I Am Rage (2023) - Discount 'Ready or Not'

I actually quite liked the premise of this one... a nasty ol' bloody-drinking cult kidnap young men and women and steal their life essence.  Only this time the adduct the wrong woman - someone with extreme anger issues and who definitely needs stronger antidepressants.

It's a nice idea and was enjoyable enough as a simple B-movie, but my main complaint was that it could probably have been much better.  When the two female protagonists are lured to the mansion, there are some major red flags that all is not good.  If you're relaxing in the bath and some old woman sneaks in and pretends to be your boyfriend and starts washing your hair and when you try and say something, starts yanking it painfully.  Plus their hosts don't let them change clothes in days (would any woman really put up with not changing clothes for that period of time and just not say anything?!) and when it comes to dinner, their hosts seem only too keen for them to drink dodgy-looking liquid with glee.

The first half was pretty slow, but it gets a lot better in the second half when the bodies start piling up.  There's not too much gore, but the practical effects are simple and realistic.  However, its major let-down was its dialogue.  The two female leads are pretty good, but all the bad guys just come across as cliches and one-dimensional evil dudes with no real depth, other than to be the antagonist.  The spout cliched villain lines at every turn and are more of a joke than the serious film probably wants them to be.

There's a bit of over-the-top gore at the end that feels a bit out of place, baring in mind the limits the characters were capable of during the film's runtime and you may have to suspend your disbelief for that one.  But, despite its faults, overall the film is a solid little watch if you have nothing better to do and fancy some mindless hunting/action.  But, if you have 'Ready or Not' in your collection, probably best to watch that - it's better in every department and a very similar premise.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights