Recently I read a book called The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict. Most of the book takes place in a stately English manor which holds many dark secrets. It was a very fun read and it got me thinking about a movie I’ve always liked called Ready or Not, which came out in 2019. On the surface Ready or Not is a straightforward slasher flick about a young bride being pursued by her deranged rich in-laws on her wedding night. But this movie has a lot going on beneath the surface and is much cleverer than any Friday the 13th clone.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
The film begins with two young boys running through an ornate mansion at night. The older boy tells the younger one to hide in a closet, before coming face-to-face with a wounded and desperate man. The man begs the boy for help, but the boy calls out to his family, who arrive wearing ceremonial masks and robes. The man is shot with a speargun and dragged away, never to be seen again.
Fast forward 30 years, and a wedding is taking place. A young woman named Grace, played excellently by Samara Weaving, is marrying into the wealthy Le Domas family. Grace is a former foster child who is nervous about marrying into a wealthy family, who made their fortune from producing board games. She is worried that the family won’t accept her, despite assurances from her husband-to-be, Alex, and his older brother Daniel. What I love about the dialogue in the early scenes of the film is that much of it could initially be construed as normal pre-wedding jitters, but when you rewatch it knowing what happens later the dialogue takes on a much more sinister meaning.
And I know it’s early but I have to talk about how great Samara Weaving is. She’s the niece of the awesome Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith, Elrond, V, etc.) and acting talent must run in the family. I swear I’m not just saying this because she’s also incredibly beautiful, but she’s a great actress and her portrayal of Grace is funny, badass, and relatable, despite the outlandish situation she soon finds herself in. Her performance elevates the movie. For proof, just look at her smile in this scene before the wedding. She looks like she’s trying to convince herself that she genuinely is happy, but some part of her doesn’t quite believe it.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
After the wedding, Grace learns of a peculiar Le Domas family tradition which everyone who marries into the family must go through. An initiation, of sorts. Alex’s father Tony (played by Henry Czerny) explains that the Le Domas family’s success is due to a deal his ancestor Victor Le Domas made many years ago with a man named Mr. Le Bail. Mr. Le Bail made the Le Domas family wealthy, and in exchange the Le Domas family observes a tradition in which at midnight on their wedding day, every new member of the family draws a card from Mr. Le Bail’s puzzle box and they play the game written on the card. Most of the time it’s something harmless, like chess or Old Maid (whatever that is). The atmosphere in the room is tense as Grace draws her card: hide and seek.
If it isn’t already obvious, the Le Domas family made a deal with the devil. The internet informs me that “Le Bail” is an anagram for “Belial,” a Biblical demon who I think may just be Satan himself. But even if Belial isn’t actually Satan, he’s still bad news. The card that Grace has just drawn indicates that Mr. Le Bail demands a sacrifice. Grace is told that she has to hide and the family has until dawn to find her. She leaves to find a hiding place as, unbeknownst to her, the Le Domas family distributes hunting rifles, shotguns, crossbows, and other weapons.
Alex escapes from the rest of the family and tells Grace that they’re going to try to capture her and sacrifice her in a ritual for Mr. Le Bail before dawn. If the family fails to do this, they will all die instead. Grace is understandably upset that Alex neglected to mention this little tidbit before they got married, but Alex defends himself by saying that it doesn’t happen very often. The last time it happened, in fact, was thirty years ago, as seen in the film’s opening scene. He promises to help Grace escape.
What follows is a series of tense escapes as the family stalks Grace through the palatial house and its grounds. It’s tense and scary, but at the same time it reveals something else about the film: it is also a very dark comedy. The biggest running joke is that, since the Le Domas family doesn’t have to do it very often, they’re quite bad at hunting people down and often do more damage to themselves than the person they’re hunting. Alex’s skittish sister Emilie (who also has a problem with nose candy) accidentally kills two of the family’s maids and complains to her father about how bad she is at this.
I love this twist, it’s grimly hilarious and also makes sense, seeing as how they don’t have much practice hunting people. There’s another very funny bit where Emilie’s oafish husband Fitch doesn’t know how to use the crossbow he was given and hides in the bathroom to watch tutorial videos about Getting to Know Your Crossbow. At one point while she’s on the run, Grace encounters Alex’s brother Daniel, who has grown extremely disillusioned with his family and their ways and gives her a generous head start before he alerts the rest of his family. “The rich really are different,” he says glumly. Daniel is played by Adam Brody, and his world-weary “I’ve had enough of this shit” attitude is just perfect.
And haven’t we all suspected that super rich people are up to some weird shit behind closed doors? Super rich people must have some skeletons in the closet, right? This was pretty much the entire premise of Mike Flanagan’s recent excellent Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher, in which the titular family gets their just deserts after basically making a deal with the devil and relentlessly screwing over everyone who gets in their way. The various grisly deaths of the various awful members of the Usher family are the series’ piece de resistance.
I’ve read some criticism on the interwebs of people saying that the fact that the Le Domas family is bad at hunting people makes the film less scary. And while there is some truth to this statement, it really doesn’t bother me. Despite the family’s incompetence at hunting her, the odds are still heavily stacked against Grace. She’s heavily outnumbered, weaponless, doesn’t know the lay of the land as well as her hunters do, and the more ruthless members of the Le Domas family have no problem sacrificing her if it means they get to stay rich.
Eventually, Grace is apprehended and Alex is handcuffed to a bedpost after the family discovers him attempting to help her escape. But just before the final ritualistic blow can be struck, all the family members except for Daniel start coughing up blood. It turns out Daniel poisoned them with a non-lethal dose of hydrochloric acid and he attempts to help Grace escape, only to take a bullet in the neck for his trouble. During all this trouble, Alex escapes, the house is set on fire, and Grace is attacked by Alex’s mother Becky (played by Andie MacDowell), whom Grace beats to death using Mr. Le Bail’s puzzle box. It’s genuinely sad that Grace has to kill Becky, since Becky was really nice to her before the wedding and Grace ends up having to bash her skull in.
Unfortunately, this act is witnessed by Alex. Alex turns on Grace and helps the rest of the family subdue her and prepare her for the ritual once again. But once again, Grace escapes, and the sun rises. Having failed to sacrifice Grace by dawn, the family cowers in fear of Mr. Le Bail’s punishment (if you haven’t seen this film, I highly suggest you check it out because I am about to spoil the spectacular ending).
And then…nothing happens.
Up until this point, the viewer has spent the film wondering if Mr. Le Bail is even real, or if it’s all just a load of baloney. And for a few glorious moments, it appears that nothing will happen and everyone stands around awkwardly, confronted with the sudden possibility that all of this ritual sacrifice business has been for nothing. But then, the somewhat deranged Aunt Helene (it was her husband who met his end in the film’s opening scene) decides to kill Grace anyway, and comes at her with an axe!
Aunt Helene explodes into gory chunks midstride.
Everyone stands in shocked silence. Mr. Le Bail’s curse was real after all! The family members burst like overripe tomatoes one by one, until only Alex and Grace are left. Alex futilely begs Grace to forgive him. Grace is having none of it and calmly tells Alex that she wants a divorce. She takes off her wedding ring, throws it at him, and Alex pops like a meat balloon. As she turns to leave the house, Mr. Le Bail himself briefly appears and gives Grace a nod. Game recognizes game.
Grace stumbles out the front door of the mansion as sirens approach. Her once-beautiful wedding dress is now a tattered ruin. Her hair is a tangled mess and she’s drenched head-to-toe in gore. She emotionlessly lights a cigarette and takes a drag. A police officer asks her what happened.
“In-laws,” she replies. And the film ends.
I absolutely love this ending. It plays with the viewer’s expectations in delightful ways and it ends at exactly the right moment. It’s one of my favorite movie endings.
I understand that a film like Ready or Not is not for everybody. One could argue that as a horror movie it has too much comedy, and as a comedy it’s too dark and bloody to be very funny. I’m not saying that I think that, but I can see how other people might. And I suppose that’s a fair criticism even if I don’t agree with it. I also understand that the film’s morbid sense of humor will not be to every viewer’s taste. But I thought it was a hoot. Ready or Not is a film that delivers gore, macabre humor, and sharp social satire. The cast is great, the premise is irresistible, and it keeps the viewer guessing all the way up to the blood-soaked climax.
Can’t ask for much more than that.
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