Film Review: READY OR NOT (2019)

Family doesn’t get more sadistic than the one featured in the film Ready or Not (2019) from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.  Grace (Samara Weaving) just married Alex (Mark O’Brien) at the family estate and it is tradition that on their wedding night that the family must play a game in order for the new member to be inducted into the family as part of initiation.  Unfortunately for Grace, she picks the game “hide and seek” which at first seems harmless enough but while Grace is “hiding” the rest of Alex’ family which includes his mother and father, grandmother, siblings and their spouses, gather up weapons to maim and kill.  Grace soon discovers that she is part of a ritual sacrifice that the family members believe will ensure their hierarchical status in the outside world. 

Grace must be sacrificed before sun up our all family members will die.  Unfortunately, for the family, Grace isn’t going to take it sitting down and she will arm himself and protect herself against anyone that gets in her way.

The film works as both a comedy and horror film in that the film can get graphic in its horror elements but it especially does a great job balancing the comedy both visually and through the characters and story as you never know whether the family members ever truly believe in the ritual they are doing or if they are just doing it out of tradition.  Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett do an excellent playing against horror conventions and expectations to deliver a suspenseful and action packed film that engages and entertains audiences from beginning to end.

There are some especially amazing performances from Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, and Andie Macdowell, to name a few.  It is the performances that hold the film together and which sets this film apart from other horror films as the entire cast is shooting their A-Game.  This is a fun and exciting film that also audiences will enjoy from beginning to end.

Film Review: DEVIL’S DUE (2014)

The found footage film finds new life in the film Devil’s Due (2014), a thriller from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.  Zach and Samantha McCall (Zach Gilford and Allison Miller, respectfully) are on their honeymoon when an unexpected night out partying leaves them with little memory of how much fun they actually had in the morning.  It’s not long after that Samantha discovers that she is pregnant but nothing is going as it should.  This is a found footage film so it is Zach who is filming most of what’s going on and it is he who has a curiosity as to what is happening to his wife when mysterious people start showing up and following him everywhere he goes. 

This is very much a modern day retelling of Rosemary’s Baby as told from the perspective of the husband who is the paranoid one as his wife slowly succumbs to the influence of the thing growing inside her.   What the film gets right is the tension that builds between Zach and Samantha as he realizes that she is slowly slipping away from her.  What the film gets wrong is having to rely on the aesthetics of the found footage style to tell the story and how it unravels.

With so many found footage films now (still) being made it’s hard to realize just how many new stories can still be told without seeming to much like a cliché.  This film has its fair share of predictable reveals as is common for this genre.  If anything, this film doesn’t really add anything new to the found footage genre but only adds to the type of film that hadn’t already been tackled by this style.  I will say that very few people outside of fans of the found footage film will be entertained by this film because as is customary with this style very little really happens until the final third of the film.