Ready Or Not

Samara Weaving has been quietly killing it for a few years now. Usually relegated to small roles in even smaller movies, she has a charm, sense of humor, and skill that elevates material that is largely beneath her. Lucky for us, "Ready or Not" is a movie both worthy of her talents as well as elevated by them.

Grace is floating on cloud nine. Having found her match in Alex, she is content to finally have her person with which to walk through life. But Alex brings with him some hefty baggage: His family. The Le Domas family fortune is built on a stack of board games, and appropriately has the tradition that every new family member must participate in a group game on the night of their wedding. But things aren't always as they seem, especially when it involves massive sums of money. This game may end up with higher stakes than any Grace has played before.

There is a daring in the way that directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett craft "Ready or Not." They are fearless in their choices, plying the audience with enough genre tropes to make the bold choices that they make later hit you right in the mouth. It's the type of movie that distracts you with its enjoyability, a cavalcade of jokes and gruesome deaths that constantly keep you on a swivel. And then, once you've been lulled into comfort, takes a last minute finish that is so beautifully surprising that you'll struggle not to cheer.

"Ready or Not's" true North is its star, Samara Weaving. She is built perfectly for the role, a combination of grace and grit that feels cater made to the modern horror comedy. She makes Grace, a character that could devolve into damsel-in-distress simplicity, into something three-dimensional. She is more than just a character, she is a defined person, and that isn't something that you are always treated to within this genre.

The Blu-ray release comes with a commendable amount of supplementary material. Some of the extras, a stills gallery (seriously, nobody wants these on our physical media) and a red-band trailer, are fairly useless, but thankfully they are balanced by the type of material that you hope for. Included is a lengthy behind-the-scenes/production diary that gives a good glimpse of what it was like to make the movie and is filled with cast and crew interviews. Even better than this lengthy look behind-the-scenes is the feature commentary, featuring not only the directors but also the charm capsule that is the movie's star. "Ready or Not" is a delight of movie: gory, funny, and bolder than expected.

"Ready or Not"
Blu-ray + Digital HD
$19.96
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/readyornot/