READY OR NOT REVIEW: Ready to play?

Sitting in a niche cinema setting, attending Terror-Fi Film Festival 2019 in Christchurch, New Zealand, Culturedemandsgeeks are ready for the night’s show. While the curtains open, the screen advances, we have a giddy sensation within our stomachs, a churning on the malice of what may come.

So when the film starts, a film made by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, of 2012’s cult horror anthology VHS fame, Ready Or Not starts at a terrific pace and doesn’t let up, not even until the last moments as the credits roll-on.

On her wedding night, Grace (Samara Weaving) should be climbing into bed with her blue-blooded groom Alex (Mark O’Brien), but his “moderately fucked-up family”, the Le Domases, have a different marital ritual in mind.

It’s all part of a bizarre long-running tradition where every new addition to the family has to play a game on her wedding night, linked to a mysterious deal that was made generations ago to ensure the family’s enormous wealth.

Grace is unlucky enough to pick Hide and Seek – or at least a version of it in which her pursuers must find and kill her before sunrise, otherwise a terrible curse will fall upon the rich family.

THE FAMILY:

Within the mêlée, Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin allow just enough time to sketch the personalities and dynamics of the crazy clan: frenzied patriarch (Czerny), a better still, a purring stern matriarch (MacDowell), deploying a snooty southern drawl as Alex’s mother. “Rich people really are different,” deadpans Grace. A good-hearted son (Brody) but sadly underused, a poisonous creepy Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni), who has painted eyebrows and a permanent furrowed scowl. An ineffectual brother (Kristian Bruun) and a hilarious coked-up sister (Melanie Scrofano). But this is Weaving’s film

Too many times in horror movies, our response to a character’s decision is, ‘Why don’t they just run?’

You’re thinking that Grace will be left with no choice but to fight back against the family, potentially with her new husband on her side as he attempts to help her overcome his family’s horrific ritual.

And yet, Ready or Not is much smarter than that.

Once Grace realizes the gravity of the situation she’s in, she’s immediately in flight mode (as we all would be) and determined to get out of the mansion.

Her husband Alex (Mark O’Brien) wants to help her, going to the security-control room to unlock the doors and windows. He succeeds but his family discovers his betrayal and locks him up to stop him from interfering further.

At one point, Grace – who manages to escape through the kitchen – is outside the room where Alex is locked up. You worry that she’s going to head back into the mansion to rescue him, only to find herself in more danger when she should just get the hell out of there.

Grace doesn’t make the usual irritatingly dumb choices of other horrors – her thought is always about her survival first, as it should be.

It helps that Samara Weaving is fantastic in the role, fully committed to the darker aspects and with impeccable comic timing. She sells the movie’s outrageous final ten minutes, delivering one of the most entertaining final sequences of the year.

FINAL VERDICT:

The film-makers cut their teeth making low-budget horror; that impulse towards economy is apparent here, despite the film’s opulent setting. There is an elegance to the premise – an otherwise straightforward cat-and-mouse chase around a gothic mansion – and a satisfying clip to the rewardingly gory action.

Weaving tears down the institution of marriage with scrappy determination and a cheeky, foul-mouthed wit; her battle uniform (yellow Converse sneakers, ripped lace train, rifle and a sash full of ammunition) will surely become its own cult Halloween costume for next year and the years beyond. Overall, the film has gore, wit and it never slows in pace. The performances are top-notch, and the ending is hilarious.

5/5 STARS