There are so many aspects of Ready or Not to delve into, it is hard to know where to start with this brilliant look at class and culture in a horror-thriller that is a bombastic blast.
First and foremost, Ready or Not could be the title of anything that references Samara Weaving and her verge of stardom. Ready or not … here she comes, and you’ll thank us later!
The Aussie actress (niece of Hugo Weaving of The Matrix fame and most recently Mortal Engines) portrays Grace, a relatively innocent bride who believes she is marrying into a gaming empire with the love of her life, Alex Le Domas (portrayed by Mark O’Brien). Things are a little odd in the family, but she just chalks that up to all that old money feeling apprehensive that she is a gold digger (which is the furthest from what she is). Then, in the moments leading up to the stroke of midnight, her new husband surprises her with the fact that in order to “officially” be a part of the family, she must play a game. Which game depends on the card that some ancient family relic randomly spits out. Tonight, it’s … Hide and Seek.
Sadly, that’s the one card the equals lethality. Although, she believes it is just a game—at least at first. The family is under the impression that with that card’s game reveal, if they don’t hunt Grace down by dawn, they will be destroyed.
Game on …
With a fantastic mansion (possessing uncanny production design and cinematography throughout) to play around in, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (working from a tight and stellar script by Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy—no, not the Glee creator) have a ball and the audience does as well. With so many rooms and hidden passageways (which are seemingly innocently teased early on), the Hide and Seek gamesmanship elicits supreme suspense in the most beautifully shot manners.
The helmers have a firm grasp on the concept, this milieu and give their actors the freedom to carve out three-dimensional souls that are as rich as they are layered.
Leading that pack is Weaving. The Movie Mensch first discovered her in The Babysitter with her chilling turn that immediately had us ready to watch anything that features her in big or small parts. Ready or Not is the entity that should firmly put her on the stardom map. The entire endeavor hangs on her shoulders. If there is one ounce or shred of inadequacy in the audiences’ adoration for Grace, the entire thing falls like a house of cards in a light breeze. But in her hands, the arc she embodies from beginning to close is nothing short of stunning. The actress commands our attention and utmost respect. She rises above this (stellar) ensemble to literally demand our attention. Weaving also serves as our entry point to the story. Viewers enter the generational wealth world of the Le Domas through her eyes. It is her entry into this world that catapults the drama, horror and on numerous occasions, even laughter.
This storyline could have been a potentially mindless kill or be killed journey through the night of a newly married bride who grapples with her life choices as she fights to stay alive. Instead, Ready or Not races through the paranoid mind of the uber-wealthy and as such, is lusciously layered and achieves gripping greatness in its 90 minutes. It also should serve as a blueprint for a tightly wound thriller that says so much with so little. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett have themselves a well thought out, brilliantly insightful look at class in our society and how those with all the power and money view everyone else as one—a threat to their existence—and two, rarely worthy of their indifference. There are countless moments where this is illustrated, all simultaneously paired with the impending peril that accompanies some of the best horror movie experiences.
The thing about the best horror movies is they can serve as a raucous running commentary on our world where the evil that threatens comes at us with smiles and open arms. All the while there is this searing sense of palpable protectionism that our antagonists are willing to kill for or die trying. With Ready or Not, a web is woven—that occurs over six cinematic hours (90 minutes in real running time)—that efficiently and effectively is an indictment of our current societal status quo.
There are a couple of examples in the film, most brilliantly embodied by Andie MacDowell’s Becky Le Domas. She is married to patriarch Tony Le Domas (Henry Czerny). In one particularly riveting scene, lets Grace know that she too was once where the newlywed stands, a soul not only viewed with a raised eyebrow by her the larger Le Domas clan, but only time had proved to them that she wasn’t a gold digging you-know-what. This moment igves Grace hope that this awkward night will give way to many rising suns that will eventually equal her acceptance. Then again, when Grace is told about the game that must be played at midnight of a wedding, and within an hour or so realizes that this is no ordinary game of Hide and Seek, it gets her (and us) thinking. Did Becky have to go through this kind of crossbow arrow/bullet/shotgun dodging horror?
In that short tête-à-tête between Grace and Becky, all that is required to know about the old money Le Domas’ is conveyed. Too often films feel the need to over exposition their audience. Ready or Not also does so much with so little in that department as well. The Grace and Becky chat, the seemingly throw-away (at the time) lines about the drinking problems of Daniel Le Domas (Adam Brody) and gold-digging wife, and in a stroke of flashback storytelling genius, the opening five minutes of the movie itself that illustrates a night such as this one, but one where Daniel and Alex are quite young.
Those quick moments work wonders in maintaining the pace that is required of a solid horror/thriller movie outing. One does not want the audience to mentally drift in and out of what should be an ever-building crescendo of chills. Also, in that vein, if that is achieved successfully, then the payoff will be even sweeter. In Ready or Not, that climax and dramatic resolution is so simultaneously satisfying and off-the-wall bananas, prepare oneself for a permagrin that lasts all the way home.
Grade: A-