Ready or Not - 2019
Updated: Sep 22, 2022
This just might have been the most fun I had all year in cinema. What a macabre delight! Was Ready or Not the 11th BEST film of 2019? Probably not. But it was oh so much better than many are recognizing. For one thing, I'm not sure I've ever seen a film which so deftly blends such dark and violent themes with downright laugh out loud moments. The laughs are real and earned, but it is also genuinely nerve wracking in moments. In this way, it manages to avoid full on parody.
The plot of the film is simple enough: Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Girl agrees to marry boy. On their wedding night, girl meets boy's enormously wealthy family, whose gaming empire has given them this massive gothic mansion. Girl's new in-laws force her to play a game, in a family tradition dating back decades. Girl has the misfortune of drawing "Hide and Seek," a hunt and find game with a twist. This one is...to the death. Girl is victim of one badly misjudged calculation on the part of the family - this unassuming, weak damsel is actually a total badass. Let the bloody games ensue!
And so they do. There is violence and tension aplenty. There are also remarkably vapid rich characters who are delightfully skewered, both intellectually and physically. Perhaps Ready or Not's take on class warfare is a little blunt, but its characters inspire such glee that it's easily forgiven. There is the cokehead sister who can't seem to stop accidentally killing the help. The spectral Aunt Helene who went through this ordeal herself 30 years prior, and now will put the family's future inheritance above all else. The husband Fitch, who opts for a crossbow, and then lays it across his lap on the toilet while he catches up on the latest online trends. Even the new husband is a delightful mix of doe-eyed innocence and deeper waters beneath the surface.
Yet this film wouldn't be even close to as effective as it is were it not for its truly astonishing conclusion. For all of the darkness and violence Ready or Not contains, it is always of an earthly nature. Real battles with real flesh and blood creatures (soulless as the rich are portrayed to be), using weapons ranging from multiple centuries. All the enemies in this tale are tangible, or so we think. Then, the finale brings the generous benefactor from the family's ancient history back into play and with him the question of a shocking supernatural twist. But, that's all you'll get out of me. You'll have to behold it for yourself. Are you ready...or not?
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