Ready or Not (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Starring:  Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, Andie McDowell, Mark O'Brien, Nicky Guadagni, Melanie Scrofano, Kristian Bruun, Elyse Levesque

Grace (Weaving) grew up in foster homes without a family, and now she is about to marry into one of the richest families on the planet.     On her wedding day, she tells her fiancé Alex (O'Brien) how happy she is to be finally be part of a family.    What happens on her wedding night will force her to reassess that sentiment.  

The Le Domas family, led by patriarch Tony (Czerny) and matriarch Becky (McDowell) convenes the family at midnight, hours after Grace and Alex tied the knot, and let Grace in on a family tradition:   Grace, the newest member of the family, must play a game with the rest of the Le Domas family.   By chance, Grace chooses hide and seek, and she thinks she will simply be playing the game in the usual manner.    She'd rather be going on her honeymoon, but because she loves Alex she plays along.    Little does Grace know the Le Domas clan arms itself and will hunt her throughout their eerie, gothic mansion.    Grace at first hides in the dumbwaiter, but learns soon enough the goal of the game isn't merely to find her, but to kill her.

It is later revealed why the Le Domas absolutely must ensure Grace does not survive the night, because bad things will happen to them at the break of dawn thanks to an old family curse.    It doesn't matter.    The plot is in motion, and Grace is basically on her own.    Her weasel husband ensures her he will help her escape, but he is weak and ineffectual, and abetted the whole situation to begin with.    Grace's only savior may come in the form of Alex's drunken, conflicted brother Daniel (Brody), who may be in love with her.    It wouldn't be a bad idea for Grace to arm herself against these psychopaths in case Alex or Daniel don't pull through.

Ready or Not is suspenseful and grisly with darkly comic undertones.    The plot is inherently silly, so the near-satirical tone fits right while not undermining the gravity of Grace's dilemma.   The family members are so eager to kill that at times they wind up wounding or killing one of their own by mistake.     Grace relies on her determination, toughness, and smarts to stay alive.    Thankfully, Grace doesn't make routine horror movie heroine mistakes which keep her from escaping danger.    She remains only a few steps ahead of her hunters, but only a few steps, and this makes the movie plausible. 

Samara Weaving makes Grace a sympathetic hero.    She isn't a slow study, and reacts plausibly at key moments.    The plot of an entire family of monsters tracking an innocent woman reminded me of The Most Dangerous Game, a book typically assigned in high school English class.    We root for Grace, and Ready or Not transcends its potentially ridiculous plot and, while it is gruesome at times (and the ending seems to stop and start a bit), it is engaging all the way through because it taps into universal fears.    In the end, Grace is probably figuring foster homes may not have been all that bad.