Review: Ready or Not

SYNOPSIS

READY OR NOT follows a young bride (Samara Weaving) as she joins her new husband’s (Mark O’Brien) rich, eccentric family (Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell) in a time-honored tradition that turns into a lethal game with everyone fighting for their survival.

What We Thought:

Ready or Not isn’t quite the movie I wanted it to be, but overall I’d say I liked it. I did expect it to be a bit crazier, don’t get me wrong, it has some crazy scenes, but once the game started, I expected it to go 100% off the rails.

My biggest complaint is that it slows down a bit at one point. This is the point where it should have kept momentum and went balls to the walls. Samara Weaving learns that her new husband’s family has a weird tradition and she gets caught in a game of Hide & Seek. She doesn’t realize it’s a game to the death, but once she puts it together it starts to get good. But then she’s able to escape the house for a bit and the movie slowed down then. Once the killing starts it’s a lot of fun, but then it loses momentum when she’s out, but the ending does get pretty violent.

If you take out that part where it loses momentum it’s a much better film. The trailer definitely made it seem like a crazy film with lots of comedy and gore and it does have plenty, but there could have been more. The ending for sure saves the movie, but it had such a great build up it’s a shame they didn’t keep it going throughout.

And if you aren’t familiar with Samara Weaving (the Margot Robbie lookalike and niece of the incredible Hugo Weaving), you will love her by the end of this. She definitely captures and holds your attention throughout and adds herself to the lead actress table. I can really see her becoming a genre queen after this performance because she handles the terror with ease and looks stunning while doing it. I also respect that they didn’t Mary Sue her and her character remains a normal person during the movie.

If you know nothing about Ready or Not it might surprise you. There is some great gore and I laughed quite a bit at it, but for some reason I wanted a bit more from it. It sounds like I’m crushing the film, but I’m not. I liked it way more than Midsommar, but I guess my expectations for it were different than what the movie is. But I would watch it again and I hope it does well because we need more lesser known films like this getting notice.

Release Date: August 21, 2019

Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett

Written by: Guy Busick & R. Christopher Murphy

Produced by: Tripp Vinson, James Vanderbilt, William Sherak, Bradley J. Fischer

Cast: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, with Henry Czerny and Andie MacDowell

MPAA Rating: Rated R

Running Time: 95 minutes