Ready or Not (2019) Review: A Comedic Take on Hide-and-Seek Horror
Ready or Not is a 2019 horror film written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy and directed by Matt Bettinelli and R. Christopher Murphy. The film did very well in reviews and financially, making $58 million on a $6 million budget. I really enjoy this film, and though it is a horror film, it leans more towards being thrilling and comedic. Spoilers.
The movie starts with a flashback of this little bitch, Daniel, ratting out a groom at a wedding who is killed because of it. The movie jumps to the present, where Daniel (Adam Brody) is grown up and at his brother’s wedding. They are in a mansion because they come from an insanely rich old-money family, the Le Domas family. Both Daniel and his brother, Alex (Mark O’Brien), seem to hate their family. All the women in the family, except the only other “outsider,” seem like massive cunts, especially the aunt (Nicky Guadagni.) Guadagni does a fantastic job in this type of role.
Their ancestor, Victor Le Domas, made an occult deal with a demon for a fortune, which came in the form of a successful board game company in exchange for a familial wedding tradition. The tradition is that the new family member has to draw a card with the name of a game on it, and since the movie is called Ready or Not, you know that means the best one to pull is “Hide-and-Seek.” When “Hide-and-Seek” is pulled, the rest of the family has to hunt and kill the new bride or groom, and they have until sunrise to do so. Grace (Samara Weaving) is the family’s newest member and obviously picks the “Hide and Seek” card.
Grace is a dog-shit “Hide-and-seek” player. She gets immediately found, luckily by her husband, who finally reveals that they aren’t just playing “Hide-and-Seek” but a to-the-death version of it. Throughout this movie, Weaving proves that she is an underrated scream queen, and her literal screams throughout this movie are sooo good.
Daniel as a grown-ass man, is still a little bitch. He should have either killed her then and there or helped her fully like a man, not this half-assed I’ll help you for 10 seconds thing.
Maybe I’m fucked up, but Grace should’ve killed Georgia AND the kids, too, fuck this family. It would help stop this from happening to others in the future if there were fewer of them, plus that dickhead kid shot her anyway.
If I was in this situation, I would 10000% die, but since there were like 20000 candles lit in that house, I would be lighting the fucking house on fire. Eventually, she ends up burning the house anyway, and it seems like she could’ve done that earlier since the whole house is made of wood and full of flammable shit like drapes and rugs.
I love that the dress is constantly degrading and ripping because it makes it feel more like a prop than just a dress. Plus, the wedding dress with Converse combo goes hard. The part where she uses On-Star and they remotely turn the car off is dystopian as fuck, and I would definitely not have used that until I was in a place that was heavily populated, NOT still in the middle of the woods.
A lot of this movie feels more like Steven (John Ralston), Le Domas’s slave, vs. Grace more than her vs. the family. I truly don’t understand why the help shills so hard for rich people. As soon as there’s real danger, even if it’s for my job, I am getting the fuck out of there. I have literally quit jobs over far less than that.
I’m glad she does get caught eventually, but, weirdly, Daniel flip-flops so hard the whole time. He should’ve slowly been helping her more and more, and I think his death would’ve felt more impactful. The ending when everyone blows up is fun to watch, but practical effects with more Mortal Kombat-style fatalities would have been a chef’s kiss. All in all, I enjoy this film. It’s not scary, but it is worth the watch.
