And you thought your in-laws were bad. Ready or Not, the splatter-tastic, tongue-in-cheek horror comedy from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Southbound) is a subversive little slice of late summer mayhem that doubles as a masterclass in how not to welcome a new addition to the family. Grace (Samara Weaving) is marrying into the Le Domas family, a wealth-stricken collection of gaming barons, but her vows come with the unexpected consequence of a mandatory midnight game. When she draws a card that demands a ritualistic, bloody bout of hide and seek, the Le Domas’ playful inner world reveals itself to be one as sinister as it is opulent.

In the vein of You’re Next filtered through the moneyed scrum of the ultra-rich, Ready or Not gives Bernie supporters an even more concrete reason to hate the billionaire class. Here, their wealth comes at a price, the Le Dolmas family literally having sold their souls to satan, forced to make ritualistic sacrifices of the occasional new family inductee at the will of their malevolent benefactor. Writers Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy make the most sketching out this murder clan of board game elites, the Le Domas family falling somewhere between the supernaturally-tinged, comedically gloomy edge of the Addams Family and the rich incompetence of Arrested Development’s Bluth clan.

The nutty assembly ranges from the insane to the inept. There’s stony ice queen Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni perfecting RBF); penitent patriarch Tony (Henry Czerny, wholly committed to the madness); dubious but obedient Daniel (Adam Brody, solid here); inept fail child Charity (Elyse Levesque, putting anything she can find up her nose); and Andie MacDowell’s Becky, just trying to preserve her family as any mother would. New hubby Alex (Mark O’Brien) is doing everything he can to prevent the cult sacrifice of his new wife – as one does – but finds himself between a rock and a hard place. You see, the Le Domas family believe that if Grace isn’t carved with the unholy sacrificial blade by sun-up, they’ll all erupt into flames, or implode, or something particularly satan-y and unpleasant along those lines.

This, of course, is bad news for Grace, who metastasizes from quirky blushing bride to carnal final girl as the Le Domas family hunt her with guns, crossbows, blades and whatever else they can get their hands on. Watching Grace’s wedding night from hell disintegrate into a blood-soaked hunt of errors is an exercise in pure campy fun, splashed with some standout moments of hand-flapping bloodletting and a fair share of laugh-out-loud moments. Though Ready or Not doesn’t quite deliver on the gruesome promise of spurned Bridezilla turnt up to stone cold killer mode, there’s plenty of blood to satisfy the horror junkies, despite weighing in relatively light on the satisfying kill count.

Complete with a cringe-inducing sonicscape that includes plenty of gurgling blood, Ready or Not occasionally pivots into pure comedy. There’s a moment where the desperate coos of a dying henchman continue to interrupt an impassioned speech, reminding this viewer of Mustafa’s (Will Ferrell) painfully awkward death scene in Austin Powers. More often than not though, the comedic bits are underplayed, delivered with a stiff upper-lip, laced like arsenic into a gothic atmosphere that’s accented by Andrew Stearn’s baroque production design.

Leading the dog and pony show, Samara Weaving is a welcome blast of kinetic energy. She goes from bubbly and game for just about anything to broken and ferocious enough to cold-cock a 9-year old throughout the course of the movie, the agony inflected on her especially traumatizing in light of the fact that she was raised in foster child and wanted nothing more than to belong to a proper family. As Ready or Not’s twisted game progresses, Weaving’s performance disintegrates into a jumble of nervous tics and feral noises, settling into her newly adopted state as the animal that her new family is hunting her like. And even if you back the nicest dog in the world into a corner, you’re setting yourself up to get bit.

CONCLUSION: ‘Ready or Not’ may not gild the lily of horror comedy but it’s a wickedly fun little late summer distraction, sanguine-stained, tumultuous, and crackling with midnight-colored laughs.