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Ready or Not is a horror comedy directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The film stars Samara Weaving as the newly-wed Grace, marrying into a family of eccentric rich people with a strange wedding tradition. What she thinks is a boring but benign game of hide and seek quickly turns into a fight for her life. It is revealed that the family believes the source of their riches comes from a deal with the devil and they must kill her before dawn to save themselves.
The movie is well aware of its silly premise and is very tongue-in-cheek, with over-the-top violence and gore done for laughs.
“I would highly recommend it to anybody that likes horror comedies and that doesn’t mind a bit of gore,” physics teacher and horror movie enthusiast Mr. Tim Smay said.
The horror is well crafted, especially in the beginning of the movie, and doesn’t rely on jumpscares to make its point. The comedy is well-placed to relieve tension. Samara Weaving shines in her role – you’ll find yourself rooting for her the whole movie. However, Ready or Not has one technical failure that stands out. The directors’ decision to use handheld cameras screws up several action scenes, which isn’t helped by several instances of jumpy and confusing editing. On the written side, the dialogue feels like it’s trying too hard to be mature with excessive swearing. Though curses can be used well to accentuate comedic moments, their overuse makes for stilted and unnatural conversation. The movie only seems to finally find its optimal balance of horror and cheesiness in the last part of the movie, where the Satanic cult shtick is amped up to eleven. It would have been greatly improved if they had committed to that tone at the start. Despite these missteps, none of the movie drags on and each scene is engaging.
Ready or Not is a good movie to watch if you’re interested mindless campy fun.
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Ready or Not: a Movie Review
September 17, 2019
Ready or Not, released August 21, 2019, has grossed $27.7 million in the United States and $41.1 million worldwide, as of September 15, 2019 (Wikipedia).
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