In the cinema world, the summer of 2019 was considered a disappointment in the theaters. While the record-breaking ‘Avengers: Endgame’ started off the summer with a bang, high-profile flicks such as ‘Pokemon Detective Pikachu,’ ‘Dark Phoenix,’ ‘Men in Black: International’ and ‘Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw’ were seen as relative disappointments at the box office.

While these hyped-up blockbusters left audiences feeling as if they wasted their money, one movie released at the end of August managed to captivate audiences with a lot of dark humor and even more self-awareness.

‘Ready or Not’ starts off with a rather innocent wedding. Grace (Samara Weaving) is the lucky bride getting to marry Alex (Mark O’Brien). After growing up moving from foster home to foster home, Grace at first looks ecstatic to be marrying into the La Doma family at their extravagant mansion.

While many GVSU families probably come from homes with weird traditions, the La Doma’s tradition takes the cake, as hours after the wedding, Grace is forced to pick a card out of a mysterious box to select a game that everyone in the immediate family must play.

Much to the dismay of her husband, Grace selects the ‘Hide and Seek’ card, which actually means she will be forced to fight for her life as members of the La Doma family give her a head start before loading up their weapons and attempting to kill the newlywed woman before dawn arrives the next day.

The idea of humans hunting down other humans is a rather heavy subject. Movies like it such as ‘The Hunger Games’ series take place in a dystopian future, while proposed flicks such as ‘The Hunt’ never get made due to American issues like police brutalities, which make these movies too realistic and consequently risky for studios to produce.

While dramatic movies with this hunting-for-humans concept are generally considered too sensitive in today’s climate, ‘Ready or Not’ gets around that by not taking itself too seriously. Many family members are possessed with a bloodlust once midnight strikes, but a few of the members are questioning the idea or making fun of the concept throughout the night.

‘Ready or Not’ is not the least bit subtle, but it doesn’t try to be. It doesn’t have to be. A movie with humans killing other humans can’t take itself seriously if it wants to avoid getting ‘cancelled’.

This movie clearly deserves it’s R rating. If I took a shot for every time there was a gory scene or a bloody death, I myself would have been dead before the halfway point of the film. While that gore is meant to be scary in 2019 films such as ‘It: Chapter 2,’ the bloody injuries, gunshots and decapitations in ‘Ready or Not’ are made to be just as comedic as they are scary.

Even though many film critics are seeing this movie as a critique of the class system in America, I view it more in the similar vain of ‘Us;’ while it’s scary without relying on cheesy jump scares, the suspenseful chase combined with the constant laughs make the dark humor in this film so artfully used. And at a run time of 95 minutes, it’s easy to digest and doesn’t drag on like certain horror movies this summer featuring murderous clowns.

While this feature will most likely be out of theaters soon, be on the lookout for ‘Ready or Not’ as it hits the On Demand section, DVD and Redbox market just in time for Christmas. While it isn’t afraid to be dark, ‘Ready or Not’ breaks the mold of a traditional horror movie beautifully, even if they have to break a few appendages in the process.