Horror movies can have surprise villains who put the lead characters in danger. Some wear hockey masks and seemingly attack victims at random. Others have razors coming out of their fingers and go after the children of people who have wronged them.
But in READY OR NOT, the threat hits very close to home.
Directed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, READY OR NOT follows the harrowing adventure of a young bride named Grace (played by Samara Weaving), who joins her husband (Mark O’Brien) and his family in an epic game of hide-and-seek.
That’s right. Hide-and-seek. The game most of us played as children. Grace is told this is just something the family does when a new member is introduced. What she doesn’t understand is that the game is lethal, and she has to stay hidden from midnight until dawn or the price will be her life.
The trailer for READY OR NOT sets up the rules of the game quite well.
What makes this special is that READY OR NOT becomes the latest horror/thriller to use family members as the overarching threat. THE SHINING might be the best example of said subgenre, as Jack Nicholson becomes the husband-father we all love to fear when he succumbs to the power of his Colorado hotel.
But then there are movies that are centered completely around dysfunctional, disturbed families, like the one we are about to meet in READY OR NOT. Rob Zombie’s HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES borrowed heavily from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and both continued the tradition of a horror movie that finds its dangers on the family tree.
There’s something inherently disturbing about a person being hunted by “family.” Even if you escape them for the time being, are you ever actually free?
We will soon be able to find out how Grace survives her game of hide-and-seek when READY OR NOT comes to an AMC near you beginning August 21.
