Comedy horror thriller Ready or Not is a high-speed roller-coaster ride between the gruesome and the absurd.
Bloody Wedding
by Alexa DalbyReady or Not
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
When Grace (excellent Samara Weaving, niece of Hugo) marries into the uber-rich Le Domas family, she’s just seems to be a sweet, beautiful young woman striving hard to fit in with intimidating in-laws. But her new husband Alex (Mark O’Brien) has weakly omitted to warn her of the bizarre tradition that underpins the fortune the Le Domas family made from board games. By playing the game of chance that they insist on, Grace innocently becomes their next victim in a grisly game of hide and seek.
In the vast Le Domas mansion, Grace’s wedding night turns into the gory night from hell as she is hunted to the death by deranged family members armed with a gruesome array of weapons.
But unlike previous victims, she fights back. Though still wearing her now-bloodied and filthy wedding dress, she’s no damsel in distress. She’s unexpectedly kick-ass and she fights for her life using just her ingenuity. And if she can stay alive until dawn, who knows what will happen then?
Ready or Not is fast-moving, ridiculous, scary and absurd all at once. But there’s no real characterisation of Grace, Alex or any of the members of the extended family (including mother-in-law Andie MacDowell and Adam Brody, Henry Czerny and Nicky Guadagni), they’re just there to fulfil a function like cartoon characters on a Cluedo board.
It’s a grisly, nightmare romp by horror-making duo Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin that supposedly satirises horror tropes at the same time as exploiting them but actually has nothing really to say. Can still be fun, though.
Ready or Not is released on 25 September 2019 in the UK.
