Ready Or Not was an absolute blast. The less known about the premise, the better, but it follows a bride forced by her husband’s family to play a deadly game of hide and seek on her wedding night.
The film is really satisfying, funny, and surprisingly tense at parts. I expected the comedy element to remove any tension from Ready or Not, but I was actually super pleased with how they handled the scares; even the occasional jump scares aren’t overused. It also got a lot darker than I thought it would, and the way the darker elements was executed was very entertaining.
As far as critiques, it briefly touched on some issues of class that I think it would have been interesting for it to have gone into more, but for what it needed to be, Ready or Not was exactly that. I also thought some of the characters were a bit thin, but there were a few bits that did surprise me on that front. What definitely helped there were the performances around the board. Samara Weaving and Adam Brody are both standouts, but the entire family is great comedically and helps sell the premise.
Wanted to add that the production design stood out as well; they utilize every bit of the house that the character is trapped in to make for some fun atmospheric scares and comedic moments among the set-pieces. The editing and pacing are both strong also. Ready or Not is the perfect length and never felt like it was dragging; it was always on its feet and it always felt like something was happening to further progress the plot, which is super important for a horror thriller like this.
Ready or Not was one of the most fun movies of the year, and it wholeheartedly delivers on both its comedy and horror aspects.
Score: 8.4/10