Ready or Not is a Fun But Unoriginal Genre Horror Movie
From the director’s of Devil’s Due (oh boy), comes Ready or Not; a fun and twisted horror movie that tells the story of Grace (Samara Weaving) who gets married to Alex (Mark O’Brien) who is part of Le Domas’ family — a wealthy family that made a deal with devil and, with every new member of the family arriving, they must play a game that is chosen by the newly arrived member. Grace picks Hide and Seek. But it isn’t your typical Hide and Seek. In fact, the members of the Le Domas family must perform a ritual with the bride and kill her, or else they are all dead once dawn breaks.
The film, as you would expect, takes some very unexpected twists and turns. Some of them are incredibly gory, and I would’ve loved to see this on a Disney Cruise ship (since it’s technically a Disney movie) in a room full of kids. The violence is vicious and surprisingly unexpected at times, especially when a coke-fueled Emilie (Melanie Scrofano) accidentally murders the maids and yells out, at one point, “I don’t know what I’m doing!” Here, the performances are all-around excellent. I did like Samara Weaving as Grace, but thought her character screamed too much. This might sound like an odd complaint, but if you haven’t seen the movie, you might be like “oh idiot critic bleh bleh bleh”. And then you’ll watch the movie and understand why I said that. At one point, she screams so much that the screaming, itself, becomes a joke in the movie. Everything is a joke. There are times where you get a little jumpy, but the tension then becomes pure comedy with the violence being so hilariously slapstick.
Yes, there are times where the violence is extremely gory and raw. One scene in particular that weakens the character of Grace in a barn is particularly raw, but, for the most part, the movie uses gory (and extremely) bloody violence for comedic purposes. I really liked Henry Czerny’s twisted portrayal of Tony Le Domas whom, at the beginning, is very calm and stoic. The more the movie progresses, the more he loses his shit, and it’s hilarious to see. There are many tension-filled sequences that make the movie, especially because it’s a game of Hide and Seek! The kitchen scene, especially, is one of the film’s best sequences and one of the best uses of Hide and Seek. You’re on constant edge for the entire 95 minute runtime and the movie never lets you go until the bitter end. The ending sequence is my favorite. No spoilers, but holy shit. You’ll see what I mean when you see it (I hope!).
I did like this movie a lot, but the movie isn’t without its share of problems. Its commentary on rich, white males reminded me of Get Out — in fact many of the film’s situations reminded me of Get Out. The main character is a smoker, is in a relationship with the “perfect” boyfriend, but their family is incredibly weird, until she finds out exactly why that family is weird — and if you’ve seen Get Out and knows the famous “twist” on Allison Williams’ Rose Armitage, well…
Still, Ready or Not is a highly enjoyable time at the movies. It’s got fantastic performances all-around from great actors, fun and gory violence that may or may not surprise you, but a highly familiar plot from a far better movie. I would, however, recommend seeing this on the biggest screen you can find with a big crowd. I didn’t enjoy my movie experience, because there were people incessantly talking behind me until I told them to shut the fuck up. Seriously, STOP TALKING DURING MOVIES!
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