TL;DR – An electric tense film with more than one moment that made me audibly gasp

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Ready or Not Review –

Every year there are films you want to see that just slip you by, and today’s film is one of those. I had always meant to see Ready or Not in cinemas, but the session times never lined up. It also missed my end-of-year wrap-up because it didn’t have a solid streaming option yet. This week, I was reminded again of how interesting this film is, and now is better than never.    
 
So to set the scene, Grace (Samara Weaving) is back in her husband-to-be Alex’s (Mark O’Brien) old house, well more mansion. It is a tradition in the le Domas household that all weddings happen on the manor grounds, and while Alex has been estranged from his family for a while, tradition is tradition. Alex’s mother, Becky (Andie MacDowell), hopes this could start a reconciliation between Alex and his family. Grace hopes this could be the family she never had growing up. The le Domas family has a lot of traditions and a weird aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni), but mostly traditions. One is that on the day someone marries into the family, they must draw a card at midnight and play a game. The le Domas made their money in board games, so this is not completely weird. But what is odd is that when Grace pulls the ‘Hide and Seak’ card, weapons start being removed from the walls.

Ready or Not is by far not the first movie to hunt the most dangerous prey, nor even the only example of a woman being lured into a trap by a wealthy and overbearing family with destiny on their side where she has to fight to survive. However, it is the best one I have seen in a while, and much of that comes down to the acting. So much of this film rests on Samara Weaving’s shoulders as the essence of a fish-out-of-water and audience-surrogate character while also being the main driver of the plot. She has to go through so many emotions, nail through hand-induced emotions, and I believed all of them.

As well as Samara, the film is filled with an eccentric collection of characters that shine in a weird way. Adam Brody always knows how to pull off that slightly disinterested character that may or may not still have a nugget of goodness in them. Andie MacDowell is the calming figure among all the more swinging wildly characters the film desperately needs. I am not quite sure what Nicky Guadagni was doing, but she gave her all at every moment. Also, if you have watched Letterkenny or Orphan Black, you know how good it would be when Melanie Scrofano and Kristian Bruun showed up.

Finally, this film and its bonkers scenario would not have worked without how it was staged. While we might throw around the world iconic a bit too freely these days, I have to admit the framing, set design, and costuming in this film come together to make that iconic ring true. The wedding dress goes through several phases and alterations throughout the film, and they all work. The creepy old mansion with hidden doors everywhere is the perfect location for a film like this. If you have seen any movie or show filmed in Toronto, you have seen Casa Loma or Parkwood Estate before [see The Expanse, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, X-Men or The Boys]. However, I think this might be the best use of their ability to set a mood that involves rich people making a deal with the devil to get richer at the expense of poor people who won’t be missed. Finally, the film knows when it has a decisive moment on screen, and it gives them the due they deserve.  

In the end, do we recommend Ready or Not? It is a horror-adjacent black comedy, and those types of films are not for everyone. This is not a film for those who are squeamish in and around blood and gore. However, I found it to be an exciting delight of a movie and something I was not quite expecting. If you liked Ready or Not, we would recommend to you Renfield.   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Ready or Not?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Ready or Not
Directed by – Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Written by – Guy Busick R. Christopher Murphy
Music by – Brian Tyler
Cinematography by – Brett Jutkiewicz
Edited by – Terel Gibson
Production/Distribution Companies – Mythology Entertainment, Vinson Films, Radio Silence Productions & Fox Searchlight Pictures
Starring – Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell, Melanie Scrofano, Kristian Bruun, Elyse Levesque, Nicky Guadagni, John Ralston, Liam McDonald, Ethan Tavares, Hanneke Talbot, Celine Tsai, Daniela Barbosa, Andrew Anthony, Nat Faxon, Etienne Kellici, Chase Churchill, Kate Ziegler & Elana Dunkelman