More scenes from the class struggle, as rich people hunt down an unlucky bride-to-be in Ready Or Not.
With the economy currently floating facedown in the pool, financial horror movies (Parasite, The Perfection, Cheap Thrills, Would You Rather?) continue to strike fear throughout the land, and with good reason.
We’re all hanging from the same thread.
Nutshell: Grace (Samara Weaving) is a scrappy, beautiful blonde engaged to Daniel (Adam Brody), the fabulously wealthy son of a family whose fortune was built on games (cards, not video).
As is the custom, the newest member of the family must participate in a game to be chosen randomly by drawing a card. The contest begins at midnight and concludes at dawn.
So what are we playing this year? Go Fish? Checkers?
As the title suggests, it’s Hide and Seek with Capital Punishment, and Grace must find a place to hole up till the sun rises. The family mansion and grounds are roughly the size of Connecticut, so hiding isn’t too difficult.
But, as we all know, rich people cheat to get ahead, so the hunters use hidden cameras to track their quarry.
Ready Or Not is directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and the tempo is brisk, punctuated with frequent violent episodes played for dark laughs. When all three maids (who look like Robert Palmer dancers) are accidentally murdered, their plutocrat employers are quick to express mild annoyance at the lack of reliable domestic help to clean up a growing mess (of bodies).
The script, by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murray, is full of revelations about the origins of wealth in our society, mostly having to do with infernal pacts made long ago.
Face it, rich assholes continue to make the best villains, because it’s so satisfying to see them pay for their crimes against humanity.
Quite a nice change from real life, but that’s the magic of cinema—making our unfulfilled dreams come true since the dawn of the 20th century.
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