August is what I’d like to
call a “wild card” month for movies. There are certain times of the year where
you can expect certain types of film (big budget blockbusters in the summer,
prestigious Oscar-bait films in winter etc.), but then there are times where it’s
more of a crapshoot. January is typically a month-long dry spell since it’s
when studios dump out all the garbage they have no faith in, but August is when
they release all the films they have no idea what to do with, or they know would
get swallowed up by bigger competitors. Ready or Not is one of those
films that would’ve been buried alive if released on any other date, but here
gets a fighting chance to at least attain cult status.
Our story follows Grace
(Samara Weaving) on her wedding day. She’s just gotten hitched to her boyfriend
Alex (Mark O’Brien), the wealthy heir to a gaming company, although Alex has
distanced himself from his stuffy old money family up until recently. The
family has an ongoing tradition: whenever a new member enters the fold, they
have to play a randomly selected game. The game appointed to Grace: hide and
seek. But there’s a twist. The rest of the family will be hunting her down,
brandishing guns, axes and crossbows, and if they find her, they’ll sacrifice
her as part of a ritual that has supposedly kept their wealth and power running.
With Alex’s help, Grace tries to survive until dawn and make her escape.
Ready or Not is a
darkly comedic satire of the 1% that isn’t particularly insightful or witty in
its takedowns, but makes up for it in the gore department. The premise is a
gleefully gory twist on the man hunting man tale a la The Most Dangerous
Game or The Purge, but what tips it into comedic territory is how
incompetent the hunters are. But the biggest insight this movie has is that for
all of their talk of superiority, tradition and duty, these blue-blooded freaks
have no idea what the hell they’re doing. Their big tradition only requires
that the newlywed plays a game, but the blushing bride had the misfortune of
picking the only one where her life was on the line, something neither the
family or groom were anticipating or looking forward to.
Aside from being wildly
unprepared, the family spends the majority of their time lamenting that they
have to use antique weapons and arguing over whether using security cameras is
cheating. It takes a few maids accidentally getting shot or crushed before
anyone gets the hang of it. That and the mansion being a massive labyrinth with
a network of hidden corridors gives Grace ample time to avoid their gaze and
make decisions to give her an advantage like cutting up her dress so she can
move faster. Some have criticized the
trailers for supposedly giving away the best kills, but this movie uses fake
blood the same way Gallagher uses watermelons. The film combines the absurdity
of Clue with the social commentary of The Purge and the fatal
mind games of You’re Next.
The cast does surprisingly
well given that most of them are more caricature than character. The hunting party
consists mostly of the types of character tropes you think of when you think of
snooty rich people (the strong-jawed patriarch, the shrewd aunt, the underachieving
washup, the ditz etc.), but there are moments where they rise above their
template, most notably Adam Brody as Alex’s depressed alcoholic brother who takes
no joy in the game but feels duty-bound to participate. Of course, the show
absolutely belongs to Samara Weaving, who between this, The Babysitter and
Ash vs. Evil Dead has become an up and coming scream queen to look out for.
At one moment she catches a glimpse of herself in her tattered wedding dress,
covered in blood, armed with an old fashioned hunting rifle and an ammo sash,
and for a minute it seems like she’s admiring this badass makeover, only to
lament the absurd situation that put her in this getup in the first place.
Bottom line, Ready or Not
may not be the most original horror movie out there but its punk-rock attitude
and sardonic absurdity makes it stand out. If you’re one of those people who
were thrown in a tizzy about The Hunt getting pulled in the aftermath of
a series of mass shootings, then its eat-the-rich attitude probably won’t be
your flavor of gory catharsis. For the rest of you, this’ll be something to
look forward to, especially in the dog days of August.
7/10
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