On those days you just don’t feel like watching one of them atmospheric slow-burns and want to put on something a bit more snappy and fun, I recommend you give Radio Silence’s Ready or Not a try.

(Radio Silence Productions is a team consisting of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet. After taking on the Scream franchise, they became a more recognized brand known for making entertaining horrors that try to cleverly subvert common horror tropes.)

Ready or Not is a dark comedy with an odd, but interesting, premise that plays with the final girl trope. For generations, the wealthy Le Domas family has had great success in business, a fact they attribute to a satanic ritual they carry out whenever one of the family gets married. On the wedding day, at midnight, everyone in the family gathers around to play a game, but which game they play is chosen at random by a special box that was given to Victor Le Domas in the 19^th century by a mysterious benefactor named Mr. Le Bail. Most of the games the new brides or grooms are asked to play are innocent, like “Old Maid” and “Chess”. But every thirty years or so, “Hide and Seek” comes up. When this happens, the family understands that the new bride or groom is to be sacrificed, but only after first giving her or him a chance to hide. If not, death awaits them all. And when Grace marries Alex Le Domas, guess what game the box picks for her.

Ready or Not mostly stands out from the crowded horror field because of its impressive pacing. The film is never dull. Bettinelli-Olphin and Gillett do an impressive job blending humour with horror. (I thought I should add that this is also the team responsible for the fantastic “10/31/98” segment in V/H/S) Comparably speaking, it is considerably gorier than the modern horror-comedy classic Shaun of the Dead, while still offering plenty of laughs.

Another thing that keeps Ready or Not much better than it has any right to be is its well thought-out script which allows a terrific ensemble cast to breathe life into these characters. Each family member is characterized by their own peculiar quirks and their aptitude and attitude towards playing the game. Those who married into the family react differently to the game then those who were raised with this game as part of their tradition. Those who married in are much more willingly accept the murderous ritual, hoping to seize the opportunity to prove their worth to the rest of the family. In contrast, those born as Le Domas’ grew up with wealth and their place in the family is less tenuous, so they find the game tedious and disturbing- or at least the younger family members do- and question whether the supposed horrible death that awaits them if they fail to meet the morning deadline is actually a lie that’s been carried over throughtout the decades.

This is not to say that there is nothing to criticize about Ready or Not. As a final girl, Grace (Samara Weaving) does not get to be quite the bad ass that the trailer leads you to believe. And the demise of the family members could had been spread out a bit better. But these things are little and nit-picky, as even with its flaws, the film never forgets to deliver on fun for its entire one hour and thirty-four minutes. (If you end up liking Ready or Not and want to watch another film that is very similar in spirit, I recommend giving Craig Zobel’s The Hunt a try. Or you can try 2024’s Abigail– also done by Radio Silence- which is pretty much more of the same from this pair.)

With Ready or Not, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillet aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but they do have some original ideas and are able to deliver many humourous moments without sacrificing the horror elements. I usually have a bias against horror comedies because it is a hard genre to get the balance right, but Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillet seem to understand the horror community well enough to regularly find the sweet spot. There is a reason the name Radio Silence is gaining recognition.