Review: READY OR NOT

Grace and Alex travel to his family mansion to get married. Grace is treated to various shades of contempt by the American bluebloods she's about to join, feeling judged and excluded. There's a traditional remedy for this as Alex informs her: a ritual game at midnight which will be a kind of initiation ceremony. Not becalmed by this she joins them in a private chamber in the house and draws not chess or chequers as others claim they got but hide and seek. She agrees to it with relieved at the tokenism of it but is not informed of all the details. We have a good idea already from a prologue scene involving a young man being hunted down through the halls by people in hideous masks. How she finds out this particular bent introduces us to both the archness of the film's wit and its readiness for gore.

That's all the plot as this tale is too easily spoiled. But it's also a good place to leave the description as the balance of wit and gore can play for for and against this film. Such an odd juxtaposition is not so odd in satire like this where the rich are shown as ruthless sociopaths as it gives plenty of scope for comment on the brutality that buys privilege. In contrast Grace is well served by her own wit and wile against the tightening grip of the game.

But the balance doesn't always work. Some scenes which should be nail biting are undercut by humour which then feels mild for the sacrifice. Others amp up the gore with so slight a comedic payoff that makes the violence feel squandered. This is less a criticism of the film than a recognition of the difficulty in managing such a thing. Brian Yuzna's Society which partially informs this film, did this by spiralling into mutation, rendering the rich into physical monstrosities. Get Out added a sci-fi weirdness. While there is the suggestion of a supernatural motivation to the events it has to be kept subtle which means the human action needs to feel earthly. It's a tough gig but the film manages to fly above it and deliver real punches in the finale.

A lot of that transcendence has to do with one of the most vigorous and rangy performances you'll see on screen this year. Samara Weaving owns this film, going from an agreeably sassy urbane woman to a hunted animal to an all out warrior, managing a ton of nuance along the way. Take her out of it and it's an ok social comment, with her at the centre you have a battle of dusty status quo against the force of life itself. Actors don't get Oscars for genre movies and seldom for comedy and that's a pity.