In a Deadly Game, a Family Has it Out for Their New Addition

Samara Weaving in "Ready or Not"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

Hide-and-seek is pretty much a staple of horror movies.  Not the game, but the act of concealing yourself from whatever danger may be looking for you.  As simple and overplayed as a concept like that is, there’s some life injected into a new horror film that presents it in a bonkers new way.

This is all thanks to directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett for their horror-comedy thriller, “Ready or Not,” an insane and fun movie that’s lifted up by a memorable lead performance from Samara Weaving and a game supporting cast, as well as plenty of laughs and suspense.

Grace (Weaving) has just married Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien), who belongs to a family that’s as strange as they are wealthy.  On their wedding night, Alex’s family has Grace participate in a game, as is tradition whenever someone marries into their family.  For Grace, the game that’s selected is hide-and-seek.  Not too long after the game begins, Grace realizes that Alex’s family intends to kill her before dawn approaches, and she must figure out ways to outsmart them at every turn.

Weaving delivers a ferocious and funny performance as a bride who must fight back against her crazy in-laws.  However, before she turns into a character who must tap into her fighting skills, what makes her role engaging is how we’re introduced to her as someone who’s feeling somewhat uncertain about the marriage because of how she doesn’t believe that she belongs in the family, due to their upper-class stature.  Weaving shows her character as being a bit self-conscious due to this, but is also able to be understatedly witty about it in order to calm herself down.  As we move into the hide-and-seek portion of the movie, Weaving establishes a perfect balance between fright, bravery, and humor, which is a perfect fit for the tone of the movie.  Weaving absorbs herself into the deadliness of the scenario, and through fiery retaliation, she’s able to show us that Grace’s survival instincts should have the Le Domas family on high alert because of her character’s willingness to fight back, letting off a don’t-mess-with-me attitude that gets the audience pumped to see which methods she will use to take down the family that has turned on her.

The supporting cast, which includes Andie MacDowell and Henry Czerny as Alex’s parents and Adam Brody as his brother, are all given an opportunity to stand out.  Given the type of film that this is, you would probably expect pretty much all of the supporting characters to be one-dimensional.  However, the story provides a few of the top supporting players, particularly MacDowell, Czerny, Brody, and Nicky Guadagni as an aunt who’s more than ready for the hunt, with little bits of depth that bring them beyond just being bloodthirsty killers.  For the others, although they’re not given quite as many distinguished details as other characters, they’re still given enough of a chance to entertain us with their out-there personas.

The screenplay by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy utilizes a core premise that has some familiarity to it, but it’s played out in a unique way that keeps you invested in the story, and the narrative spends plenty of time establishing the family and letting us become familiar with each member.  Throughout the film, there are also some shared bits of the Le Domas family history that gives you an idea of how rooted they are in their customs.  With these details, we see the kind of family into which Grace is marrying, allowing us to know what’s at stake for her as she becomes involved in this twisted tradition.

An intriguing aspect of the film is how it blends old and new sensibilities of the family.  With the old, the action takes place in a mansion whose interior would have fit the style of a century ago, and the characters use old-fashioned weapons for their hunt, as is part of the tradition that started so long ago.  With the new, we have the use of modern technology at certain points during the game.  Because of this old-vs.-new approach to the film, it helps emphasize the notion of the tradition being decades and decades old, but still being implemented in modern times.

Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett have a gleeful time in executing the pursuits throughout the mansion and fights between Grace and the family members who stand in her way of survival.  As Grace is hunted, the filmmakers provide plenty of details of the environment in which Grace finds herself.  With the help of cinematography by Brett Jutkiewicz, they bring you down the long, open hallways, through the secret passages, and into the many rooms, and this helps us experience Grace’s anxiety because, just like her, this place is unfamiliar to us, and we don’t know anymore than what she does about the layout of the house.  With this, there’s also a feeling of being closed in, despite the spaciousness of the mansion, and this is due to the hopelessness that one would feel when being trapped and hunted by a group of unhinged individuals.

The directors allow for a mix of over-the-top performances and some grounded dramatic acting. These shifts in tone occur as we go between characters who are crazed killers, and some who are conflicted about carrying out their family’s evil customs. The directors are able to maintain these tonal changes without anything feeling out of place because you feel like most families can relate to this dynamic in one way or another (minus the bloodshed), with some people wanting to adhere to their traditions, while others begin to question them.

Between its memorable characters and the story having more on its mind than one would anticipate from this type of film, “Ready or Not” is a hide-and-seek movie that’s a true find.

Grade: B+

*You can also check out this review on SiftPop.com!