Review: Ready Or Not

When Game Night goes a bit murder-y …

“At my Sweet Sixteen we played Uno and things got crazy. Will this be like that?”

Director(s): Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Writer(s): Guy Busick, Ryan Murphy

Cast: Samara Weaving, Mark O’Brien, Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, Melanie Scrofano, Kristain Bruun, Nicky Guadagni, Elyse Levesque, Andie MacDowell

Synopsis

On the night of her wedding, Grace (Samara Weaving) is surprised when her new husband, Alex (Mark O’Brien) asks her to take part in a family tradition … a game night. Curious, Grace agrees, but she randomly chooses ‘hide and seek’ as the game to play, she soon realises that everyone else isn’t just trying to find her … they are trying to kill her!

Main review

Many modern horror films can be impressive in terms of scares and/or gore, but it’s more rare for a horror film to simply be ‘fun’. Ready Or Not, while not being a particularly complex horror film, decides to take its concept completely tongue-in-cheek. It’s the correct decision, because as a result, the film is as entertaining as it is schlocky, with a wickedly black sense of humour.

Much of this success comes from a smartly constructed script that not only feels well paced, it has time to make numerous references to different board games (including Cludeo when it comes to many of the murders), as well as a few running jokes. One such running gag involves the manor house’s staff getting killed by accident, on more than one occasion.

Samara Weaving (niece of Hugo Weaving) is also perfectly cast as the bride now being hunted down by her in-laws. It’s a role that had ‘damsel in distress’ written all over it, but Weaving gives Grace a personality that feels determined to override any sense that Grace is helpless, in her situation.

While some of the twists and turns in the film feel a bit too easily signposted, Ready Or Not is nevertheless a proper thrill ride, filled with as many laughs as moments of pure horror. It’s still more of a horror film than a comedy, due to its overall tone, but the tone does feel right for the material. Sometimes, horror films don’t have to be bleak; once in a while, it’s good to see a horror film that simply has great ‘popcorn’ value.

Pros

• Samara Weaving is excellent in role that could have seemed very ‘damsel in distress’, but becomes anything but.
• The script is smart, with a brilliantly dark sense of humour, including a running gag about the ‘help’ being accidentally murdered.
• The film’s pacing is near perfect.
• There’s a sense of entertaining schlock about the whole film.
• The numerous references to Cluedo.

Cons

• Some of the plot twists are too easily signposted.
• The film does slag slightly before the third act begins.

In a nutshell …

Fast paced, gory and incredibly quick witted, Ready Or Not takes exactly the right tone with its premise. Samara Weaving is excellent in a horror film that may seem rather silly on paper, but the result is incredibly entertaining.