Monsterfest 2019: READY OR NOT

In our current times, every other movie should have a plot that relates to the way the rich look upon the poor as playthings or disposable, one-use items. It is the only way we’ll learn who the true enemy is. Ready or Not on its surface is a movie about a deadly game of hide and seek, but lightly scratch the surface and we get a horror movie about what the rich are willing to do to people in order to stay that way.

Games

Ready or Not joins the pantheon of people being hunted movies alongside classics like Battle Royale, The Most Dangerous Game, The Running Man (it’s a classic!), and Hard Target. Ready or Not adds a mystical twist as it establishes that the Le Domas family, a dynasty of game makers, must capture their prey by dawn in order to complete some kind of ritual that ensures they keep their wealth.

Their prey, Samara Weaving, is newly-wed Grace. She nervously joins the family after a whirlwind romance with black sheep son, Alex. The family is less than accepting of her, but she is invited to their ceremonial game night in which she must choose a game card and the family will play the game. Win or lose, she will be a member of the family after that. Unfortunately, she chooses hide and seek, and while she hides around the Le Domas mansion, the family begins to gather weapons.

Weaving

Weaving’s performance is the sun that this movie revolves around and she secures her place in horror movie badassdom alongside Sarah Connor, Laurie Strode, and Ellen Ripley. Beginning the movie, scared and out of her depth, she quickly begins to try and outwit her hunters and turn the tables.

She threads the needle incredibly deftly between hapless victim and righteous anger at her situation. In such a heightened and ridiculous scenario, Weaving manages to imbue her character with realism and relatable reactions. She’s not just running around screaming, she’s also furious, frustrated, and trying to talk her way out of things.

Eat the Rich

The movie manages to keep its satire of the wealthy and their treatment of the poor mostly as subtext until we begin to see exactly what is at stake with the game of hide and seek. To get too deep into it would spoil the fun, but the idea that the rich need to sacrifice the poor in order to stay rich doesn’t feel too much like fiction in the modern climate.

The Le Domas family are a great set of villains in that sense. Some are born into money, some have joined the family from nothing and will do anything to keep their status. It is incredible the allure of comfort and wealth and how little things like laws, conscience, and empathy all fly out of the window when those comforts and wealth are even slightly threatened.

Ready or Not: Conclusion

Ready or Not heralds the arrival of a fantastic talent in Samara Weaving, as well as directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The pair of directors manage to keep the movie spooky and also keep us geographically sure of where we are. It would be easy to get lost in the mansion with so many characters moving around, but we never feel confused as to where people are and how close they are to finding each other.

2019 is the perfect year for this kind of narrative, and if the current trends in wealth hoarding and distribution continue, this won’t be the last movie we see with this kind of message.

Watch Ready or Not