Ready Or Not

The inherent problem with Ready Or Not is that the geniuses in marketing at Fox Searchlight decided to include all the funny, shocking, and exciting moments of the film in the trailer. As if that weren’t enough, somebody else decided that it would be equally prudent to reveal the entire plot of the movie in the trailers, too. So, be warned that should you decide to venture to the cineplex to see this little horror-thriller-comedy and if you happened to have seen any of the trailers over the past few months, then there will be absolutely zero moments of hilarity, shock, or excitment in store for you. Additionally, the screenwriters felt it necessary to keep things utterly predictable. For example, the character searching for redemption finds it; the “innocent” character ends up being evil; the surprise ending isn’t. The cast is solid, for what it’s worth, and seems to be having a good time with the lackluster material. Samara Weaving (she, the niece of The Matrix's “Mr. Smith”) is fastly becoming this generation’s bona fide genre queen, having starred in the delectable The Babysitter (on NF) and the lackluster Mayhem prior to giving a go at being the blood-spattered bride in this eventual dud. Her charisma and spunk is really the only thing keeping this venture afloat. On the subject of acting, I have to say that I found I rather liked Adam Brody in the picture (even though his character archetype was completely cliche) and hope that he finds himself in bigger and better fare. Other than Weaving and Brody, the real star of the film is the opulent mansion in which our story takes place (I Googled it and apparently it’s widely used in film, television, and the like). Ultimately, this film should have gone straight to Red Box or a streaming site like Netflix and not the theaters (whereas The Babysitter should have gotten a theatrical release, imho).

Rating: 2/5