Ready or Not (2019)
Since I can't go to the movies because of my seizures, I tend to load up my Netflix list with movies I really want to see. Ready or Not has been at the top of my list ever since I saw its first preview. It looked like a combination of The Most Dangerous Game (Richard Connell) and You're Next (2011).
The Premise
When a member of the Le Domas family gets married, it's tradition to initiate the new in-law by playing a game on their wedding night. The whole family gets into the spirit of things. Why? Because there's a curse on the Le Domas family and if they don't play, they believe something awful will happen. Sometimes the games are harmless, like chess or checkers. But every once in a while, they are forced to play a deadly game of hide and seek.
My Take
I love a good dark comedy and that's how I viewed this movie, more so than a horror film. The actors played their parts straight despite the somewhat absurd circumstances they were put in. I mean, who plays hide and seek on their wedding night with their entire clan of in-laws hunting them down with antique weaponry?
Samara Weaving and Mark O'Brien play the newly married Grace and Alex Le Domas. You may remember Samara from The Babysitter (2017). Except this time she's on the receiving end of some weird shit from a devil worshiping family. To round out the family, there's Adam Brody who plays Daniel Le Domas. With Daniel's character, you never know which side he is on and that makes it really exciting to watch from scene to scene. Melanie Scrofano plays sister Emilie who, from an actor's standpoint, would have been a lot of fun to play. She seems like the family member that took full advantage of the family fortune and never worked a day in her life. And of course there are dear old mom and dad played by Andie MacDowell and Henry Czerny. My favorite thing about their relationship is thinking about the fact that Andie MacDowell's character, Becky Le Domas, would have had to endure the same initiation right of choosing a game to play that the current bride, Grace, is doing right now. What doesn't kill us, I suppose... That brings us to the other in-laws played by Kristian Bruun and Elyse Levesque. I am familiar with Kristian and Elyse from their work on Orphan Black (2013-2017), one of my favorite shows ever. It's fun to see them paired up in the same movie. And finally, there is what appears to be crazy Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni), but we learn more about her as the movie progresses.
There are many things I enjoy about this movie. The plot moves along quickly and it doesn't give the audience much time to anticipate what happens next. I like that because it makes it less difficult to predict the scriptwriters next move. There's nothing I hate more than figuring it out all in the first act. So thank you very much Guy Buick and Ryan Murphy. The direction was also well thought out I loved the production design (Matt Bettinelli-Olin and Tyler Gillett).
The Verdict
I was not at all disappointed in Ready or Not. I am disappointed in that I feel like it was sleeper in the cinemas. Maybe it will find its footing in its DVD release or in streaming. I recommend you give it try. I give Ready or Not 5/5 pentagrams. And a little word of advice - be careful who you marry.
