By Seth Lukas Hynes
Ready Or Not
Starring Samara Weaving, Adam Brody and Mark O’Brien
Rated MA15+
Ready Or Not is a taut pitch-black satire about the strange rituals of rich families.
Newlywed Grace (Samara Weaving) must play a game of hide-and-seek to be fully initiated into her husband Daniel’s (Adam Brody) eccentric wealthy family – but the game soon turns deadly.
Ready Or Not is a witty, superbly-paced horror-satire that toys masterfully with our expectations.
Weaving is nuanced and deeply engaging as Grace. Her sweet, down-to-earth persona hardens and grows more resourceful as she adapts to the violence stalking her, but the odds are still overwhelmingly stacked against her.
A stark prologue both introduces the savage game at play and instantly engages our sympathy for Grace: we fear for her survival and regret her ignorance of what is to come. Even before the game begins, our foreknowledge renders the steady, cordial build-up nail-biting.
Beyond its visceral cat-and-mouse premise, Ready Or Not clearly establishes the rules of the game and their mystic justification, and maintains an enthralling web of psychological suspense through the family’s vanity and their clashing loyalties, which keep us constantly alert.
This excellent balance of raw survival and family conflict culminates in several ingenious twists and a gruesomely hilarious climax.
Featuring gory laughs, an outstanding central performance and macabre, fascinating intrigue, Ready Or Not is one of the best horror-comedies in a long time.
