Samara Weaving a standout in scream queen debut Ready Or Not

The rising star gives this opulent slasher comedy everything she’s got but faces an uphills slog

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READY OR NOT (MA15+)

Two and a half stars

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Running time: 95 minutes

Verdict: Not

The popular children’s game of hide-and-seek is given a macabre twist in this opulent slasher comedy, which fits somewhere between Cluedo and The Addams Family.

Newlywed Grace Le Domas (Samara Weaving) is “It”.

On the night of her marriage to the Le Domas family’s estranged youngest son, Alex (Mark O’Brien), the sweet-but-still-sassy foster child learns she must take part in an eccentric nuptial ritual.

To celebrate their roots as a third-generation gaming dynasty, the filthy rich Le Domases gather at midnight to play a game selected from a mysterious box.

Samara Weaving as soon-to-be hunted bride Grace in Ready Or Not.

It might have been chess, cards or checkers … but Grace draws the dreaded wildcard.

And what the unsuspecting bride — who is still wearing her lacy white wedding dress — imagines to be a bit of harmless fun, turns out to be deadly serious.

In the Le Domas’s version of the classic game, Grace will be the only person hiding in the Gothic mansion, appropriately outfitted with dumbwaiters, false doors and secret corridors.

Once a member of the Le Domas clan, who have armed themselves with crossbows, muskets and guillotine axes, finds her, she is to be swiftly sacrificed in honour of an ancient pact made by the family’s tiger-hunting patriarch.

This terrifying state of affairs is prefigured in the film’s opening sequence, which features Alex and his older brother Daniel (Adam Brody) as mere boys, along with an antique wardrobe and a groom with a couple of arrows sticking out of his chest.

But when she is presented with this life-or-death scenario, Grace discovers hitherto-unsuspected resources.

Samara Weaving must protect herself against the whole family.

And the hapless “victim” proves to be a more than worthy match for these in-laws from hell, which includes a loose-cannon, cocaine-addicted little sister (Melanie Scrofano), her prattish husband (Kristian Bruun), and Daniel’s ruthless, fortune-hunter wife (Elyse Levesque).

Henry Czerny underplays the LeDomas dad as ineffectually entitled and Andie MacDowell’s characteristically wooden delivery works quite well for her in the role of steely, Morticia-like matriarch.

As is the case with what feels like the majority of contemporary horror movies, the central, female protagonist is pretty much on her own.

Because of his part in the earlier, historic sacrifice, Daniel is the only family member to display anything vaguely resembling a conscience — the smitten Alex is out of commission, since he has been handcuffed to a bed.

Weaving gives her breakout “scream queen” role everything she’s got in a performance that is, by turns, resourceful, hysterical, avenging and incandescent.

Samara Weaving’s scream queen debut is saved by its ending.

But the Australian actor faces an uphill slog, hampered by a creaky plot, cookie-cutter supporting characters and plodding direction.

Ready Or Not is very nearly saved by a deliciously absurd ending that resolves a ridiculous situation with equal parts viscera and aplomb.

Combined with Weaving’s star turn, it’s almost enough to get this satirical Gothic horror across the line.

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