Ready or Not is a cult classic satirical horror in the making with an entertaining plot and a great ensemble cast.

Score: 4.5 / 5

Satirical Horror is not an easy genre to nail. It requires walking a tightrope between going too dark or going too goofy. If a movie can pull it off though, you are typically in for an entertaining treat that elevates itself from every other horror movie on the block. Well Ready or Not is one of those movies. In fact, Ready or Not feels just like the cult classic The Cabin in the Woods, creating a tone of messed-up moments balanced by humor that keeps things from getting depressingly bleak.

Ready or Not follows Grace, who is about to marry into the very eccentric and rich Le Domas family. Along with being a family of Arrested Development-style oddballs, they have a little family tradition whenever someone new joins the family. Play a game chosen by the draw of a card. Unfortunately for Grace, she picks Hide and Seek, which for this family is more Hide and Hunt. If Grace doesn’t avoid the family, she is dead. If Grace doesn’t die, the family is dead (or so they believe). So begins this game of cat and mouse. The movie doesn’t get too twisty and sticks more to just being an entertaining horror satire.

This movie works so well because of a fun script that does an excellent job of keeping the story from getting so dark that it just brings you down. There are great jokes and moments of levity throughout, which keeps things entertaining. What really makes this all work is the excellent cast. Samara Weaving plays Grace, and she leads the hell out of this one. You want her to win. You want her to take out this family. She’s tough, humorous, and sells the horror of the situation extremely well.

The rest of the cast all have their moments, but my favorites would have to be Adam Brody, who plays Daniel, and Kristian Bruun, who plays Fitch. Brody’s Daniel plays off as someone who has just checked out of the whole family cult thing, but you can tell he wants a reason to finally put an end to the madness. Then you have Bruun’s Fitch, the brother-in-law who doesn’t take things seriously because he’s just that kind of dumb. That’s also not to say that the rest of the cast does a great job with their roles as well. I could spend paragraph after paragraph highlighting their contributions. Needless to say, it’s a great ensemble.

Ready or Not feels like a cult classic in the making. Not enough people know of it, and not enough can grasp what kind of movie it really is. This movie is a fresh, entertaining ride through the horror genre that any fan owes themselves to check out. If you liked The Cabin in the Woods, this is a must-watch.