By Vincent Abbatecola
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.
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.
The screenplay by Guy Busickand 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.
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+