Ready or Not Review

August 22, 2019 at 5:15pm
By Jason Stettner

This was actually a surprisingly great film, it brought high levels of tension within its horror while also providing some laughs along the way. It’s a tale of survival, as one bride faces many challenges on her wedding night. This story largely follows Grace (Samara Weaving) as she’s happy to finally get a family by marrying the love of her life, Alex (Mark O’ Brien).

Alex has become estranged from his family over the last couple years, and this situation brings him back into the fold. This overall family is one of tradition, they’re called Le Domas. They have a set way of adding additional members to their family, and it’s rather intense. They play a game on the night of the wedding. The bride must select a card, and that is the game they play. It’s a game of chance in what you’ll get, but you don’t want to pick hide and seek. The lovely Grace ends up doing so and it turns into a direct hunt.

That’s really just the start of things, it’s hard to describe more without spoiling the journey. That’s basically the premise, and then it’s her fight for survival. The family is quite large, and there are surprises the entire way through. You’re never sure when things will conclude, or how she will overcome challenges along the way. It’s tense, and rather exciting to witness.

This movie really is brought to life through the characters it presents. Weaving was great as Grace, you could see the struggles and survival determination beautifully throughout the entire run. She did a great job, and it was exciting to cheer for her in regards to trying to make it out alive.

Opposite of her is a varied family, they all have some serious issues. One of them doesn’t seem to care much for the help, another is the every man trying to just chill out. You’ve got some issues where family members are too intense, whereas others are just not at all into what this is. This was also really well shot, it was great to look at and well framed. There were some rather intense gore scenes, and those were unsettling which was great.

The tension was excellent, and you do get some laughs. There’s a lot going on here, despite this being straight forward in its premise. There are definitely surprises, some neat things to witness and it was enjoyable the whole way through. It balanced everything right, had likeable characters and was different.

The Conclusion

Ready or Not is a really tense, well done horror film that aims to showcase survival during hide and seek. That’s right, a simple game with a greater sense of darkness surrounding it. There are many surprises along the way, a mysterious cloud of tradition behind it and one messed up family. There’s a lot on the line apparently, and that drives folks towards a series of gory situations.

Things will constantly twist and turn, as one bride faces many challenges that she would have never expected for her wedding night. I loved how straight forward, yet dynamic the story was and the use of gore in this. It really helped create a sense of horror, as things get rather insane after everything starts out light. The music is calming when the game kicks off, but it’s truly a sinister tune to survive against.

Ready or Not Review at Theater with Standard Viewing

Rating Overall: 8.0