Ready Or Not: Review by @Kush_Hayes
Despite what you may hear from any ex-girlfriends, Kush Hayes is a romantic. Yes, I know. For real.
And while Old Iron Lung loves his freedom and his lifestyle, he respects the bond of marriage. Regardless of who its between.
Love is Love. So a lot of the journey we take in Ready or Not, is kind of a bummer. More on that later.
Our movie, directed by the team Matt Bettinell-Olpin and Tyler Gillett who's only thing Ive seen was the final chapter of an Found Footage Anthology movie called V/H/S and just happened to be the best story of the Five Horror Stories. These guys know what movie theyre making and they hold nothing back while at the same time having fun with what is a ludacris premise on a level that characters in our movie are even questioning the validity of it.
What Im referring too is that theres a curse on the La Domas family who made their money in board games, but at a cost.
Turns out that anyone marrying into this wealthy family must "Play a game". The Game is always random and sometimes that game is something as simple as Chess, or even Old Maid. And then sometimes "Hide and Seek" is drawn. From what we are told, thats the worst card one can draw because the stakes are life and death. The rules seem pretty clear until we get all the way into the movie and then you have to ask not only yourself, but the Family, what questions are we not asking. More on this later.
Samara Weaving, who is a new comer to this amature film critic, is pretty fantastic in this as you are with her in spirit throughout the journey, questioning the things she questions, horrified by what she is being witness too, and ultimately disappointed with how things play out. I think the worst thing you can say about her performance is that (in this film) she looks an awful lot like Margot Robbie. Its to the point that you wonder if it was done on purpose and whose idea was it.
The biggest name in this little indy film is Andie McDowell and the worst thing I have to say is that she is not in this nearly enough.
I have to imagine thats also a compliment. Her performance works to the point that at times you question whether or not she might actually be an ally during this whole thing.
The rest of the cast, when they arent chewing up the scenery, are absolutely playing to the back row of the theater. No one is ever phoning in their performances and are 100% into this story and their character. Its really refreshing to see actors enjoying what they are apart of.
The writers of this, Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy dont have a very large body of work, but the premise he sets up in this is not only fantastic, but is maybe the most original movie out not just this summer, but maybe all of 2019. Every character is fleshed out and everyone who makes it to the final climax of the film have great evolutions in their personalities. For better or worse, that is. Theres a lot of great in this build up and set up that when we get to the end of our story, I have questions that werent answered or even asked in this film. Here comes "The more on that later" part:
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While we understand that when a union of marriage is taking place this ritual, this tradition of games must be played out.
What isnt clear is does the family have to have a marriage? After the wedding there must be a game and possibly a sacrifice before Sunrise. Going by that timeline, is there a timeline of "A marriage must take place" every -Insert time period here-?
Its been made clear that there have been weddings in the family where the game DID NOT take place and while the family wasnt punished the parties who chose to not participate are always found dead due to "unusual circumstances". Now, my name is Kush Hayes, and its not unusual for me to miss one small detail here and there, but after everything above in this paragraph, as the credits rolled, I turned to the gentleman next to me who was on the edge of his seat multiple times and asked him "Could all of this been avoided if they didnt get married?"
Understandably, he shrugged.
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Please dont misunderstand the paragraph above, This is a well made, fun, entertaining, original horror thriller from beginning to end.
The writing on this story, makes me look forward to seeing what else (writer) has up his sleeve. The direction on this is great. The team of (guys) know how to project some really ill shit happening while giving you those tension breaks with as much humor that has been peppered through out this event. As stated above, this the most original film of 2019 (as of this writing) and had the strongest trailer of any movie Ive seen in the past 18 months, to the point that The Doobie Brothers Unchained Melody is still playing in my head.
I want to see more from everyone involved in this movie and I want to give this a better review...
Four out of Six Blueberries
Rated R for violence, bloody images, language throughout, and some drug use
Official Site
This review was originally published August 23rd 2019 on Kush And Kai
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