Ready or Not

Ready or Not is the new low-budget thriller from Fox Searchlight, the part of Fox that makes smaller/original movies (now owned by Disney). The movie takes place on the wedding day of Grace (Samara Weaving) and Alex (Mark O'Brien) in his family home. Alex is part of an extremely wealthy family, the Le Domas family who are known for their business in making board games and similar products. They have a tradition for any new members coming into the family, that they play a game with them chosen at random. Grace is alone with the Le Domas family, and she is set to pick the game for the night by drawing a card with the name of the game. That game happens to be Hide and Seek this time, but not an ordinary game of Hide and Seek. What she doesn't know is that one card she drew means that Alex's family will be trying to kill her as part of a tradition passed down from generation to generation.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from this movie going into it. I thought the concept sounded like a good one for a thriller movie with a lot of violence, and it was that but also... so much more. The movie is very self-aware of its absurd premise and uses it to its advantage. This movie can be really funny at times despite it's pretty twisted and dark setting, probably thanks to some great writing and memorable performances. That humor doesn't take away from the suspense though, and that's because of Samara Weaving's performance as Grace. The character is very likable and you root for her throughout the movie. That helps make scenes where she's in danger a lot more suspenseful. You also have her new husband Alex there to root for throughout the movie. The rest of the characters are mostly played for laughs throughout the movie and it usually works well in a very dark sort of way.

The movie is pretty violent and can get pretty graphic at times, which you'd probably expect from a movie like this. It worked throughout the movie just fine, though there was one scene in particular that made me kinda uncomfortable with how painful it looked. I'm pretty sure the movie was going for that uncomfortable feeling, but it didn't make it any easier to watch. Besides that one scene, I was really entertained by this movie. The mansion is an interesting setting, especially with the old-timey decorations and secret passages kinda like the house in Clue (which was most likely on purpose). It gave the movie a more creepy vibe because old-timey mansions are just inherently creepy apparently? The setting was used well for both creepy and funny scenes.

As the movie progresses the characters just seemed to get more over-the-top (mainly the villains) and it's pretty entertaining to watch. The movie is just so bizarre and strange at points, but it just makes it somehow even more entertaining to watch. It was a great time and I wasn't expecting it to be as entertaining as it was. And the ending is just so insane, it was a perfect way to end this crazy movie. The movie is worth a watch if you're into dark humor and violent thrillers. It was a nice surprise with some great performances and self-awareness that actually works. Also nice to see Adam Brody again, he was a highlight in this movie for me.