Movie Reaction: Ready or Not

Formula: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil / Free Fire

The half-life of a good horror premise is short. Pretty much as soon as an idea is effective in a movie, it's reverse-engineered, broken down to its component parts, and made into a trope. That's how the brain works. Something scares us, so we try to diffuse it so we aren't scared anymore. This need to pick the genre apart is why horror comedies are so common. As soon as something can be troped, it can be laughed at. Sadly, most horror comedies are sold with a pitch that is the inversion of a single trope and don't have a full story to back it up.

Ready or Not has an awesome premise. Grace (Samara Weaving) marries into a gaming empire family and finds out that they have an odd tradition. On the night of the wedding, a magic box gives them a game to play. Most games are innocuous, like backgammon or old maid. But, if the person marrying into the family pulls the "Hide and Seek" card, then the family has until dawn to hunt down and kill that person. And wouldn't you know it, Grace pulls the "Hide and seek" card. The rest of the movie is Grace running around the estate, trying to survive.

The movie makes a smart choice early on: It recognizes the absurdity of the premise. The Le Domas family members constantly question why they are doing this or express displeasure with the situation. It offers just enough explanation and proof to explain why the family believes in this superstition. When Grace puts together the wedding gown with a shotgun look in the movie poster, she rolls her eyes at it. The characters are aware of how ridiculous it is, but the movie doesn't move into being meta. This works especially well when everything comes to a head at the end.

I also appreciate that the movie tries to have the characters reckon with this barbaric tradition. Grace's new husband, Alex (Mark O'Brien) disowned his family, and only returns for this because of his belief in the curse attached. His brother, Daniel (Adam Brody), is an alcoholic, trying to drink away his memories of the last hunt. The children think of it as a game. The older generation (Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell, Nicky Guadagni) looks at it as an honored tradition. The movie actually tries to build real people, which is more work than most movies like this would put in.

The actors are all game for anything. Samara Weaving is easy to root for and has the right mix of disbelief of and disdain for the situation. Mark O'Brien has one of those faces that allows him to either look handsome or like a creep depended on the situation. Adam Brody's sarcasm is well calibrated for the tone of the movie. Elyse Leveque, another Le Domas sibling, really goes after her role, overwhelmed immediately and throughout. Andie MacDowell even manages to make this all seem almost normal.

I just wish this was plotted a little tighter. This takes place in a large house on a large estate. It has secret doors and a maze of passages. Characters have a variety of weapons and varying levels of competence with them. Allegiances shift depending on guilt and belief in the curse. There's so much room for this to stage big set pieces and pay off setups from earlier in the movie. This movie has all the ingredients to be one of my favorite movies, but it plays like either the writers or directors ran out of time to maximize its potential. I kept thinking that what I was watching should be even more insane.

Overall, there are worse criticisms to have than "I liked what it was doing but I wanted it to do more". Killer premise. Willing cast. A decently thought out story. Several solid jokes. This is exactly what I hoped for when I heard about this movie. I guess I should caution people that it does get rather violent, but, I mean, duh.

One Last Thought: This is a Fox Searchlight movie. I don't have the time to explain why that's weird if you don't already know. It is though. This movie had no award potential at any phase of development. It doesn't even have an Oscar pedigree cast. I'm not sure what this movie is doing as a Fox Searchlight release, but I like that it is one.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend