Ready or Not (2019) – review

[This review was contributed by (AF).]

With the cinematic flavor of Happy Death Day or The Purge franchise, Ready Or Night centers around a young couple that just married participating in a deadly family initiation, or more so the bride is being hunted by her in laws. The wealthy Le Domas family gained their fortune through distributing board games. They have a family tradition set two generations back of playing a game for new additions to the family. This could be as harmless as a game of chess, go fish, or hide and seek.  

For this dark comedy, co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett visually set the screen with a luxurious but vintage mansion, rich with wood paneling, hidden compartments, candles and the occasional stuffed animal. The audience is quickly introduced to the bride, Grace. She is played by Samantha Weaving and her husband is Alex Le Domas, played by Mark O’Brien.

In search of a real family dynamic, Grace marries Alex but the price of admission is steep. The story reduces our heroine to a pure survivalist, as she makes a valiant effort to endure her crazy In-Laws.

Viewers won’t get bored exploring the hunting ground of the Le Domas estate as the audience is taken to all corners of the area as Grace tried to escape the grounds.

The supporting cast has a descent line-up, but the dialogue severely handicapped the acting potential. Some of the dialogue had limited but derogatory language. Regardless, Weaver pulled off a great performance by conveying determination and feelings of betrayal and anger while being pursued in the most vicious and gross ways by her new family.

Adam Brody (Daniel Le Domas), Alex’s brother deserves a shout out for displaying an emotional range that raised the bar story wise. Some actors interpreted their characters better than others but overall it was immersive.

Grace fought to the end, using tools and intuition, which I have to give credit to. This movie served as a huge metaphor. Ask yourself, would you give up if you were being dragged down? Not by machete wielding psychopaths, but in simpler terms. What if you wanted to achieve a goal, yet life kept throwing curve balls and disappointments?

Our heroine was bruised, bloody, and tired. Still she kept trying to survive. If anything that philosophy could be applied to our own lives, minus the ritual killing thing. With laugh out loud moments and jump scares this is a fun movie for large groups of friends to watch in the comfort of your own home.