Ready or Not 🏹

Happy Monday! I hope you had a fabulous weekend.

Today’s movie is the black comedy horror Ready or Not—streaming on HBO Max. The film, which was one of my first-ever recommendations for this newsletter, was released in 2019 as the first horror movie released under the Disney umbrella since *checks notes* Frankenweenie. Here’s the trailer.

⏱ 30-second cut: Diabolically funny, violent and bloody, Ready or Not is a takedown of wealthy elites who’d rather die before losing their fortunes. And like Get Outand You’re Next before it, it’s so satisfying to watch—as diabolical as that is. However, it’s not sadistic. The movie is careful to spell out why the Le Domas family—who made their riches through a gaming “dominion” and maybe something darker—deserves what’s coming to them.

And while the sharp script filled with zingers and hilariously incompetent villains and smart direction certainly help, it’s Samara Weaving‘s funny, raw, and surprisingly emotional performance that elevates the movie past its genre trappings. Still, the movie uses those genre trappings to great success. Now, does anyone know how to use a crossbow?

📺 Stream on HBO Max. Available to buy on Prime Video and Apple TV.

Like the Oscar-winning Get Out and the criminally underrated You’re Next, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Ready or Not is buoyed by the fact that it’s diabolically entertaining to watch rich people suffer—especially because of their own greed.

The movie isn’t sadistic by any measure—sure it’s bloody, violent and devilishly comedic. But the Le Domas family—who are rich off of the gaming “dominion” as estranged son Alex (Mark O’Brien) puts it—deserves everything they’re about to get. But we’ll get to that.

Alex is back at the family’s sprawling estate to marry the love of his life, Grace (Samara Weaving). And while he’s always been ashamed of his oddball family, he’s intent on giving Grace—a foster child—the family she’s never had. That’s really all she wants, even when Alex and his alcoholic brother Daniel (a better-than-ever Adam Brody) jokingly chide her for being after their fortune—she’s not.

Oh, and I’m afraid that Dora has been crushed, sir, by the dumbwaiter.

— Stevens (John Ralston)

After a beautiful ceremony, the Le Domas patriarch Tony (Henry Czerny) explains to Grace that to complete her initiation into the family she needs to play a simple game at the stroke of midnight. Daniel’s wife Charity (Elyse Levesque) had to play chess and Emilie Le Domas’ (Melanie Scrofano) husband Fitch (Kristian Bruun) had to play Old Maid.

However, when it’s revealed through an elaborate puzzle box that Grace has to play hide-and-seek the mood of the room darkens and Alex is visibly uncomfortable. That’s because while Grace roams the dark passages of the victorian mansion looking for a hiding place, each member of the family is being armed with weapons from the family’s history and are tasked with tracking her down and killing her before dawn or else they’ll lose their fortune—and perhaps even more.

From there, Ready or Not turns into a delightfully cruel game of hide and seek as the family bumbles their way through every nook and cranny of the house looking for Grace. Unfortunately for them, the coked-out Emilie seems better at accidentally killing the help than finding Grace, Daniel is drunkenly uninterested, and Fitch has to watch a YouTube video to even figure out how to use his crossbow.

All the while, Grace is sad, pissed-off, and in pure disbelief at her situation. And watching Samara Weaving simply say “fuck” is one of the movie’s many delights—the movie will be having you say the same thing too. Her performance keeps us grounded even as the premise gets more twisted and the ridiculousness of the rest of the characters is cranked up.

The real beauty of Ready or Not is in its structure. The Le Domas family is turned up to campy levels of incompetence as they fear the one thing worse than death—losing their money. It’s hilarious to watch their desperation as Grace slips from their grasp time and time again—it’s almost slapstick. On the other hand, Grace’s journey is darker and planted in horror—think of it as an inverted slasher. Both parts together make for a pitch-black comedy that his lean, mean and ready to take you for a ride.

And remember when I mentioned that the family deserves everything coming at them? Well, that’s what makes Ready or Not so satisfying. It’s a skewering—both literally and figuratively—of the greediness of the 1% at the hands of a person that came from nothing—and all the while dressed in a dirty and tattered wedding dress and old high tops. If that’s not American, then I don’t know what is.

🍷 Pair it with The Guest for a perfect black comedy horror.

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Enjoy your week! Speak up. People are listening.

See you next week —
Karl (@karl_delo)

📽 P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.

🍅 I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find all my reviews here.