THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It does sound nice to marry into a family, until you see Ready or Not.
PLOT
The film follows the Le Domas family who have gained their fortune off of the successful Family Games company. However, the ancestor Victor made a deal with a man named Le Bail to build the fortune in exchange for the family observing a tradition that every new member must play a drawn from a puzzle box. If the new member picks 'Hide and Seek', then he/she must be sacrificed or the entire family will implode. The family has been staying true to this tradition for generations and it continues when Alex, second son of Tony, marries a young woman named Grace, whom he makes the mistake of not sharing the tradition. After the two exchange vows and become one, Alex does Grace that the family does play a game after each wedding, but chooses not to go into the full extent. When the game starts, she ends up drawing 'Hide and Seek'. As she prepares to hide, the family arms themselves in hopes to catch her before dawn. Minus Alex, the family members that play include: the matriarch Tony, his sister Helene, his wife Becky, his oldest son Daniel along with his wife Charity, the youngest daughter Emilie and her husband Fitch. She briefly hides in a dumbwaiter, but then decides to roam around. When she reunites with Alex, she realizes how serious the game is taken when Emilie accidentally shoots the first maid Clara (Hanneke Talbot). When the newlyweds hide elsewhere, the groom finally explains that the family is cursed and he chose not to tell her beforehand because he knew she would've left him. When they split up as he intends to disable the security system, she encounters Daniel but he chooses to give a head start. When the family regroups, Tony decides to cheat by turning on the camera to find her and Emilie accidentally shoots the second maid Tina (Celine Tsai). Grace attempts to escape, but is prevented by the butler Stevens (John Ralston). Tony then decides to handcuff Alex to a bed set for destroying the control panel. Once Grace leaves the kitchen, she runs back to the dumbwaiter and finds the third maid Dora (Daniela Barbosa). When the latter attempts to call the family, she accidentally presses the button and gets herself crushed by the dumbwaiter. When Grace reaches the stables, she encounters one of Emilie's sons named George (Liam McDonald). He chooses to partake in the game by shooting her in the left hand. She defends herself by knocking him out and moving forward. She squeezes her body through the front gate and fights Stevens again. This time, she gets the upper hand long enough to take his car. She tries to call the police through the car's onboard system, but the operator remotely turns it off when discovering that it was reported stolen. Stevens catches up again and subdues with a tranquilizer gun. But in a short period of time, she gets back up and defends herself again, causing the car to crash and kill the butler. Daniel arrives only to bring her back. Before the sacrifice could happen, Daniel poisons his family with a non lethal dose of hydrochloric acid in hopes to help her escape, only to be shot Charity in the process. When Grace hits Tony with a lantern, it sets the mansion on fire. She then kills Becky by beating her to death with the puzzle box that came from Le Bail. Alex breaks free and becomes heartbroken when discovering that his brother and mother are dead. Realizing that Grace tends to leave him, he decides to help his family move forward with the sacrifice. But it is too late as just when she avoids being stabbed in the heart, she gets stabbed in the shoulder just when the sun rises. Despite the delay, each member of the Le Domas family explodes one by one, including Emilie's sons Georige and Gabe (Ethan Tavares). Grace briefly sees Le Bail himself, who salutes her for surviving. As she exits the burning house and takes a cigarette from Becky, the police finally arrive. When an officer asks her what happened, the film ends with her replying "In-laws".
THOUGHTS
I was not sure how I was gonna approach this since the horror movies between this film provided nothing but a claustrophobic experience. Upon watching it for the first time in the fall of 2019, I found myself off guard of how entertained I was of what I was seeing. Entertained to the point where I once again must quote the trolley kid from The Incredibles when I say "That was totally wicked!". I knew horror can be fun, but I didn't expect it to be this fun. The group 'Radio Silence' that includes writers Guy Busick & R Christopher Murray, and directors Tyler Gillett & Matt Bettinelli-Olpin provided an intense, high octane experience that kept me on the edge of my seat. Seeing Hide and Seek go down with such stakes was not something I think I'd enjoy. I mean you know it's gonna be bad luck for everyone when the groom saw the bride in the wedding dress before the ceremony. This one got to me because of how it straight up calls out how privileged individuals are willing to do anything to keep their power, whether or not they deserve it. Each member of the Le Domas family has their layer of selfishness that comes from the determination to live, vice versa. They're all also unexpectedly funny together when they bicker, uncertain if the curse will proceed if they fail. And the fact that it's true and we see it firsthand makes the whole adventure worthwhile. So now going into this immersive ensemble, Henry Czerny shows Tony as the most loyal because he's seen firsthand that the stakes are real and taking a risk is not an option. Andie Macdowell expresses Becky as another experienced individual who has gone through the tradition and luckily survived like the others who married into the family. Even though she's kinder to Grace, she is aware of the stakes and prefers her family over anyone else when it comes to survival. Nicky Guadagni makes Helene a standout for being ruthless, which comes from the heartbreak of losing her husband through the tradition. Even though she comes off supportive of what has to be done, that comes from the anger that she has no one to love for herself. Whenever someone married into the family, she wanted them to suffer like she has and like her husband did. Melanie Scrofano easily makes Emilie the most spoiled, considering no one cares of her cocaine addiction, making her the wild card player in the game. Adam Brody gives his best performance to date in the role of Daniel. He was always uncomfortable of what his family has done for so long and doesn't know how to leave like Alex did. So the only way he could find solace was for being there for his brother and saving Grace whenever he could. Elyse Levesque presents Charity as the most stubborn since she hated the life she had before and refuses to lose her privileged one. So seeing her kill her husband to do so is easily heartbreaking to see. Kristian Bruun made Fitch arguably the funniest due to being just as inexperienced as Emilie. Seeing him look up crossbows during the actual game just gets me laughing as much as his reaction to Tina dying. Mark O'Brien easily makes Alex the most despicable for always being selfish deep down despite his efforts to be different from his family. It is true that he fell for Grace because she brought out the good but in reality, he was more in love with having someone for himself than actually loving a person in general. His love for her meant ownership and control. And he caved with helping his family in the end because he felt that no one could have her if not him. So when he dies last, it is indeed the most satisfying death in the whole movie. Obviously, we would not have made it this far without a scream queen/final girl to root for. Enter Grace, who is played spectacularly by Samara Weaving, taking control of the movie quickly and assuredly. We love this character simply because of how she isn't selfish and we admire her determination to survive the night. Her only motive before the game went into motion was that she just wanted a family, something she didn't have growing up. So when the game started, it is saddening for her that she married into the wrong one. Seeing her be as resourceful as possible without Alex comes to show that she really doesn't need anyone to take care of her. With the Le Domas family all gone now, it is safe to say that she will do fine on her own this time. My love will not disappear for this film, but it won’t excuse the issues I spotted when re watching. First off, I know Aunt Helene is hyped to play when taunting Grace’s hiding skill, but the card hasn’t been drawn yet. She has nothing to gain if she can’t guarantee what game will happen. That confrontation is more weirder than the fact Grace never met her at all during the wedding. I also wonder why doesn’t the bride change out of the wedding dress after already getting married. I mean if you’re down to play a game, get comfortable with jeans or leggings. If she didn’t pack for the honeymoon, that should’ve been acknowledged. Y’all know I hate continuity errors, so you know I got riled up when the actors didn’t match the mirror shot before the game starts. It’s like there were countless takes and they mismatched on accident, which is so weird to notice. I’m even a bit more confused of how Emilie’s kids were originally not allowed to participate, whereas Daniel was all in during the flashback. Sure generations think differently and I want Grace to survive, but since one was bound to help, I don’t see the help of them not playing from the beginning. I do get why Alex would hide the truth from Grace, but I really don’t see the point of the family doing the same when they get rid of Clara’s body and leave the trail of her blood. You’re just overdoing commitment. I also wonder why doesn’t the family ever do target practice as tradition to prepare for these events? Again, I don’t want to root for these guys but they make it harder for themselves. If you want to talk about dumb, it’d be the Butler raising the volume of music in the car, which wakes Grace up to keep defending herself. I don’t care how much a masterpiece ‘1812 Overture’ is, keep it low if you want to win. I even got confused of how Helene didn’t wear a hood in their attempt of the sacrifice. She is enjoying this shit more than anyone else and I do not believe they ran out of hoods. Ignore these issues, and you’ll still have a good time. In short, Ready or Not was the wildest film of 2019 for perfectly executing everything creative about it. If you’re into the fun of horror, this is the one for you.
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