Film Review - Ready Or Not (2019)

Grace (Samara Weaving) and Alex (Mark O’ Brien) are about to embark on the greatest adventure that life has to offer – marriage. Grace is also about to marry into a very wealthy family and she has a few concerns when it comes to how the family will accept her as she officially becomes their newest member. However, the wedding goes well and as Grace is welcomed into the family, she is treated to one of their little rituals that they perform when they welcome somebody new. This family loves to play games, after all their wealth can be attributed to a board game ‘dominion’ as they like to call it, so it seems fitting that their first new family gathering with Grace involves a game. That game being Hide and Seek.

At first Grace is happy to play along, although she does find playing Hide and Seek rather childish. However, it soon transpires that Grace’s new family take their games very, very seriously and as Grace goes to hide so that the game can begin, her new family arm themselves to the teeth so that they can kill her once they’ve found her.

Ready or Not is a horror comedy with a little more to it than it first seems. The film slowly draws in the audience who may have seen the trailer prior to seeing the film, but may not entirely know what to expect. The whole family are gathered together in the music room and soon it shows the many personalities that stand out. There’s the sinister Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni), the drug addicted daddy’s girl, Emilie (Melanie Scrofano) and Grace’s new in laws, Tony (Henry Czerny) and Becky (Andie McDowell) who are just eccentric enough to make the audience think that something is about to go terribly wrong. Then there’s Alex’s brother, Daniel (Adam Brody), a kind man who knows that Grace really doesn’t fit in with the rest of the family – and he means it as a compliment. However, Ready or Not is a film where anything can happen, so for all Grace knows, nobody is to be trusted.

The cast all give great performances that really heighten the insanity of the plot and none more so than Samara Weaving herself. As the night goes on and the hunt gets more deadly, Weaving’s performance gets as desperate, angry and exasperated as the audience may feel for her. Weaving’s guttural screams and her ability to maintain the comedic aspect of this dark ‘family’ comedy is the highlight of the film and wouldn’t work so well without her. Also, Ready or Not has just enough twists and turns to keep its audience interested. If you think you’ve already figured out how the film is going to end, I can assure you that you haven’t.