Ready or Not Movie Review

Ready or Not (2019)

Rent Ready or Not on Amazon Video
Written by: Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murphy
Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Starring: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Andie MacDowell
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A bride's wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to take part in a terrifying game.

Verdict
This is a slasher that attempts black comedy. The comedy is thin, and it's not really satire either. The premise is solid, it's just not developed past a typical slasher despite the perfect foundation for it. This wants to be Get Out, but doesn't have any of the depth. The movie could have gone the other way with over the top humor. The ending seems to be more humor than satire, but the rest of the movie is stuck in limbo.
Skip it.

Review
This is the light version of Get Out and Us. It's easy to make fun of the rich, but this doesn't take the concept far enough. This isn't working on multiple levels like the movies it wants to be. I like the premise, but Jordan Peele would need to rewrite it to add the satire.

From the start this feels like a pulpy slasher. Knowing what will happen blunts the edge a bit, robbing you of the one surprise. What's disappointing is the unfulfilled potential. Making fun of and satirizing the rich seems to be the point, but that doesn't happen.  The ultimate explanation for the premise needs to be more clever. That or the humor more over the top.

While the rich family reacts sardonically to deaths, it just doesn't land. Get Out and Us managed to be really good horror movies while still having a layer of depth as it critiqued society. This makes a few jabs at the rich and leaves.

Samara Weaving plays Grace.

This gets very gory and even a little gross in the barn. I was wondering why the family had so many goats. I like the answer, but I wish the movie had more in-jokes like that. This could go for satire which seems like the goal, or could go the other way for full dark comedy with over the top stereotypes and really push the goats and what that would entail. Without spoiling the movie, introducing a lot of pagan symbols into the house and have that as the family's lifestyle would be a great bit of absurdist humor.

I wasn't sure how this movie would end, but it found a way. That ending is more wild comedy than satire. The movie would have been better served to do more of that. At least this ends on a high note.