Ready or Not
Came out; 2019
Time; 1 hours 35 Minutes
Watched: Hulu
Rated: R for violence, bloody images, language throughout and some drug use
IMDB Rating; 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomato Meter 89%
Popcorn Meter 78%
Caution; Spoiler Alert
Staring;
Samara Weaving as Grace
Adam Brody as Daniel
Mark O'Brien as Alex
Henry Czerny as Tony
Andie MacDowell as Becky
Melanie Scrofano as Emilie
Kristian Bruun as Fitch
Elyse Levesque as Charity
Nicky Guadagni as Aunt Helene
John Ralston as Stevens
Story Line;
All of us have made certain efforts so our in-laws will like us, but Grace is going to have to give it her all if she wants to fit in with her brand new husband's wealthy dynasty, who require her to follow a brutal tradition: for the bride to try to survive her wedding night while the rest of them hunt her down. The class struggle stuff hits the proverbial fan in this extremely black satire starring a brilliant Samara Weaving and including an uncommonly perverse Andie MacDowell
Thoughts:
This was a movie we caught on TV one day. One that we had completely missed when it came out. This is a super fun horror comedy movie!
Everything starts off normal, the wedding at the families large home. They keep talking about “What will you do if she pulls that card”. There is no context until later
At midnight, everything is explained. Grace pulls “Hide & Seek” thinking it's a joke she goes out to hide and quickly learns that it's anything but a joke.
This movie is well made, the acting is great and it's a fun movie to watch.
CAUTION; Spoiler Alert
Young
brothers Alex (Mark O'Brien) and Daniel Le Domas (Adam Brody) witness
the killing of a man on the night of his wedding to their Aunt Helene
(Nicky Guadagni). Daniel is confronted in his family's mansion by
Charles (Andrew Anthony), a wounded man who begs him for help.
Instead, Daniel alerts his family, who arrive in ceremonial masks and
robes. Despite his bride Helene's pleas, Charles is shot with a
spear-gun and dragged away into a locked room. The family tells
Daniel that they are proud of him.
Thirty
years later, Alex has returned home to marry his fiance, Grace
(Samara Weaving), a former foster child eager to finally have a
family. Alex is the estranged son of the owners of the successful Le
Domas Family Games company. Grace is nervous as Alex comes from a
rich family. She believes that Alex's dad hates her, and his brother
Daniel keeps hitting on her. Just before the wedding Alex gets really
serious and asks Grace if she wants to run away and just elope. Grace
insists that she is committed and wants to know the family of the man
she loves.
On their wedding night, Alex tells her that, as
tradition, every outside addition to the family must play a game. The
game starts at midnight. Grace doesn't have to win but she has to
participate. Grace has to draw a random card, and the game they have
to play will be written there.
The family includes Alex, his
alcoholic brother, Daniel, and drug-addicted sister, Emilie (Melanie
Scrofano); their father, Tony (Henry Czerny) and mother, Becky (Andie
MacDowell), Daniel's snobbish wife, Charity (Elyse Levesque),
Emilie's whiny husband, Fitch (Kristian Bruun), and the somber
Helene, their aunt. Emilie has 2 kids Georgie and Gabe (Ethan
Tavares). Becky is thankful that Grace brought Alex back into the
family fold.
It is explained that their ancestor, Victor Le
Domas, used to run a printing press. He made a deal with a man named
Le Bail whom he met on a passenger ship. Tony says that a power
watches over the family and its wealth. Today, Tony owns 4
professional sports team and a sprawling gaming empire.
Le
Bail was a collector of exotic antiquities which he sold to
Americans. Le Bail and Le Domas shared a passion for the game of
chance. Le Bail shared a mysterious box to Le Domas and asked him to
solve its puzzle before morning, which Le Domas did. Le Bail says
that he would build the Le Domas fortune in exchange for the Le
Domases observing this tradition. Now, every time a new person joins
the family, a blank card is inserted into the box and Le Bail picks
which game to play. Grace draws a card labeled "Hide and Seek."
Unaware of the truth, she hides while the Le Domases arm themselves
with antique weapons to hunt her down.
The 3 maids of the
house are Clara (Hanneke Talbot), Tina (Celine Tsai) and Dora
(Daniela Barbosa).
When Grace witnesses Emilie accidentally
killing Clara believing it to be her, Alex confesses that the "hide
and seek" card is the only game that requires the family to kill
the recipient. They believe that if Grace survives until dawn, the
entire family will die, as per the agreement with Le Bail. He kept
the truth from Grace, knowing she would leave him if she knew. The
last time someone pulled that card was thirty years ago when Helene's
husband Charles, who was then found and murdered.
Shocked,
scared, and angry, Grace becomes determined to survive. She is
discovered by Daniel, who is disillusioned with the bloody family
tradition and gives her a head start. To prevent his family tracking
Grace, Alex destroys the security monitors to allow Grace to escape.
Emilie accidentally kills Tina in the chaos. Grace's escape is
blocked by the family butler, Stevens. She, in turn, splatters the
hot tea he was preparing on his face and runs away. Daniel and Tony
restrain Alex after he attacks the latter. Grace is seen by Dora who
accidentally crushes herself in a dumbwaiter while yelling for the
family. Grace escapes the mansion and hides in the barn, only to be
shot in the hand by Emilie's young son, Georgie (Liam McDonald).
Furious, she knocks Georgie out but accidentally falls into a pit
filled with the decaying corpses of the previous sacrifices,
including that of Charles.
She climbs out, though not without
more wounds, and is pursued by the butler, Stevens (John Ralston).
She escapes in his car. But the car is quickly reported stolen and
shut down. Stevens catches up and tranquilizes her. While being
driven back, Grace awakens and attacks Stevens, causing the car to
crash.
As he is driving Grace back to the house, she awakens
and attacks Stevens, causing the car to crash and kill him. Near the
crash, Daniel captures Grace after realizing that his father is
secretly watching. The Le Domases prepare to complete the ritual
sacrifice. Grace is restrained on the symbol of a pentagon as the
family prepares to sacrifice her. They drink from a ceremonial cup
and start to vomit blood. Daniel releases Grace, revealing he
non-lethally poisoned its contents.
Charity, however, shoots
Daniel in the throat, causing him to bleed to death. Grace thanks
Daniel for helping her after pistol-whipping Charity and bludgeoning
Tony with an oil lamp, inadvertently starting a fire.
Becky
attacks Grace. Having had enough, Grace snaps and bludgeons Becky to
death with Le Bail's wooden game box. Alex finds Daniel's body before
finding Grace and his mother. Realizing that Grace no longer trusts
him and will not be with him after all this, Alex subdues her. The
group hails Satan as Alex prepares to stab her.
At the last
moment, Grace twists, taking the stab to her shoulder and freeing
herself. Dawn breaks, but when nothing happens, the family believes
their tradition was a lie, and all of this was for nothing. Despite
Grace winning the game, Helene attempts to attack her, but explodes
mid-stride as a result of the curse. The rest of the family explodes,
leaving only Alex, who tries to convince Grace to forgive him. She
refuses and tosses her ring back, declaring she wants a divorce; Alex
then succumbs to the curse and explodes. Le Bail briefly shows
himself to Grace and nods in approval.
As the police arrive,
Grace sits on the patio steps, exhausted and traumatized, her wedding
dress turned red from blood, and smokes a cigarette. Upon being asked
what has happened, she replies, "In-laws."
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Came out; 2026
Time; 1 hours 48 Minutes
Watched: Theater
Rated: R for strong bloody violence, gore, pervasive language and brief drug use
IMDB Rating; 7/10
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomato Meter 75%
Popcorn Meter 90%
Caution; Spoiler Alert
Staring;
Samara Weaving as Grace
Kathryn Newton as Faith
Elijah Wood as The Lawyer
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Ursula Danforth
Shawn Hatosy as Titus Danforth
David Cronenberg as Chester Danforth
Dan Beirne as Kip Danforth
Olivia Cheng as Wan Chen Xing
Antony Hall as Wan Chend Fu
Varun Saranga as Madhu Rajan
Nadeem Umar-Khitab as Viraj Rajan
Masa Lizdek as Martina Rajan
Nestor Carbonell as Ignacio El Caido
Maia Jae as Francesca El Caido
Juan Pablo Romero as Felipe El Caido
Kevin Durand as Bill Wilkinson
Story Line;
After surviving one deadly game, Grace and her sister Faith must now outrun four rival families competing for a powerful throne - winner takes all.
Thoughts:
Holy Crap is this a good sequel!
Not only is it just the right length, it starts where the first movie left off, literally at the steps with rescue showing up
This is an extremely well put together sequel. Everything is explained as it goes along and you're never left wondering.
CAUTION; Spoiler Alert
Seconds after surviving the Le Domas' attempted sacrificial ritual, Grace MacCaullay collapses outside the property and is taken to a hospital. She reunites with her sister Faith, who she abandoned several years prior.
Meanwhile, the Council, an order of six elite families—the Danforths, the Wans, the Rajans, the El Caidos, the Wilkinsons, and the Le Domas—are notified of the latters' demises and promptly reunite at the Danforth complex for another game. The head members include siblings Ursula and Titus Danforth, Wan Chen Xing, Viraj Rajan, Ignacio El Caido, and Bill Wilkinson.
Prior to their arrival, Ursula and Titus kill their elderly father Chester, the current "High Seat" of the Council, so they can enter the game themselves. Bill attempts to murder Grace at the hospital, but he and the Wilkinsons explode into blood due to failing to wait for the game's ignition. Moments later, Grace and Faith are kidnapped and brought to the complex. They awaken tied and gagged while Le Bail's representative, the "Lawyer", explains their new situation: due to Grace's unplanned victory at the Le Domas' hide-and-seek game, the four remaining families must kill her before dawn to acquire the "High Seat" and a ring with seemingly infinite worldwide power will be provided to the winner. Grace initially refuses to participate, but agrees when Faith's life is put at stake. The eldest members sign a blood oath and the game begins.
Grace and Faith are handcuffed together and put on a golf course, where they run away from oncoming danger and flee around the property. After evading numerous life-threatening scenarios, the sisters manage to kill Viraj using an industrial washing machine. They are confronted by Chen Xing, who reveals an open bypass in the game's rules: if Grace marries one of the elite's family members, the game would immediately cease, granting her husband the High Seat and she would be allowed to live. Ignacio interrupts them, and Chen Xing unintentionally plunges a katana into his throat, killing him. Due to a now-broken game rule, the Wans explode into blood; Faith criticizes Grace's refusal of the opportunity, yet they continue towards the main gate.
Viraj's sister-in-law Martina, forced to play due to her husband Madhu's surrender of family head status and assets after Viraj's death, drives off from the hunt and destroys the gate in the process. Ursula nearly kills Grace, but the sisters flee. Grace lambasts Faith's clumsiness and wishes they had never reunited, leading a heartbroken Faith to leave her alone. Titus attacks Faith and kidnaps her while Ignacio's daughter Francesca targets Grace, though she eventually acquires a shotgun and kills her. Through an intercom, Titus taunts Grace and forces her to come to the main lounge where Faith is held captive.
Grace storms into the lounge where the surviving families quickly corner. Using Chen Xing's aforementioned law circumvent, Grace agrees to marry Titus to ensure her and Faith's safety, effectively handing over the High Seat to the Danforths and concluding the game. Before the wedding, Ursula privately warns Grace about Titus' psychopathy and fears what could transpire under his order. Titus overhears the conversation and kills Ursula, mentioning there is no rule against killing family members. At an underground altar, the marriage ensues to a crowd of Satanic cult members as well as the remaining families, despite her tearful reluctance.
After they sign their intertwined familial blood pacts, Grace stabs Titus with a fountain pen, throwing his own statement of there being no rule against killing family members back at him, and kicks him into an open circular pit full of decompsed bodies, killing him. Now housing ownership of the High Seat, Grace announces her removal from the organization and throws the ring into the pit. With the rules now proclaiming that whomever wears the ring first at dawn obtains the High Seat, the remaining Danforth, Rajan, and El Caido relatives jump into it for a chance at acquisition, murdering each other as they do; no one succeeds before dawn and the entire Council, minus the Lawyer, erupts into a torrential blood explosion amidst the area.
Le Bail's spirit briefly appears and nods to both Grace and Faith as they are finally free. The sisters leave the premises holding hands, with Grace promising never to leave Faith again.
Sources
IMBD
Rotten Tomatoes
Wikipedia
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