Ready Or Not (2019 Film)

''Ready or Not'' is a 2019 American black comedy horror film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. It stars Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Henry Czerny, and Andie MacDowell. It follows Grace (Weaving), a newlywed who is hunted by her spouse's wealthy Satan-worshipping family as part of a wedding night ritual.

Preparations began in November 2017 when Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, members of the Radio Silence filmmaking collective, were hired as directors. After setting an initial release date, casting occurred from August to October 2018. Principal photography began later that month and concluded in November, in locations in and around Toronto, Canada and the surrounding Ontario area.

It premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 27, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 21, 2019, by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of the cast, Olpin and Gillett's direction, and screenplay. It grossed over $57.6 million worldwide on a $6 million budget.

Plot

As a child, Daniel Le Domas is confronted in his family's mansion by a wounded man named Charles, who begs him for help. Instead, Daniel alerts his family, who arrive in ceremonial masks and robes. Despite his bride's pleas, Charles is shot with a speargun and dragged away into a locked room.

30 years later, Daniel's brother Alex, the estranged son of the owners of the successful Le Domas Family Games company, is set to marry Grace, a former foster child. On her wedding day, she meets the Le Domases: Daniel and his snobbish wife Charity; Alex's cocaine-addicted sister Emilie, her oafish husband Fitch, and their young sons Georgie and Gabe; Alex's unpleasant aunt Helene, and his parents Tony and Becky. After the ceremony, Tony explains that his ancestor Victor Le Domas made a deal with a man named "Le Bail" to build the Le Domas fortune in exchange for the family observing a tradition: At midnight on their wedding day every new member draws a game card from Le Bail's puzzle box. Grace draws "Hide-and-Seek", offers a toast to Le Bail, and as she hides the Le Domases arm themselves. Alex enters the mansion's secret passages and finds Grace, who witnesses Emilie accidentally kill a maid whom she mistakes for Grace.

Alex reveals that his family is cursed: if the new member draws the Hide-and-Seek card, the rest of the family has to find and ritually sacrifice them before dawn or they die instead. The deadly game was last played by Helene's husband, Charles. With the mansion locked down, Alex disables the security system to allow Grace to escape. She is discovered by Daniel, who is disillusioned with his family and gives her a head start before alerting the others, leading Emilie to accidentally kill another maid. 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. Alex is restrained by Daniel and Tony after he attacks the latter. Grace is seen by a third maid, but the maid accidentally crushes herself in a dumbwaiter when she yells for the family.

Grace runs to the stables where Georgie shoots her in the hand. She knocks him out and then, startled by a goat, she falls into a pit filled with the corpses of the Le Domases' previous sacrifices. She escapes and squeezes through the front gate. Pursued by Stevens, she fights him off, takes his car, and tries to call the police using the car's onboard system. The operator informs her on the recorded call that the car has been reported stolen, remotely turns it off, and says the police have been sent. Stevens subdues Grace with a tranquilizer gun, but she awakens and attacks him, causing the car to crash and kill him. Daniel, nearby the crash, captures Grace after realizing that his father is secretly watching.

The Le Domases drink from a ceremonial cup, but as they prepare the ritual, they begin to vomit blood. Daniel frees Grace, having laced the cup with a non-lethal dose of hydrochloric acid. Charity shoots Daniel in the neck, leaving him to bleed to death, and Grace disarms her and bludgeons Tony with a lantern. In the ongoing chaos, the mansion is set on fire, and Grace is attacked by Becky, whom she beats to death with Le Bail's box.

Alex escapes his restraints and goes to rescue Grace, but she pulls away from him. Realizing that she will never trust him and will almost certainly leave him once she escapes, he subdues her to complete the ritual. Grace breaks free from the ritual table after being stabbed in the shoulder, just as the sun rises. The Le Domases brace for death, but nothing happens. Believing themselves safe, Helene attempts to attack Grace but suddenly explodes midstride, with the rest of the family exploding soon after. In his last moments, Alex desperately attempts to apologize to Grace, but she declares she wants a divorce and throws her wedding ring at him as he explodes. Le Bail briefly appears and gives Grace a slight head nod, and she walks out of the burning manor. As the police arrive and ask what happened, Grace replies, "In-laws."

Cast

* Samara Weaving as Grace Le Domas, Alex's young bride and wife
* Adam Brody as Daniel Le Domas, Alex and Emilie's alcoholic brother
** Etienne Kellici as young Daniel Le Domas
* Mark O'Brien as Alex Le Domas, Grace's husband, Daniel and Emilie's brother
** Chase Churchill as young Alex Le Domas
* Henry Czerny as Tony Le Domas, Daniel, Emilie and Alex's father
* Andie MacDowell as Becky Le Domas, Daniel, Emilie and Alex's mother
** Kate Ziegler as young Becky Le Domas
* Melanie Scrofano as Emilie Le Domas, Daniel and Alex's cocaine-addicted sister
* Kristian Bruun as Fitch Bradley, Emilie's husband
* Elyse Levesque as Charity Le Domas, Daniel's wife
* Nicky Guadagni as Helene Le Domas, Daniel, Emilie and Alex's aunt
** Elana Dunkelman as young Helene Le Domas
* John Ralston as Stevens, the Le Domas family butler
* Liam McDonald as Georgie Bradley, Fitch's and Emilie's son
* Ethan Tavares as Gabe Bradley, Fitch's and Emilie's son
* Hanneke Talbot as Clara, a maid
* Celine Tsai as Tina, a maid
* Daniela Barbosa as Dora, a maid
* Andrew Anthony as Charles, Helene's late husband, and Alex, Emilie and Daniel's uncle
* Nat Faxon as the voice of Justin, employee of the car onboard assistance company
* Guy Busick & R. Christopher Murphy, the film's writers, as the "How to Use a Crossbow" instructors (uncredited)
* James Vanderbilt, the film's producer, as Le Bail (uncredited), an anagram for the name ''Belial'', a word used in the Hebrew bible to characterize ''wicked'' or ''worthless'', which has become personified as ''devil''.

Production

In November 2017 it was announced that Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett would direct the film, from a screenplay by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. ''Ready or Not'' was produced by Tripp Vinson, James Vanderbilt, William Sherak, and Bradley J. Fischer. Tara Farney, Tracey Nyberg and Chad Villella executive-produced, under their Mythology Entertainment and Vinson Films production banners, respectively.
From August to October 2018, Samara Weaving, Andie MacDowell, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Melanie Scrofano, Henry Czerny and Elyse Levesque were cast.

Principal photography was from October 15, 2018 to November 19, 2018 at locations in the Toronto area, including Casa Loma, Sunnybrook Park, the Claireville Conservation Area, and the Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Ontario.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 27, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 21, 2019. ''Ready or Not'' was released on Digital HD on November 26, 2019, and on DVD and Blu-ray on December 3. The release includes a 42-minute making-of documentary, an audio commentary with star Samara Weaving, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and executive producer Chad Villella, as well as a photo gallery and a gag reel.

Reception

Box office

''Ready or Not'' grossed $28.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $28.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $57.6 million, against a production budget of $6 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross around $6.5 million in its opening weekend and $8–12 million over its five-day opening frame. Playing at 2,818 theaters, it was the widest release in Fox Searchlight's history. It made $1.9 million on its first day, Wednesday, including $730,000 from Tuesday night previews, and $1.1 million on its second. The film went on to debut to $8 million during its opening weekend (and $11 million over its first five days), finishing second on its first two days and sixth for the weekend. It fell just 26% in its second weekend to $5.9 million, finishing fifth.

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads: "Smart, subversive, and darkly funny, ''Ready or Not'' is a crowd-pleasing horror film with giddily entertaining bite." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on reviews from 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 71% (including an average 3.5 out of 5 stars) and a 50% "definite recommend."

Peter Debruge wrote in ''Variety'' that "This deliciously diabolical sophomore feature, which hails from the resourceful low-budget trio known as Radio Silence, represents a departure for indie distributor Fox Searchlight, which has a real winner on its hands — that rare ''Get Out''-like horror movie capable of delivering superficial diversion alongside deep cultural critique." Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' called the film "a decadent blast to watch a comic takedown of the rich done with the rude energy of a horror thriller and the courage of its own manic anti-marriage convictions."

Writing for ''IndieWire'', David Ehrlich describes the film as "wickedly entertaining from start to finish, and painted with enough fresh personality to resolve into something more than the sum of its parts." Leah Greenblatt wrote in ''Entertainment Weekly'', "Come for the crossbows, etc., and to watch Weaving's star be born in real time; stay for the socio-economic lessons and sweet, sweet revenge." David Sims of ''The Atlantic'' wrote, "The real fun in ''Ready or Not'' comes from the ways it subverts its time-tested story, balancing wry commentary and straightforward horror in its portrait of fumbling arrogance and curdled privilege." Bobby LePire rated the film 10/10 and wrote in ''Film Threat'' that "The acting is incredible, the directing striking and intense, and the screenplay is unbelievably brilliant and funny. I adore every scary and funny second of this movie and highly recommend it to everyone else."

Accolades

References

External links

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{{Tyler Gillett

2019 films
2019 comedy horror films
Films directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
American comedy horror films
American supernatural horror films
Battle royale
Films about cults
Films about death games
Films about dysfunctional families
The Devil in film
Films about Satanism
Films about the upper class
Films about weddings
Films produced by James Vanderbilt
Films set in country houses
Films shot in Toronto
Films scored by Brian Tyler
Films with screenplays by Guy Busick
Films about siblings
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
Films about murder