Reaction shot: Ready Or Not (or: EAT THE RICH, EAT THE RICH!)

[spindizzy]

"READY OR NOT | Red Band Trailer [HD] | FOX Searchlight" (Watch on YouTube)

RIGHT, I don't know if you've all seen the trailer for this but I went to the cinema for the first time in a while and got to see Ready Or Not! Woman marries into a rich family that made their money through making games, who have a family tradition of playing a game together at midnight on any wedding nights in the family! ... It turns out that they play hide-and-seek for keeps, oops.

It's really good! It's a bit gory, but I am definitely pro how EAT THE RICH it is. Plus, I think it's supposed be a black comedy? Maybe? I have no idea what a black comedy is beyond "It's funny but so many people die." (IN MY DEFENCE I might not be sure what genres mean, but I can pick apart the plot structure in a movie like this at thirty paces.)

• ALL GRACE WANTED WAS A FAMILY AND SOME PERMANENCE AND SHE DIDN'T GET IT, NOOOOOOOOO. Or she did, but look at that mess.


• I was SO SURE that this starred Margot Robbie, by the way. I have no explanation.


• Grace: I can't believe that in half an hour, I will be part of the Le Domas... Dynasty? Empire?"
  Alex: Dominion. We prefer dominion.
  Me: *understood that reference!*


• "Hello brown-haired niece. You continue to exist." I am stealing that line at some point, because YEP. THAT'S IT. THAT'S ALMOST THE STAGE MY FAMILY IS AT. (Lex's argument is that "brown-haired niece" won't actually narrow it down in my family, but DETAILS.)


• I love Helene's punk-rock grandma aesthetic, even if I don't know how DoucheDad ended up in charge of this clusterfuck if Helene was destined by murder-ghost to lead the family.


• I like how they did the wedding by, y'know, skipping over most of the wedding bits in favour of the things that are actually relevant and reveal character (pre-wedding chats, people fake-smiling at the camera while bitching about the wedding, bonding with the impending in-laws...).


• Grace's freak-out after the maid gets shot is ENTIRELY JUSTIFIED, especially when she finds out that ALEX KNEW THIS WAS A POSSIBILITY.


• I'm choosing to believe that the fact that all of the maids die horrible, preventable deaths that no one cares about beyond the inconvenience of it is commentary on the value servants have to the rich.


• Aunt Helene yelling "WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP ASKING THAT!" when people keep asking if the dead maid's count probably helped with that impression.


• (They're not even maids! One of them specifically says she's just there because Mr Le Domas likes the way she dances! This family is SUCH trash!)


• The "hide or run" dilemma is actually a frequent part of my nightmares, so I thought they did that really well!


• Ripped wedding dress and converse is a good look! I appreciate that!


• Grace cursing out rich people for three-quarters of the movie is 100% #mood.


• The argument about what parts of the tradition they're keeping versus getting rid of!


• Also, seriously, did they decide that if they were bound in a murderous contract to one angry ghost, they might as well become satanists as well?!


• I think they actually set up Alex being an awful human being pretty well! Not telling your fiancée that there's a chance her new family is going to try to kill her? PRETTY AWFUL. And his reasoning for not telling
  her but proposing anyway? "You would have left if I didn't propose." OH MY GOD DUDE YOU COULD HAVE PREVENTED ALL OF THIS WITH A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW YOUR FAMILY ARE KILLERS IN THE MAKING.
  
  • "You wanted to get married!" The fact that she did not kill Alex right there is proof that she is a good person.
  
  
  • "You're not gonna stay with me after this, are you?" he asks a woman who has spent the entire night running from his family and also has his mother's blood splattered all over her. WHAT KIND OF FUCKING QUESTION IS THAT, ALEX.
  
  
  • "I'm going to lose her anyway so I might as well kill her" is logic that is immediately identifiable because UGH RICH MEN.


• ... Although I'm not gonna lie, I immediately called Daniel being the one who was going to be a less terrible person just because they cast the more attractive actor to play him.
  
  • Daniel: Still a horrible person, still very much complicit in this fucked-up merry-go-round of death, but ends up doing the right thing anyway? Like, I rescind at least some of my usual "Ugh, atonement through death" objections due to him trying to do the right thing and survive doing it?
  
  
  • "DO YOU THINK THIS IS A FUCKING GAME?!"
    "Yes. Hide and seek, remember?"
  
  
  • Look, if they wanted me to believe that Alex wasn't going to turn out awful, they wouldn't have cast an actor who looks like the stock photo of every unreasonable man posting on r/AmITheAsshole.
  
  
  • "We all deserve to die."
    "My children don't!"
    *child immediately pops up and reveals that he's also a terrible human, just in miniature*
  
  
  • FOR SERIOUS THOUGH I think Georgie and Alex are the only ones who actually draw blood, and that's because she trusted them. SURE SOUNDS LIKE A METAPHOR.
  
  
  • You ever look at a relationship and go "... I have no idea why you two are together"? Because that's how I feel about Daniel and Charity. Like, I get why they hate each other NOW and I get Charity's part of this, but I don't understand why they got married in the first place.


• Emily is a fucking menace.


• OF COURSE HE'S WATCHING YOUTUBE VIDEOS TO LEARN HOW TO CROSSBOW


• I know Justin was just doing his job, but MAYBE THE TRUE CAPITALISM IS THE ENEMY WE MADE ALONG THE WAY.


• I wonder if Grace has a hand tattoo because the actress does, or as a deliberate class marker.


• ... DoucheDad seriously just left his house on fire to go and commit some murder. Like. What.


• How long does it take to saw through a bedpost with a pair of handcuffs?! O_o


• OF COURSE the one person that Grace actually kills is the person that she was emotionally bonding with, who was most enthusiastic about her joining the family, who saw a lot of herself in Grace. That's how narrative structure works!


• "What do we do now?" they ask when they realise they're not dead, because apparently they don't know that if someone wins at hide-and-seek, IT'S THEIR TURN TO LOOK FOR YOU.


• Le Domas family: *explodes into chunks*
  Me: ... Okay, I didn't see that coming.


• LIKE.


• I JUST.


• I HAVE NO IDEA HOW ELSE THEY COULD HAVE ENDED IT EXCEPT FOR THE CREEPY HIDE-AND-SEEK MUSIC PLAYING AND SOME RIDICULOUS DEATHS HAPPENING


• I JUST WASN'T EXPECTING EVERYONE TO DISINTEGRATE INTO CHUNKS AND COVER GRACE IN GORE.


• SERIOUSLY VICTOR LE DOMAS, HOW MUCH OF A CUNT WERE YOU THAT LE BAIL DECIDED THAT THE ASSHOLE FEE ON THIS "SUPPORTING YOUR FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS" CONTRACT WAS THAT IF THEY EVER FAILED AT BEING AWFUL HUMANS THEY WERE ALL GOING TO EXPLODE. WHAT DID YOU DO.


• I was so worried about that part where the cops showed up because HELLO I AM VERY STRESSED OUT BY CHARACTERS ENCOUNTERING THE POLICE IN AMERICAN MEDIA, but I'm pretty sure that the three-generations old murder pit will give weight to her explanation that the Le Domas family tried to kill her on her wedding night?


• (Seriously, the end of Breaking In stresses me out so fucking much, because do I think that the police are going to hear out a Black woman and her family? No. It's the same stress as the end of Get Out.)


• "What happened to you?"
  "In-laws."