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Ready or Not. (18.)

​​​​

​Directed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin.


Starring Samara Weaving, Andie MacDowell, Mark O'Brien, Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, and Nicky Guadagni. 95 mins


It is not big and it is not clever but that is a simple blood lust sating to Ready Or Not that is hard to resist: it's about a gruesome set of rich people (and the help) getting their bloody comeuppance. It's the film Downton Abbey should've been. If it has a flaw it's that, in a world overfilled and overdue with repellently affluent worthy of gory comeuppance, the family on the receiving end are more Addams than Kardashian and thus a little too benign to fully enjoy their demise; though they do have a mad aunt who looks a little like Toyah.


This is Get Out for white people. Grace (the very Margot Robbie-esque Weaving) marries into a creepy rich family who made their money in games. At midnight on her wedding day, she is summoned down to the music room of their gothic mansion and informed that tradition demands that she play a game to be accepted into the family. This turns out to be a life or death game of hide and seek. Initially, the film sets itself up as a dispenser of major-jump shocks but it quickly becomes clear that it is more concerned with having some bloody fun with the premise. (The film is certainly blood-drenched, though I'm not sure what got the BBFC spooked enough to slap an 18 certificate on it when it didn't seem any more violent than most of the stuff they let through with a 15.)


The word in the queue for the gentlemen's urinal afterward was Alright, as in "that was alright, wasn't it?” expressed with mild surprise but the satisfaction of something a little better than expected. It's silly without abusing the privilege and has enough jokey atrocities to satisfy fans and the curious alike.




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