'Ready Or Not' A Review

Ready Or Not is a thriller/horror movie about a wealthy family with a dark secret. The movie opens on a flashback to a wedding night when two boys are attempting to hide, enter an injured bridegroom who asks for help but is subsequently killed. Flashforward to the present one of the two boys Alex(Mark O'Brien) is getting married to Grace(Samara Weaving) at the family estate. Although the family isn't exactly warm Grace is hopeful she will be accepted. That night however Grace is informed she has to play a game in order to officially join the family, the game, hide and seek - for your life!

Weaving puts in a stellar performance as the put-upon, tenacious lead, going from normalcy to shock to courageous endurance without ever tipping into meekness or hysteria. She balances action, humor, and an emotional journey perfectly. With this and 2017's broad and delightful The Babysitter Weaving is poised to make some serious cinematic waves. The rest of the cast, and the movie itself for that matter, aren't able to achieve the harmony and wattage that Weaving does. The supporting cast are all good,  Andie MacDowell as the matriarch especially, but they aren't given as much to do and the wobbly narrative pacing makes any character arch near impossible.

Visually simple and sleek with some over the top gore and a great tonal mixture of suspense and humor the movie falls short in its ADD plotting. Instead of a steady build to a climax, or multiple builds to various crescendos the story meanders and gets stuck and find thrills almost be accident as if we the audience, like Grace, are wandering around this maze like mansion lost and confused. Stumbling upon moments of excitement and discovery rather than working deliberately towards them.

Entertaining, lots of potential almost fully realized.

Rent It.