‘Ready or Not’ Film Review: The Game of Hide and Seek’s Afoot in Twisty, Violent Dark Comedy
This perverse tale isn’t a total triumph, but it’s a savage delight all the same
Alonso Duralde | August 20, 2019 @ 8:00 AM
Last Updated: August 20, 2019 @ 8:03 AM
Eric Zachanowich/20th Century Fox
A tale of the nefarious plots of a diabolical family that made its wealth off board games, “Ready or Not,” at its best, calls to mind some devilish delights of the 1970s, from the antique-toy-stuffed manor of the original “Sleuth” to the jet set’s homicidal party games in “The Last of Sheila” to the ever-resilient final girl of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
Some of its turns are better than others, but since this is the kind of twisty, hard-R comedy of gamesmanship and survival that Hollywood never seems to make anymore, fans of the genre are better off celebrating the film’s triumphs than picking over its occasional disappointing rolls of the dice.
Australian actress Samara Weaving, giving what can be legitimately termed as a “star-making performance,” plays Grace, who’s about to marry Alex (Mark O’Brien), scion of the rich and powerful Le Domas family. Just before the ceremony, he gives her the chance to ditch, an offer she no doubt later wishes she had accepted.
As it happens, it’s their long-standing tradition that anyone marrying into the family must play a game at midnight, and unlucky Grace gets randomly dealt the “Hide & Seek” card. And as we know from a pre-credits flashback, the Le Domases play it hardcore, as in catch-and-kill. If Grace can elude her predators — including Alex’s alcoholic brother Daniel (Adam Brody), his parents Becky (Andie MacDowell) and Tony (Henry Czerny), and bloodthirsty Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni, styled to resemble an unhinged, punk-rock Julie Walters) — until dawn, she might manage to stay alive.
The premise seems absurd on its face, but screenwriters Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy keep revealing new information — flipping over more cards, if you will — that explain why Grace wanted to marry Alex even when he was clearly reticent about bringing her into the family, what the Le Domas clan is capable of doing, and why they take their Hide & Seek so seriously.
And if there are still plot holes, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (“Devil’s Due”) and editor Terel Gibson (“Sorry to Bother You”) do their best to keep the pace brisk enough that you won’t have time to notice. Limiting the action to a mansion, the stables and the woods, “Ready or Not” covers a lot of ground while also tightening a grip on Grace in her attempts to escape; she might be surrounded by lots of space, but there’s also always a sense of confinement. The fact that she endures this evening of violence and brutality while wearing a wedding dress is a feat of “backwards and in heels” proportions.
Weaving’s credible indefatigability makes her a memorable heroine, and she brings an honesty to this lunatic plot. Grace’s full realization of the danger she’s in and the cesspool she’s married into comes at her gradually, and Weaving subtly takes us through each step. She’s surrounded by a great ensemble of character actors — MacDowell certainly seems to relish playing a woman who isn’t a nice-as-pie mom on the Hallmark Channel — and for audiences who don’t mind the idea of an arrow in the neck being the comic punchline of a scene, the film offers plenty of dark delights.
About those homicides, though; the script wants to portray the very rich as venal and despicable, but there’s a whiff of classism in its handling of the family’s three maids (Hanneke Talbot, Celine Tsai and Daniela Barbosa, all made up and costumed like extras in a Robert Palmer video) in a markedly different way from its “essential” characters. It’s the same kind of disregard for the lives of 99-percenters that the film seeks to impugn.
Beyond that one big failing, the only disappointments of “Ready or Not” is that isn’t more fully itself, not committing to its darkly comic side as much as it could have or offering as elaborate and nefarious a production design as the spacious house and its antique trappings promise. (The wonderfully chilling “The Hide & Seek Song” — played here on Victrola, of course — should immediately go onto your Halloween playlist, though.)
Miscalculations aside, however, there’s a brutal wit and audacity to “Ready or Not” that makes it feel one-of-a-kind in an increasingly safe mainstream marketplace.
16 Horror Movies Set in Broad Daylight, From 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' to 'A Quiet Place' (Photos)
Many iconic horror films lay their jump scares like mines behind dark corners, but there is also a subgenre of horror going back to Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" that basks its characters in the blazing sun.
Are you afraid of the dark? It doesn't matter, because these movies below are proof that nightmares can thrive even during daylight hours.
"The Birds" (1952)
Alfred Hitchcock takes the everyday fear of being attacked in the street by city pigeons to the next level, having what feels like every bird in the city of San Francisco attack humans without warning. What adds to the horror is that the birds attack when people are most on the move; one scene depicts a flock of crows attacking a group of school children. "The Birds" stars Tippi Hedren as the lead Melanie Daniels, with Rod Taylor starring alongside as criminal defense attorney Mitch Brenner.
"The Wicker Man" (1973, 2006)
"The Wicker Man" is similar to "Midsommar" in that foreigners -- in this case police sergeant Neil Howie -- travels to a remote location where villagers follow an ancient pagan religion. Howie (Edward Woodward) is quickly entangled in the village's May Day celebrations, where he discovers the villagers are going to use the missing child as a sacrifice. Nicolas Cage starred as the lead in the 2006 American remake.
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974)
Sally (Marilyn Burns), her three friends and father Franklin are attacked by the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) when their car runs out of gas and have nowhere to go. Sally is put in a race against the dwindling sunlight as she does everything she can to escape.
"Jaws" (1975)
During the opening scene, we are introduced to Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie), who decides to take a dip in the ocean after leaving a beach party. The John Williams score starts to swell when Chrissie suddenly feels something pulling at her from underneath. The terrorizing shark, even though it was shown only briefly during the actual movie, left audiences fearful of ever going back into the ocean. "“When you go out into the water, there’s this idea you’re incredibly vulnerable,” a clinical psychologist told the New York Post in 2015. “Literally anything can kind of happen. We’re built to kind of fear that, we’re built to fear the unknown.”
"The Hills Have Eyes"(1977, 2006)
A family's trip from Ohio to Los Angeles goes awry when their truck explodes in the Nevada desert. They soon realize they're surrounded by a clan of cannibals lurking in the hills. "The Hills Have Eyes" director Wes Craven shot the film in the New Mexico desert. The 2006 remake was shot in Morocco.
"Dawn of the Dead" (1978, 2004)
A zombie uprising leads a group of human survivors to camp out in a shopping mall. Why are the zombies drawn to the mall? The movie explains to us that it's where the humans were used to being when they were alive.
"Predator" (1987)
Arnold Schwarzenegger leads a special forces rescue team on a mission to save U.S. officials captured by the Soviets. The story plays out much like a cold-war action film, except for the fact that their foes aren't only the Soviets, but also an alien species armed with advanced hunting weapons and the power of invisibility.
"Tremors" (1990)
Valentine (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) try to save a small town from carnivorous "megaworms" in this early '90s creature feature, much of it taking place under the arid heat of the Nevada sun.
"Anaconda" (1997)
Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube and Owen Wilson. Sounds like a great group to go on an exotic trip with, except when they're documentary film crew traversing the dangerous Amazon in "Anaconda." The crew is taken hostage by a hunter (Jon Voight), who forces them to help him capture a monstrous snake.
"Lake Placid" (1999)
A crew investigates the disappearance of a scuba diver off the coast of Maine to find that dwelling below is a gigantic saltwater crocodile. The movie stars Brendan Gleeson as Sheriff Hank Keough. The actor also appears in other entries on this list, including "28 Days Later" and "The Village."
"The Ring" (2002)
A newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) investigates why people are dying seven days after watching a cursed videotape in this remake of a Japanese horror film of the same name. Similar to other horror films that followed "The Ring," the film emphasizes the green and blue colors in the frame, adding to its eeriness whether day or night.
"Ju-On: The Grudge" (2002)
A Japanese social worker is taking care of an ill mother when she realizes the house she's working in is cursed from a murder that took place in that very home. The vengeful supernatural force takes the shape of a young woman and boy with pale blue skin.
"28 Days Later" (2003)
Cillian Murphy wakes up from a coma just to discover that London has been decimated by a virus, leading those who are infected to turn into rabid zombies. A friendly tip: Just like when trying the "Hot Ones" challenge, don't let any of it get in your eyes.
"The Village" (2004)
Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix and Sigourney Weaver star as members of a small countryside community that fear a predator outside of their village is set to attack them.
"A Quiet Place" (2018)
Lee (John Krasinski), Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and their kids are forced to live a life of silence when blind aliens with armored skin invade Earth, attacking anything that makes the slightest sound.
"Midsommar" (2019)
In Ari Aster's horror flick, four American tourists go on a trip to a remote commune in Sweden to immerse themselves in a festival during the summer solstice or "midnight sun," a period of time when it's light out almost exclusively. And then things get really trippy.
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Movies like “Jaws,” “The Birds” and “The Hills Have Eyes” prove you don’t need to be in the dark to be horrified
Many iconic horror films lay their jump scares like mines behind dark corners, but there is also a subgenre of horror going back to Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" that basks its characters in the blazing sun.
Are you afraid of the dark? It doesn't matter, because these movies below are proof that nightmares can thrive even during daylight hours.
