The Rich are Different: a review of Ready or Not!
Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Produced by: Tripp Vinson; James Vanderbilt; Willem Sherak & Bradley J. Fischer
Written by: Guy Busick; R. Christopher Murphy
Starring: Samara Weaving; Adam Brody; Mark O’Brien; Henry Czerny; Andie MacDowell
This is a smart, dark, funny movie that combines the best elements of Get Out and Ash Vs. The Evil Dead. There’s a fair old bit of gore and splatter, there’s a good amount of suspense and horror, and it’s also very funny.
Grace (well played by Australian actor Samara Weaving) has married Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien), and upon her insistence, she meets his reclusive family, and they marry at the estate. The Le Domas’ are loaded, the result of a successful game board company they own. We already know that there is something weird about this family because of the opening sequence, what turns out to be a flashback to thirty years prior, when young Alex and his brother witness just-married-into-the family Uncle Charlie get murdered in the conservatory. (It wasn’t Colonel Mustard and he didn’t use a tire iron, but that’s not important right now).
Aunt Helene, widow of the unfortunate Charlie, has been giving Grace death glares throughout the wedding ceremony and generally acts like the sort of little old lady who carries parts of dismembered children around in her purse. She shows up in the honeymoon suite through a secret passage to remind Alex that they have to play the Game at midnight. “Oh, yeah, that.” Alex explains to his bride that whenever someone gets married, they meet in the Game Room at midnight, and the new family inductee draws a card. The card has a game name on it, and they play that game until dawn. Clue, Monopoly, whatever. Grace obviously thinks this is a shit way to spend a wedding night, but hey, the rich are different. In-laws. Sigh.
But there’s a bugger factor, of course. About once every 30 years or so, the newest member of the family picks the game of “Hide and Seek.” The rules are simple. The newlywed must hide somewhere in the mansion until dawn. The rest of her new family pick up cross bows, ulferhts, bec de Corbins and halyards and go looking for her. If they find her before dawn, they kill her. If they don’t find her before dawn, the entire family is destroyed. It’s the curse, you see.
Oh yeah, that. The family patriarch, Victor—of course Victor—is trying to set up a toy company. He meets Le Bail, who has an offer for him: he’ll help him establish his game board company and become monstrously successful. In return, he just has to agree to a curse on his family because that’s the sort of thing people named Le Bail live for. Victor, not being genre-savvy, agrees, and the rest is history.
And history, the Le Domas believe, is what they will be if they don’t kill Grace by dawn. And thus, the stage is set. Grace is resourceful, and the rest of the family haven’t exactly trained for this, even if the cost of failure is utterly horrific. Most of them haven’t reached the “Use the pointy end” in their weapons training. And family lore not withstanding, most of them aren’t emotionally well-equipped for murder. In fact, the only ones really any good at it are family patriarch Tony (Henry Czerny), creepy Helene, and for some reason, the family butler/chauffeur, Stevens (John Ralston) who isn’t related but just likes killing things. Oh, yeah, and the children. The children love to murder. But among the family overall, there’s a difference of opinion as to whether the curse is even real.
So does Grace survive until dawn, and if so, does the family die? Well, as it happens there’s a funny story there…
And yeah, it’s worth watching to find out what that is.
Sigh. In-laws.