Meeting your in-laws right before your wedding can be a stressful experience. Will they accept you as part of their family or will things start off on the wrong foot? In the case of Grace (Samara Weaving; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), assimilation is a dangerous task. She is marrying into the Le Domas family, a wealthy lineage that made their fortune on selling board games and playing cards. She learns from her fiancé about a tradition that anyone joining the family needs to draw a card at midnight and play whatever game they draw. Grace picks hide and seek and runs off to find a spot. Unbeknownst to her, she has drawn the wrong card. The family grabs antique weaponry for a life or death game. They believe that their ancestor made a deal with a mysterious man that has granted them their extreme wealth and that they will lose everything, including their lives, if they don’t kill Grace before sunrise.
Fittingly, Ready or Not has a playful tone. When characters are killed, it is often in slapstick fashion. Some family members use crossbows to hunt Grace and the limitations of the weapons and the family’s inability to properly use them leads to accidental deaths of their house staff. The deaths, while bloody, are comedic as characters argue with each other instead of reacting to a nanny getting half her head blown off. Melanie Scrofano (Pure Pwnage) is hilarious as Grace’s incompetent, drug-addicted sister-in-law. She alternates between cocaine and sedatives as she tries to get in the right state of mind to find and kill Grace, but fumbles every opportunity. Her earnest frustration with herself keeps the situations light and distracts from the gruesome deaths.
The film takes place in a gargantuan, Gothic style mansion that is the perfect environment for hide and seek. There are several floors, dozens of rooms, secret “servant hallways”, and a large surrounding estate. The castle-like structure is replete with hiding spots, but also unfamiliar to Grace as she opens doors without knowing where they lead. It provides ample tension since a gun-toting in-law may be just around the corner, but also relieves that same tension when the family stops to strategize only for Grace to mistakenly walk right in front of them.
As the unfortunate player, Weaving is sympathetic. Her horror and confusion as she witnesses the first accidental kill and realizes the stakes of her situation are relatable, but it is her turn from prey to predator that makes the film. Weaving, who looks like she could be Margot Robbie’s younger sister, quickly swaps her high heels for sneakers and tears her long wedding dress so she can effectively creep around the house. She morphs from the victim to a threat to her attackers as she stops hiding and starts hunting. There could be a metaphor here about the behavior of the ultra-rich and the horrific lengths they are willing to go to preserve their status, but directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (V/H/S) have little interest in deeper meanings. Instead, Ready or Not is a fun excuse for kill scenes that are as bloody as they are playful.
3/5 stars.