of a comedic roles. Kristan Bruun is the standout of the family as Fitch, who always has a quick line or something comedic to say. Unfortunately his role is very limited, I would have loved for his character to get more of a role in the film.
As mentioned before, the film takes a comedic role as supposed to a horror film. “Ready or Not” quite honestly would have worked perfectly as a horror film. It has all the horror film elements, murder, haunted mansion, and cult rituals. But the had directors chose to take a comedic role due to the ending, which is ridiculously bad. In fact, the entire third act is where things fall apart. For instance, we get one character who instantly changes to the villain’s side. I found that switch so out of place, considering how this person’s character throughout the film was set on the goal of not becoming the villain. I could understand the sudden switch, but in the end, it was a waste of character development. After we see the switch, multiple characters die in a gory fashion. Was it fun to watch? Yes, but it was very unbelievable, it threw the entire film off. The entire film was grounded in reality but the last five minutes threw that out the window.
I would have preferred to seen “Ready or Not” as a pure horror film as a new bride trying to escape her husband’s family from death. I am in no way trying to dismiss the film or it’s comedy, because the film is actually worth seeing and the comedy is hilarious when done right. It just that I would have chosen a different route if I were one of the directors of the film. But “Ready or Not” is an entertaining horror comedy that does have its fair share of issues, but the entertaining value overshadows the flaws of the film.
3/4
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