Grace a beautiful young bride (Samara Weaving) immediately after her wedding, finds herself in a mansion that is like the House of Usher with a husband like Rosemary had in Rosemary’s Baby.
The atmosphere for a bloody thriller/horror film is established quickly after the wedding between Grace and Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien), when she is introduced to the Le Domas family tradition of playing a game the evening of a wedding. The game to be played is determined by a choice of a card from a secret box kept by the family. Grace pulls Hide and Seek which sets into action a deadly game in which Grace is the target to be killed by every member of the family. The Le Domas family has a pact with the Devil which requires that Grace be killed before the Sun rises the next morning.
Grace finds herself battling each member of the household hiding from each attack even from the servants lead by the butler who chases her even when she is able to slip out of the house. Grace by the end of the film is covered with blood from the close escapes she must survive.
Filled with dark comedy we see members of the family and staff murdered by careless shots from arrows, guns and one very large axe. When Grace appears to escape in the family Lincoln the system designed to assist one in trouble, determines she has stolen the car and kills the engine leaving her vulnerable to the bloody but determined butler.
Grace is wounded by being shot in the hand and cut by the sharp edge on a fence. She also finds her hand pierced by a nail as she climbs to a safer location. Blood flows everywhere from her body and the dead members of the family who are killed through collateral damage by family members.
Ready of Not has all the elements of a horror film, death, danger, surprises, a dark old house, fire and a beautiful woman who is the target. Even with all the elements written into the script it doesn’t quite leave an impression of a solid thriller. After all when the Sun comes up everyone goes poof.