Ready or Not is about Le Domas’ family’s strange tradition of playing a game after every wedding. Le Domas family built its wealth on games so it isn’t so weird, right? Wrong! Why do they keep this tradition going? The newest addition to the family, Grace, the bride of an estranged son of the family, is happy to play if it makes the family accept her.
If the premise of Ready or Not intrigues you, may I suggest that you see You’re Next instead. This film fails to really explore its furthest corners with the kookiness of its premise and never really lets loose in an utterly satisfying way. It always seems to just stop short. In contrast to films like You’re Next, Suspiria and Hereditary, Ready or Not shows that it isn’t enough to combine an outlandish premise, gore and a weird family conspiracy because the mashup will not automatically work. This movie isn’t a bad movie, but it isn’t as great as it potentially could have been. You can wait until it is available for home viewing to watch it.
Ready or Not does not seem to have a strong handle on its characters. On one hand, Grace is irreverent and charming, but is described by her husband as good. Why? Intellectually I understand that she is supposed to be a moral counterpoint to the family, but it doesn’t really work. Show me. Don’t tell me. Also just being an orphan doesn’t mean that she’ll be able to rise to the challenge, but the film seemed to want to have it both ways—make her credibly and potentially appear like a victim and could turn the tables on the family. Either the dialogue needs a throw away line that explains why she is able to cope with such an outlandish situation, or we need more character development to understand plausibly how she could level up. For this story, I think the latter would have worked better because then there is room for her to do something stupid without being annoyed at her. While I rooted for her and thought that Samara Weaving, who may be best known for costarring in Mayhem with The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun, did the best that she could do for such an underwritten character, it was disappointing that her character never really had one awesome, bring down the house moment of effective brutality. The closest that she gets is when she engages in some impromptu alterations to more effectively deal with the challenges of her environment. Think 1980s Madonna meets Rambo.
Ready or Not also wimps out by confining its body count to the extras with accidental, not intentional, homicides. They were going for funny, but it didn’t work. Not a soul laughed in my theater and considering how popular Once Upon A Time in…Hollywood is, I don’t think anyone was outraged by the violence, just underwhelmed. We aren’t invested in these characters’ deaths so either they should have been given more screen time earlier, or characters that matter needed to die earlier than the denouement. If you’re wondering what happened to all the Robert Palmer girls, this movie is for you. There is a brief section in the middle of the movie involving mostly Grace by herself when the violence seems consequential and real. It is the strongest and most unexpected, evocative part of the film then it goes back to flat, standard violence.
Aunt Helene should have been the main antagonist in Ready or Not, not another random character, the butler. God, please spare us from another madman who enjoys classical music. I am so tired of that trope. Nicky Guadagni is the only actor who gets an opportunity to really embrace the premise, but then is not given much to do other than chide her family for their lack of zeal. The rest of the family feel like stereotypes about rich people, not rich people with demented beliefs. Having a vaguely abusive, shouty patriarch, a cokehead and a drunk could belong in any movie instead of specifically reacting to the strangeness of this family dynamic. I didn’t really buy them as an actual family. How did the patriarch end up with Andie MacDowell’s character? I bought that she was used to dealing with his excesses, but Henry Czerny was a complete dud. Adam Brody was probably the best actor in the cast because he brings a level of emotionally credible pathos to the situation missing in the other characters. There are allusions to his wife’s past and why she would sign up for this freak show, but it goes nowhere, which was disappointing. Her character had a lot of potential to go blood thirsty, but the opportunity just evaporates. Side note: Elyse Levesque reminds me of Courtney Ford, who plays Nora Darhk in the CW’s Arrowverse and Lucifer’s baby mama in Supernatural. For a movie about an unhinged, deeply invested in homicide family completely comfortable with blood, they aren’t terribly into it.
The funniest part of Ready or Not belongs to Kristian Bruun who plays Fitch Bradley, and he really does not get enough to do except be an amusing, brief diversion. He reacts like a normal person would in the situation if he signed up for it, but wasn’t completely prepared for the day when the bill was due. I kept waiting for him to either step it up in terms of participation or completely unravel, which happens, but in an understated way. Bruun really tries, and I bet there was some good stuff on the cutting room floor, but the movie misses another opportunity to take its film to the next level with that character.
In the end, Ready or Not’s denouement feels anti-climactic even as it explicitly confirms all our suspicions about the family’s motivations and their sincerely held beliefs. It waits too long to go there, and when it finally goes all out, the way that it plays out is disappointing. Ari Aster and Luca Guadagnino do not get enough credit for effectively pacing their horror films then ending on an explosive note that leaves you haunted for days. In contrast, this film seems cheap and as if it is going through the motions when trying to do something similar, but not earning it by failing to build up to it throughout the film. There really isn’t much of a mystery or a revelation because from the beginning of the movie, we’ve suspected exactly what would happen. The flashback may have helped orient viewers at the beginning, but it sucks the suspense from the narrative and deflates any real tension at the end. Then the actual depiction feels lame. Is that all there is?
Ready or Not was entertaining and a’ight, but it was disappointing because of its flat delivery and two-dimensional characters. Except for a few sequences in the middle, the movie failed to really evoke any real scares. Also to fail to tease out any deeper real life meaning like The Purge franchise seems like a complete waste considering that a family of rich people is already being depicted in the worst possible light. Wah wah.