Ready or Not Parent Guide

Grace (Samara Weaving) and Alex (Mark O’Brien) are getting married, but Grace is worried that Alex’s family doesn’t want her around. Alex assures her that his family is just standoffish and traditional, and they’ll warm up to her one they get to know her better. An opportunity comes right after the wedding, when, as part of an old tradition, the family gathers to play a game at the stroke of midnight. The game? Hide and seek. Grace will have to hide in their mansion until dawn or lose the game…and her life. What Grace doesn’t know is that the family patriarch in generations past entered into a deal with the devil, and every now and then, the family is required to sacrifice one of their own. Grace has to survive ‘til dawn, and hope the family dysfunction is enough to let her escape…

I was optimistic about this movie after I saw the trailer a few months back. I’m a big fan of dark comedies, and this looked both dark and hysterical. Unfortunately, while the movie delivers the dark in spades, it seems a little restrained with the comedy. Maybe some wires got crossed somewhere, but there’s too much horror/thriller, which doesn’t leave enough time for comedy. It’s not that the movie isn’t funny: it is, but in more of a dry, ironic style than in a side-splitting laugh-out-loud way.

That’s not to say the performances aren’t good. Samara Weaving is especially watchable, playing a woman who is both exceptionally resilient and terrified. She has a unique scream as well, so I’d be surprised if she doesn’t get drafted into more horror movies after this. Henry Czerny and Andie MacDowell, playing Alex’s parents, are superb and bring a few decent laughs where they are desperately needed.

The content issues in Ready or Not are, undeniably, many. From the graphic violence, substance abuse, and constant profanity to the fact that the antagonists are, semi-involuntarily, Satan-worshippers, there’s a lot to be concerned with. If any of that sounds unpleasant to you, it’s going to look a lot worse on a 30-foot-tall screen. This is not a film for the squeamish or easily upset because, honestly, there’s a lot to be upset by.

If the comic payoff had been better, I’d have cautiously recommended this for adults with a macabre sense of humor and a resistance to violence and profanity, but without a lot of good jokes, I find it hard to recommend it at all. It’s not a bad or irritating film, but it also isn’t worth the time or money. Maybe it’s funnier if you watch it back-to-back with My Big Fat Greek Wedding or something similar. Hold on, let me go test that theory…