“Ready or Not” Review by Josh Davis
September 2, 2019 3:33 pm |
In-laws are a bitch and rich people, at times, can be pretty fucking weird. That’s essentially the message of Ready or Not, a black comedy, horror-thriller from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Both previously worked on V/H/S as a segment director and cinematographer, respectively, and made their co-directing debut with 2014’s Devil’s Due.
Ready or Not stars Samara Weaving as new bride Grace and Mark O’Brien as Alex Le Domas, her husband who is estranged from his wealthy, but weird family.
On their wedding night, the couple must stay in the gothic confines of the Le Domas mansion and, at the stroke of midnight, play a game with the entire clan. They tell Grace the game is a tradition, born from the fact that the family made its fortune in the gaming industry, while in actuality it’s the (spoilers) fulfillment of a pact with the devil made generations ago.
Grace must draw a card at random to pick a game and, while most of the options are tame (checkers, chess and badminton are mentioned), there is also the dreaded “hide and go seek” card. When it’s selected, each of the Le Domases must brandish a weapon appropriate to the time period of their patron grandfather and hunt down, and then ritualistically sacrifice and kill, the new entrant to the family.
The urban legend (or is it?) among the Le Domases is that anyone who shirks their duty and doesn’t show up for the wedding night game is dead the next morning. And, if the family doesn’t succeed in murdering the new bride or groom, they will all perish.
Grace, still believing she’s simply subject to a bizarre family tradition, is initially game. Alex, meanwhile, goes along with it in the hopes that his new wife will simply draw a nonlethal card, and everyone will be spared. Of course, she does not, and wackiness ensues.
The spooky cast of Le Domas family characters includes Henry Czerny as Tony Le Domas and Andie MacDowell as Becky Le Domas, Alex’s parents, and Nicky Guadagni as Aunt Helene, part Cruella De Vil and part Beetlejuice-era Tim Burton character.
In the film’s opening, set 30 years ago, we watch as a groom on his wedding night fails the “hide and go seek” challenge. The event traumatized young Daniel Le Domas (Adam Brody) and later led to Alex’s estrangement from the family.
Three decades later, when Grace draws the offending card, she hides in a dumbwaiter for a few minutes before later deciding there are better ways to spend her wedding night. She goes back to Alex’s old bedroom and waits for him, but quickly learns there’s more than meets the eye to the game when another Le Domas accidently kills one of the help in front of her.
The rest of the film plays out as a one long, bloody chase sequence that’s equal parts Kill Bill, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Heathers. Weaving is great as the foul-mouthed but plucky heroine, and really holds the film together. Guadagni, as the brutal and bloody-thirsty aunt, is also a standout.
While Ready or Not ultimately is a horror movie, it’s best when it leans into black comedy. A few surprising twists in the final 15 minutes help differentiate it from the 9,000-or-so other thrillers about pretty women covered in blood and running for their lives, and the closing sequence beautiful recalls the last frame of Heathers, one of the black comedy gold standards.
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Tags: Josh Davis, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, pop culture leftovers, Ready or Not Movie 2019, Samara Weaving
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