A bride’s wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to take part in a terrifying game. A film by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, starring Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, Henry Czerny, Melanie Scrofano, Kristian Bruun, Elyse Levesque, Nicky Guadagni, John Ralston, Liam MacDonald, Ethan Tavares, Hanneke Talbot, Celine Tsai, Daniela Barbosa, Chase Churchill, Etienne Kellici, Andrew Anthony, Elana Dunkelman, Kate Ziegler, James Eddy, Adam Winlove-Smith, and Andie MacDowell.

The film opens with two brothers, Daniel (Etienne Kellici) and Alex (Chase Churchill), witnessing their own Le Domas relatives murder Charles (Andrew Anthony), the newlywed husband of Helene (Nicky Guadagni).

Thirty years later, Alex (Mark O’Brien) marries Grace (Samara Weaving) at the Le Domas family estate. Family members Daniel (Adam Brody), Tony (Henry Czerny), Becky (Andie MacDowell), and Helene attend as witnesses, while Fitch Bradley (Kristian Bruun), Emilie (Melanie Scrofano), and their children join them later.

The Le Domas family built their fortune in the board game industry, and they have a peculiar tradition that requires anyone who marries into the family to draw a card from a mysterious box, an heirloom passed down from an ancestor who received it from a figure known as Mr. Le Bail long ago, to determine which game they must play.

When Grace pulls the ‘Hide and Seek’ card, Alex is horrified because he never expected her to draw the worst possible card, which hasn’t been picked in 30 years. The established rule within the Le Domas family states that they must kill whoever draws this card before sunrise the next day, or else the entire family will die. Of course, some family members in this day and age are skeptical of the whole thing, but no one can say for certain what would actually happen if they failed to follow through.

Several family members have never participated in this deadly game but are forced to go along to honor the family tradition. The funny part is that while the estate is equipped with a modern computer-controlled lockdown system and security cameras everywhere, the surveillance is shut off to keep the hunt feeling authentic, just like in the old days. They are also restricted to using vintage weapons such as axes, crossbows, bows, and antique guns.

Even though the mansion has electricity, they all have to carry lanterns as they roam the halls. Since the family members are far from being expert hunters, they constantly make fatal mistakes. This results in accidentally killing one of their own, a maid getting caught in the crossfire, and utterly ridiculous self-inflicted deaths.

🅟

@pradt

READY or NOT 🩸
Unhappily ever after.
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A film by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, starring Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Henry Czerny, Melanie Scrofano, Kristian Bruun, Elyse Levesque, Nicky Guadagni, John Ralston, Liam MacDonald, Ethan Tavares, Hanneke Talbot, Celine Tsai, Daniela Barbosa, Chase Churchill, Etienne Kellici, Andrew Anthony, Elana Dunkelman, Kate Ziegler, James Eddy, Adam Winlove-Smith, and Andie MacDowell.

Directed by American filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett from a screenplay by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, READY or NOT is a comedy horror following a young bride who is hunted by her husband’s wealthy family as part of a wedding night ritualistic tradition.

The pacing in the suspenseful scenes is fairly well done, but the characters are severely underwritten. Because the film fails to provide any real backstory, there is no urge to root for or care about anyone.

On top of that, the film spends most of its runtime playing out like a standard cat-and-mouse slasher, only to reveal at the end that it was supernatural all along.

This feels less like a twist and more like a betrayal of the story’s own rules. It is a completely different experience from a movie I really love, DRAG ME TO HELL, which establishes its supernatural premise right from the very beginning.

READY or NOT premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival 27 July 2019. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 21 August. It grossed $57.6 million worldwide against a $6 million budget.