Ready or Not (2019)

User Review

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  d_riptide

  8 / 10

  Directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin might have struck of gold mine with this wickedly bloodthirsty thrill ride. A neat concept escalates into a raging inferno thanks to impeccable writing, clever storytelling, a wholesome likable bad-ass protagonist, a rather outrageous serving of black comedy and not-so-subtle commentary and self-awareness. All of that turns “Ready Or Not” from what could’ve been another dime a dozen horror-comedy into something I mostly wasn’t ready for. It knows it’s strange nature behind the cause of the games is every bit of absurd and as ridiculous as it sounded on paper and managed to execute it with SO MUCH personality yet so many messed up and twisted albeit darkly amusing spouses of entertainment, converting this time-tested story in the best possible way, balancing wry commentary and it’s attempt at straightforward horror in this portrait of greed, arrogance, love and survival. Not to mention the film kept itself at a relatively small scale so that way, it doesn’t drown in a pool of its own blood.
  
  I will admit, not everything about its quirky absurdity or suspenseful setpieces or even the dexterous commentary won me over completely. Grace and Daniel were the only fleshed out characters in the movie that had more than just quirks and personality (partially due to both Samar’s Weaving and Adam Brody’s amazing performance banters) and something about the nature behind the main game not ringing true for all of the others could’ve been potentially interesting IF the same rules actually did apply to those ones.
  
  
  But those issues alone didn’t derail me from enjoying the hell out of this. Samara Weaving, you are bound for stardom, young lady.

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