Reed Alexander's Horror Review of 'Ready or Not' (2019)

Holy fuck! What a whacked out movie! I brought this up once before and I'll bring it up again in my review of Primal (coming soon), but I think I stated it best in my review of Don't Kill It. It is possible to go too dark for dark comedy. This movie was likely supposed to be your standard horror thriller when it was first written, then either the producers of the director realized how absolutely ridiculous the concept is. Mind you, this movie could be done seriously, as in not a dark comedy, but I really think adding the extra layer of dark comedy was positive. Don't Kill It went a little too far. This one was just about right.

Don't get me wrong, this movie was FUCKING dark. But they always managed to layer on just a tad bit of levity to the darkest moments. I realized while watching this that the difference is a meddling of two movies, rather than a seamless layering of one. Don't Kill It was a horror movie running alongside a comedy. Yeah, funny stuff happened, but you had no reason to expect that it would. It was like someone shot most of a horror movie, and a second director came in an added in some funny scenes post production. You can read my review of Don't Kill It.

This movie may have been fucked up—and believe me, it was seriously fucked up—but the comedy was added in as a way of dealing with how abnormal, violent, and deranged the whole plot was. The way it's portrayed, you have only the options to laugh or cry, and this movie clearly wants you to laugh. It is unforgivably brutal, but there's always a subtle sense of irony to every situation. If there wasn't a sense of humor sewn into this movie, it would be bleak to the point of being soul-crushing. I'm actively impressed that the director was able to see the comedy inherent to the plot and help it shine through.

Even better, the acting is fantastic. It has to be in order to sell the serious moments among the deranged and comical. The cast was excellent and I'm honestly not sure how they managed to pull this list together with such an outlandish script. Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell, and Letterkenny's own Melanie Scrofano. The FX were actually pretty solid. Most of it was practical and even the CGI was acceptable. Importantly, they didn't really even need to be heavy-handed with the blood and gore, but rather chose to be, which made the movie that much more fun.

I absolutely recommend this movie to Horror Heads and general adult audiences. Even if you're not into horror comedies, you should give it a try for its deeply horror-thriller tone.

SPOILERS!!!

I think what made this movie was the ending, but more importantly how the ending ties everything together. It was mounting to be a serious problem with how the movie was initially set up.

You see, the whole thing hinges on the fact that the groom bloody well knew the risk he was taking by dragging his bride into his psychotic family. He sews this sob story about her inspiring him to be a better person, and true love, and all this other bullshit, but that's not a legitimate story of romance, but rather a delusion. He was fully aware it was possible his family might try to hunt down and kill his bride, and in spite of that, WITHOUT FUCKING TELLING HER, he drags her headlong into possible death. That, that right fucking there, pretty much proves his sob story is absolute garbage. The very least he could do was warn her and give her the option of not marrying him. But it's really more about his needs than her's, and that's how we know it's all really bullshit. He hopes she'll save him from his family, and didn't want to risk her turning him down and dooming him to fulfill his family duties. As long as she's dependent on him for survival, she can't just leave him.

This movie even made a point to highlight that the groom's brother warned his wife when she was initiated into the family. His brother, who is depicted like a drunken wastoid, even had the common sense to warn his wife before they got married. The contrast was staggering and telling.

So, of course, I spent the majority of the movie deeply troubled it was going to set up the groom to be some kind of backward-ass hero. He'd swoop in, save his bride, and completely ruin the fact that this story is about her as a survivor, not him as a knight in shining armor (because he's fucking not). Instead, what I got was exactly what I would expect from a character portrayed like the groom. Eventually, cowardice takes over and he turns on the bride, agreeing to complete the ritual and kill her. Only by thrashing and fighting does the bride make it to sunrise and the end of the game.

This leads to the ending reveal and one of the funniest moments in the damn movie. To understand this, I should explain there's this ever-looming question as to whether the whole game of 'hide and seek' is a backwards tradition perpetuated by superstition or an actual binding pact with the devil. There's literally nothing supernatural about any of the movie leading up to the end, so it could always go either way. The LeDomas legacy could be absolute madness, but the important part is that they believe it despite having zero proof. I'm not going to tell you which they decided to go for, but either would have been fantastic.

In the end, this movie is fun, funny, and gory, and even makes for good horror apart from the fact that it's also a comedy. Enjoy!