Ready or Not (2019) review – A Bloody Hilarious Splatter Hit That Plays It Too Safe

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today I am checking out a movie that I completely missed – Ready or Not from 2019.

It follows the story of a young woman heading to her rich fiancée’s parents’ estate to get married. After the wedding is complete, the bride is obliged to take part in a family wedding-night tradition. Drawing a card from a deck, she believes she is to simply partake in a game of hide and seek, little realising just what the implications of said game are and the life-or-death struggle that is in store for her.

How did i miss this?

I’m not quite sure how this one passed me by. I had read about it, heard good things, and did mean to watch it at some point. It wasn’t until I was reviewing the most recent Samara Weaving horror vehicle, Azrael, that I actually remembered Ready or Not existed. Seems a bit of a glaring omission considering how well received this movie was back in 2019. People still talk about it to this day and I can definitely understand some of that hype.

For at least an hour of its runtime, Ready or Not is a fantastic movie. This is a cat-and-mouse horror with a difference. While your usual trope of a person being chased around a huge location by a bunch of psychotic killers is fairly formulaic, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett approach the subject with a sinister sense of humour. Ready or Not is witty, hilarious, and just a bit crass. Never taking itself too seriously, this movie could best be described as a horror comedy.

“Ready or Not is witty, hilarious, and just a bit crass. The action is punctuated by frequent laughs and a real desire to keep the viewer chuckling throughout.”

The action is punctuated by frequent laughs and a real desire to keep the viewer chuckling throughout. This is achieved through a cast of rather eccentric characters and a whole bunch of murder mishaps. A collection of people who just so happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time find themselves in the firing line, and our inept group of killers struggle to do even the most basic of tasks making for frequent laughs and a consistently light atmosphere. This is a genuinely funny movie with some legitimate laugh-out-loud moments.

It’s a pretty tense adventure

It is a brave decision to opt for so much humour. Especially when it comes to a cat-and-mouse splatter horror as is the case here. There’s always the chance that the laughs will rob from the tension but that really isn’t the case here. Ready or Not still has some fantastic moments of tension and excitement.

“Grace is a very likeable character and you want her to prevail. She’s also pretty capable and more than willing to play the family at their own game.”

Our bride, Grace (Samara Weaving), is a very likeable character and you want her to prevail. She’s also pretty capable and more than willing to play the family at their own game. This makes for some very taut moments of suspense as she hides from the family members and attempts to get away. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before but it is very effective in keeping you engaged.

There are some hilarious kills featured throughout and some fantastic moments of gore. Each of the family members are armed with archaic, and somewhat inadequate, weapons, as per tradition, and most are completely incapable of wielding them. This makes for some horrifying mishaps and some absolutely brutal accidents that will have you wincing. It’s a hell of a lot of fun but it isn’t without its problems.

It’s pretty damn predictable

These types of movies often fall foul to a certain level of predictability but Ready or Not feels like it goes beyond even that. This is one of the most predictable cat-and-mouse horror movies I have ever watched. The movie already feels eerily similar to Adam Wingard’s horror You’re Next which is, in my opinion, substantially better than Ready or Not. But the fact that it doesn’t innovate anything new makes it all the more noteworthy of a problem.

You will see literally every single twist and turn coming way in advance. I am not sure whether the movie just projects itself too much or whether it is just so utterly generic in its thrills. Either way, it is a movie with no surprises.

The last 25 minutes or so fall foul of this trait in the biggest way. It is so easy to see what is coming that it has a massive impact on the way the ending plays out. It only, somewhat, subverts expectation a little in the final few minutes but, even then, it is easy to guess what is about to happen purely because the movie is so lacking in surprise.

Like, really predictable

The director’s idea of shocking the viewer here is to do the most obvious thing possible. Honestly, I don’t think there was a single moment in the entire movie that I didn’t see coming. This pair would go on to direct Abigail, which was equally as guilty of this trait. A shame, really, as it does let the movie down quite a bit. It doesn’t help that the last 25 minutes or so just felt a bit silly and farcical, almost like an R-rated episode of Scooby-Doo or something.

Acting is solid throughout. Adam Brody, as Daniel, is fun with his slightly inebriated Johnny Depp-type character. I enjoyed Henry Czerny as family patriarch Tony. It’s great to see Andie MacDowell in a horror movie.

“It’s just so damn predictable. You will see literally every moment coming and, likely, won’t be surprised once. The ending is pretty Marmite, too.”

Samara Weaving is awesome, as always. She is a very natural performer and does excellent with the action scenes. The horrible squealing she has a tendency to do had me wanting to jab pencils into my ears, though. She seems to be one of those performers that believes we should be animalistic in our most frightening moments, which is fine, but the sound is like nails on a chalkboard.

Cinematography is excellent; this is a nice-looking movie with some great shots and some absolutely fantastic pieces of visual comedy. The script, on the other hand, is horrendous. The actors have almost nothing to work with when it comes to dialogue. Considering the talented cast, it feels all the more jarring that they have been made to say some of the lines written here. It robs from some of the comedy, as well, with most of the humour being of the visual kind. The script is, for the most part, fairly infantile.

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Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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