`Ready or Not'

If “Ready or Not” managed to be half as witty as its makers think it is, the bloody black comedy would be brutally hilarious.

Unfortunately, it is a brutal disappointment, with a delicious premise that turns out to be a bland, gore-soaked mess rather than a macabre satirical feast.

Raised in foster homes, luminous bride Grace (Samara Weaving) can't wait to marry her adoring fiance, Alex Le Domas (Mark O'Brien), and become part of a real family, despite the groom's misgivings. Alex comes from a closed-off, old-money clan, so with the exception of his mother (Andie MacDowell), who is grateful to have Alex back home, the Le Domases don't give Grace a warm welcome.

Eager to win favor, Grace agrees to participate in a family custom: In a nod to the Le Domas' gaming empire, any incoming bride or groom must randomly chooses a game for the family to play on the wedding night. Grace manages to pull the one deadly card in the deck: hide and seek.

While she hikes up her puffy gown and finds a place to hide in the sprawling mansion, Alex's relatives — including his determined father (Henry Czerny), remorseful brother Daniel (Adam Brody), morbid aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni) and spoiled sister Emilie (Melanie Scrofano) — arm themselves with old-fashioned weaponry and go seeking. But Grace gets tipped off to the game early on and boasts a fierce survival instinct.

Writers Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy want to take on the self-centered entitlement of the rich with the same horrorcomedy ferocity that Jordan Peele smacked down racism in his Oscar-winning hit “Get Out.” But “Ready or Not” isn't nearly as smart or sharply written, coming up short on both consistent laughs and true scares. So, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett turn to that tried-and-true horror technique of ladling on the carnage, until many scenes are literally washed in fake blood.

“Ready or Not” kept me watching to the end just to see what happened. But it didn't make me laugh much, and it sure didn't make me care, despite Weaving's all-in performance. It just made me wonder what might have been if the moviemakers had been ready to turn their brilliant concept into a compelling film.