Ready or Not

I actually feel sorry for the film. The reviews here are not exactly favorable, but I won’t be as strict. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun. Granted, it was incredibly silly, and it would be considered a horror film only by someone who gets scared by fairy tales. It worked great as a black comedy, though. I’ve never been horrified by the sight of blood and guts, so I appreciated the funny moments in Clara, Tina and Dora’s best scenes, I also enjoyed Grace’s (fuck!)monologues, and the finale sure beats any film featuring a minefield. If you share my twisted sense of humor, go for it. (06/01/2020)

Clearly this year's hit, which hit my taste exactly. A captivating Victorian mansion, a rich fanatical family, the gorgeous Samara Weaving, who is the most in demand and best actress on the horror scene at the moment, and a great idea that is perfect for the horror genre. From the start the film picks up a huge amount of momentum that doesn't let up until the end, the humour works too, which goes best with the eternally high Melanie Scrofano, and there is a fair amount of violence that literally erupts into a bloodbath in the finale. Suspenseful, intense, stylish and thanks to Samara's superb performance, this was an unforgettable experience for me. The bride in her Converse shoes, with her dress torn and covered in blood is already symbolic for me. I haven’t had such a good time at the horror cinema this year, so I’m gladly giving it a weaker five stars. 85%. (21/10/2019)

Since I’m not rich yet, I’ve no problem sympathising with this peculiar fairytale. An entertainingly lively spin on the concept of the human hunt that turns into a morbid carnage in the popular setting of a big baroque mansion. Although it grinds at times with the cheap way it delays the climax and the helplessness of the hunters associated to it, the viewer can always cling to the brilliant, badass main character (Samara Weaving was really born for roles like this), and in the ending rely on an unpredictable wave of foreshadowing, thanks to which the film can be taken as perverted and openly trashy fun in A-movie clothes. I’d love to see more brainwashers like this in the cinema, and all of them could be with Samara. 75% (16/09/2019)

I thought back to Sam Raimi's films, the good ones that is, and I couldn't help but marvel at how much fun I was having. The bloody black-humor hide-and-seek can definitely surprise and thrill, and if it weren't for a few slightly weaker and more predictable parts (the escape into the woods), I wouldn't have much to complain about. Apart from Samara Weaving (unlike in Netflix's The Babysitter, she's the heroine this time around, and it occurs to me that the two films have a lot in common and would make an ideal program for an evening) and the other admittedly lesser known but great (to watch) actors, I have to single out Brian Tyler's music, which makes for just the right atmosphere at just the right moments. The scene of the ritual and the one after it are without exaggeration unforgettable. (03/09/2019)

When two people do the same thing, the results of their efforts will differ depending on their respective levels of talent and life experience. Thus, while Ready or Not would like to be another Get Out, as the promotional materials emphatically make clear, it can never have that film’s sting. The grievances of one ethnic group and the phantasmagorical delusions of the privileged social class are not revealed here. Rather, only a group of well-to-do people make fun of rich people within the limits of the genre. Thanks to that, Ready or Not works great as arelief valve for the frustrated workers of our capitalist reality, but it characteristically does not open up its subject in any way or contain any overlap into everyday reality. Above all, however, it does not open anyone’s eyes. It’s just an amusing episodic film in which, instead of the monstrosity in the human heart or the gears of the predatory system, we can only see our own need to simply find festive relief in a properly explicit lynching. (05/01/2020)