Ready or Not: Film Review
Ready or Not isn’t a film I would generally choose to watch but I’d heard great things about it so I decided to give it a go and oh my, I enjoyed it so much.
The action begins on Grace (Samara Weaving) and Alex’s (Mark O’Brien) wedding day, which all goes smoothly until the wedding night when Alex reveals it’s a family tradition to play a game. Unfortunately for Grace, she picks the ‘Ready or Not’ card which means she’s the target in a game of lethal hide and seek. She is hunted by members of the wealthy family in their mansion so she can be offered as a sacrifice, otherwise, they will all die by dawn.
Ready or Not has a fantastic high-concept premise that it runs and runs with, managing to sustain the idea with interesting plot developments. Occasionally it feels clichéd and derivative of other films and it’s completely trashy but I can’t deny that I found it a lot of fun. It’s a comedy-horror and it’s a perfect mix of laugh-out-loud moments and gross, gory ones.
Weaving really sells it and makes the film better than it should be. She is a likeable lead and one of the only normal people in the movie so obviously, I liked her the most and wanted her to beat the rich people. She kicks ass, has a great scream, is really put through the wringer (she is caked in blood by the end) and really works the comedic value in the script with her line delivery, eye rolls, cursing, etc.
She has great support too, with co-stars who are all perfectly cast in their respective roles. First of all: Adam Brody!! The O.C. fangirl in me freaks out whenever he’s on-screen so I’m probably biased but he is excellent here as the drunk who has had enough of the family traditions. He’s Daniel, the only likeable rich guy and he’s in this more than I expected (woohoo!) It’s such a different role for him but he nails it. Andie MacDowell is also brilliant as the family matriarch Becky, who treads an intriguing line between good and evil. I was so surprised to see her in a movie like this!
I know Henry Czerny best from playing the rich family patriarch Conrad Grayson in TV show Revenge and he’s basically playing the same character here, while Melanie Scrofano was fun as the trigger-happy drugged-up sister Emilie. Alex was a bit of a wet blanket but had an interesting arc, while Daniel’s cold wife Charity (Elyse Levesque) and Emilie’s husband Fitch (Kristian Bruun) failed to make as much of an impact as the others.
Horror fans might feel let down that Ready or Not isn’t scary but there are plenty of tense moments, blood and wince-inducing gore to make up for that. It’s worth checking out though because it’s trashy, it’s absurd and it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
In cinemas from Wednesday 25th September