Film

Ready or Not

Name: Ready or Not
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Released: 2019
Cast: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell

Ready or Not is a lean, gleeful horror-comedy about a bride who marries into a board-game dynasty and discovers her wedding night comes with a deadly family tradition: hide-and-seek with crossbows. It's fast, bloody, and very funny, carried by Samara Weaving's ferocious lead performance. Ideal for anyone who wants their horror short, mean, and laughing at the rich.

TMDb rating

7.1

If you liked this

You're Next2013

Same DNA: a family gathering curdles into a night of stalking and screaming, with a heroine far more capable than her in-laws ever expected. Scrappy, brutal, and home to one of the genre's best final girls.

But The camerawork is shakier and the budget shows; if you need gloss, this one's rougher around the edges.

The Menu2022

Swap the mansion for a remote island restaurant but keep the wealthy targets and the slow reveal of a rigged game. Ralph Fiennes' chef is as chilling as any in-law, and the satire bites just as hard.

But It's colder and more cerebral than Ready or Not — less splatter, more dread, and an ending that divides people.

Knives Out2019

A grasping rich family, a house full of secrets, and a likable outsider caught in the middle — Rian Johnson's whodunit shares the same delight in watching awful wealthy people undo themselves.

But It's a puzzle-box mystery, not a horror movie — nobody's getting hunted with crossbows here.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Most Dangerous Game1932

This is the actual template — wealthy hosts turning a guest into prey for sport, decades before Ready or Not put a bridal veil on the same idea.

A lean, atmospheric pre-Code thriller where a big-game hunter turns a shipwrecked guest into his newest obsession. It moves fast, looks gorgeous in shadow and fog, and invented half the tropes horror still uses.

But It's 63 minutes of 1932 filmmaking — stagey acting, no gore, and pacing built for a very different audience.

Get Out2017

Another outsider walks into a family's polished front door only to find the smiling hospitality hides something monstrous. Jordan Peele balances real dread with sharp, uncomfortable laughs.

But It's more paranoid slow-burn than chase movie, and the social commentary is the whole point, not a garnish.

The Hunt2020

Elites hunting ordinary people for sport, played with the same pitch-black comic timing. Betty Gilpin makes a terrific unlikely survivor, matching pace with Weaving's Grace scene for scene.

But The political satire aims wider and messier than Ready or Not's family drama, and its release drew controversy that overshadowed the film itself.

Fresh2022

A different flavor of horror-comedy about what happens when charming people turn out to be predators. Sebastian Stan is delightfully unsettling, and the film has real bite once it flips its premise.

But It trades the ensemble chaos of Ready or Not for a much smaller, queasier two-hander.

Bodies Bodies Bodies2022no page yet

Rich twentysomethings, a party game, and a rising body count — this one swaps in-laws for friend group and lands somewhere between slasher and satire of a very online generation.

But It's more mumblecore than mayhem for long stretches, and the humor leans on Gen Z specificity that won't land for everyone.

Krampus2015no page yet

If it's the family-versus-monster energy you loved, this holiday horror-comedy delivers a dysfunctional clan trapped in a house while something ancient and furious picks them off one by one.

But It's goofier and more family-friendly-adjacent than Ready or Not, with practical creature effects standing in for splatter.

The Invitation2016

A dinner party at an ex's house slowly reveals itself as something far more sinister, shot through with the same dread of realizing your hosts have a plan for you.

But It's a much slower burn — patient dread rather than immediate chase, and the payoff takes its time arriving.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie1972

Same target — wealthy people whose rituals and manners hide something absurd underneath — but Buñuel's surrealism replaces the chase with dinner parties that keep collapsing into farce.

Buñuel's Oscar-winning satire follows six bourgeois friends endlessly failing to finish a meal together, each attempt derailed by farce, dream logic, or class panic. Funnier and stranger than its reputation suggests.

But There's no plot in the conventional sense, no blood, and it demands patience with surrealism rather than scares.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie poster

Dead Poets Society1989

Body horror as class warfare, taken to a much trashier, gooier extreme — here the wealthy don't just play games with outsiders, they quite literally consume them.

A gloriously grimy '80s cult classic where a suburban teen discovers his rich family's social circle is hiding something grotesque. The practical-effects finale is legendary body-horror insanity.

But The acting and pacing are pure late-80s B-movie, and the satire is far less polished — this is a midnight-movie experience, not a slick studio product.