Ready or Not - Here Comes a Review
I don’t like horror films. I don’t see the appeal of being afraid intentionally as a form of entertainment. I get that other people enjoy these things, but it is not my cup of tea. But a couple days ago, I saw a review for a new film called “Ready or Not” and was intrigued. It was described as a horror-comedy, and based on the review, I figured I could handle the horror aspects of it. Last night I watched it and honestly, I kinda loved it.
First off, this movie is not horror. It is a black comedy with some horror elements. The plot is basically The Most Dangerous Game meets Doctor Faust. A family made a deal with a devil several generations ago, and developed their wealth based on board games. The catch is that every new member of the family has to play a game to be initiated into the family on their wedding night. And if the newbie draws the “Hide and Seek” card, it falls into The Most Dangerous Game territory, i.e. the family hunts you down and ritually sacrifices you. In this case it’s Grace, the new bride and our heroine for the film.
Which… sounds like horror, but it’s actually a comedy. Not quite to the level of satire, but definitely a comedy. There is very little sense of dread, or terror involved in the film. Maybe it’s because I’m familiar with both The Most Dangerous Game and Doctor Faust and from the reviews went into the movie by and large knowing how it would end, but I don’t think so. The movie didn’t use standard techniques for developing terror in a film, namely music/the background sounds, and things like jump scares. It does use a lot of horror tropes though, and the film is grounded in that genre.
In many ways, the movie is a comedy about the callousness and just idiocy of rich people, set in a horror backdrop. These people are not rich through skill or hard work or even luck – they cheated their way to success. And they use the lives of the less well-off to stay that way. Grace for example is clearly not from a rich background. During the hunt they keep accidentally killing the maids, and are really only concerned that now, they don’t have maids to clean up the blood anymore. And of course, they are just truly inept at basically everything. Possibly even beyond Bertie Wooster levels of incompetence. These people are monsters, but they are also incompetent monsters.
This movie is not subtle. In the slightest. Like even a little. For example, the progenitor of the whole gaming family dynasty’s first name is Victor. There is a point where the entire family actually chants, “Hail Satan.” And if this wasn’t 2019, I’m sure the film would have made sure Grace was not just a bride on her wedding night, but a virgin. Chuck Taylor’s sneakers spent a solid amount of money to get the product placement so front and center. There is also a lot of swearing and a lot of blood.
The acting MVP for this movie is for Adam Brody. Yes, Samara Weaving (the actress who plays Grace) is a pair of giant, expressive eyes and we all feel for her as she fights against the evil 1%-ers. But it was Adam Brody’s Daniel that hit me the most, and who I wanted to be on screen at all times. Beyond the world-weary, alcoholic cynicism, Daniel is a person who believed in a system (his rich family’s), realized its horror, and was broken by it. I’d probably be down for watching this film remade from his perspective, and with his backstory.
Do we need your backstory movie? No. Do I want it anyways? Yes.
It’s hard to explain why I really, really liked this movie, and what made it so hilarious to me. Honestly, the more I try to explain it, the more I feel like I might be slightly deranged for finding it so funny and delightful.
Part of it is the juxtaposition of how the humor was used to undercut the standard horror tropes. But I think at its core, Ready or Not’s appeal is based in escapism and its simplicity. A number of reviews I’ve read commented that the film missed hitting social commentary. But I don’t think it was trying to do that in the first place. The movie is delightful partially because the bad guys are entitled rich monsters. It’s like rooting against the Russians in a Cold War-era action film. Or against Nazis. It’s not just fun to root against them and watch them lose, its cathartic because you’re rooting against a cartoonish version of a real-world villain.
Most of the time complex storytelling with complicated and fully realized characters and ambiguity on both sides of a situation is what makes a film great. But sometimes, we just want to watch the Road Runner beat Wile E. Coyote, or the mustache-twirling Snidely Whiplash get his just desserts. And while there are goodness knows how many terrible films there are based on cartoons, Ready or Not isn’t. It takes horror and classic literature tropes and creates a cartoon-logic comedy around them. The result is dark, but incredibly funny movie that, if you are ok with the fairly gratuitous swearing and gore, is extremely entertaining and worth watching.
