Horror killers usually go one of two ways:they’re either unstoppable supernatural forceswho seem to teleport to their victims before they murder them in over-the-top gory fashion, or they’re incompetent idiots who are barely able to get the job done. The former can lead to some fun slashers with impressive kill counts, but the latter is both a good source of humor, while also being more realistic.Look at the portrayals of Ghostface in theScreamfranchise, for example. It’s not Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers under that mask, but just some regular guy or gal obsessed with horror movies who barely knows what they’re doing.
Horror’s most incompetent killer, however, is not just one or two people, but a whole family. In 2019’sReady or Not, directed byMatt Bettinelli-OlpinandTyler GillettofRadio Silence(who know a thing or two about theScreammovies),the Le Domas family has sold their souls in exchange for a human sacrifice. Grace (Samara Weaving), who has just married into the family, is that chosen sacrifice. But no matter what they do, this evil clan cannot capture and defeat their prey. They are the most amateur, clueless killers you’ll ever see in all of horror.
Ready or Not
A bride’s wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to take part in a terrifying game.
Horror Has Many Incompetent Killers To Choose From
Some horror villains are geniuses, likeHannibal Lecter, who seems capable of outsmarting anyone. Some are written to be lucky, because there’s no way Jason Voorhees can calmly walk after someone running through the woods and catch up with them.Some killers are just plain dumb, and you wonder how they ever added a single soul to their bodycount.Ghostface might be the most well-known example, as he’s always stumbling around and getting beat up by his potential victims — no matter who is underneath the mask. Somehow, when he does catch someone, he’s often incapable of finishing them off, even if they’re stabbed a dozen times (we’re looking at you, Chad Meeks-Martin inScream 6).Warwick Davisis great inLeprechaun, but his character is often ineffective. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) inThe Shiningis a legendary villain, but outside of Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers), he fails at killing anyone else. InThe Cabin in the Woods, Steve (Bradley Whitford) and Gary (Richard Jenkins) are full of confidence butfind themselves easily overwhelmed. Still, all of these pale in comparison toReady or Not’s Le Domas family, with members so inept that they have to look up videos of how to use a weapon.
In ‘Ready or Not’, the Le Domas Family Must Sacrifice Grace by Dawn
Ready or Notput Radio Silence on the mapand made Samara Weaving an even bigger horror star, asshe was already loved for her role inThe Babysitter.Ready or Notis not your average slasher movie, but something more clever. The story revolves around the marriage of Grace (Weaving) to Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien), followed by Grace meeting Alex’s filthy rich family, the most twisted of in-laws, at their mansion. Patriarch Tony Le Domas (Henry Czerny) tells Grace that the family acquired much of their wealth through board games, which all started when a man named Le Bail met Tony’s great-grandfather and gave him a puzzle box, which when solved led to Le Bail helping the family build their wealth in exchange for the tradition of a game.The Le Domas family reveals to Grace that all new married-in family members must play a game by picking a card from the box, which is a little odd, but harmless; until Grace picks the card for Hide and Seek.
From Masked Creeps To Supernatural Killers, Here’s Your Ultimate Guide to Slasher Movies
There’s more to the subgenre than just the names you know.
Hide and Seek is innocent enough for Grace, who is told she has until the count of one hundred to hide before the family looks for her. There’s just one minor catch though:this Le Bail guy is kind of the Devil, and"Hide and Seek" is a hunt to the death, with the game requiring Grace to be sacrificed before dawn. With that, the family gets ready for battle, gathering their weapons of an axe, a crossbow, and guns. With Grace clueless and unarmed, and the family not only carrying weapons but also outnumbering their victim in a familiar setting, this should be an easy sacrifice. We soon learn this is not the case.
The Le Domas Family Is Completely Incapable of Killing Grace in ‘Ready or Not’
Every single member of the Le Domas family is completely ineffective in their attempts to kill Grace.Their characters are over-the-top and comedic at the same time, their lack of success being the true entertainment. Alex’s sister, Emilie (Melanie Scrofano), is the funniest pathetic killer, but she also has the distinction of being the most accurate one. When Grace is hiding with Alex, who for a while is trying to help his new wife, Emilie accidentally shoots a maid, blowing her face off.When she’s face to face with Grace, however, she can’t hit the broadside of a barn, leading to her anxiously crying, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing"before snorting more cocaine. That revelation sums it all up. It becomes a running joke with dead maids, as another one is accidentally crushed by a dumbwaiter and a third is killed by Emilie again when she misfires a crossbow.
It’s no surprise that Emilie’s husband, Fitch (Kristian Bruun), is just as dumb as his wife, if not more so. While almost everyone else gets a cool gun, he gets stuck with a crossbow that he has no idea how to use, leading to him getting out his phone and looking it up on YouTube.Do you think Jigsaw does this in theSawfilms?Later on, as Grace is making one of her many escapes, we see Fitch searching, “Pact with the devil real or bullshit.” He’s just as pathetic as Alex’s brother Daniel (Adam Brody), who does find Grace and gives her ten seconds to run, only to not put any effort into finding her. This lacking gene pool is passed to Fitch and Emilie’s young son, Georgie (Liam McDonald), who shoots Grace from two feet away but only gets her in the hand, before she knocks him out and escapes the property.
Grace Repeatedly Escapes the Le Domas Family in ‘Ready or Not’
Capturing Grace shouldn’t be this hard, because even thoughwe see Grace looking like a badass bride with a shotgun and a sash of bullets wrapped around her wedding dress,this isn’t Ellen Ripley from theAlienfranchise. Grace is smart and courageous, but she doesn’t know what she’s doing either. She’s never held a gun before and doesn’t know how to use it, and once she does figure the shotgun out, she discovers that the bullets are “display only.” That makes shooting the family butler, Stevens (John Ralston) impossible, but she’s able to simply run off as he spends so much time talking. Still, this one killer who isn’t even a family member is semi-effective, as he is able to eventually shoot Grace with a tranquilizer and bring her back to the house for the sacrifice. Everyone else has just stood around freaking out and bickering. The best plan they could come up with was flipping the turned off security cameras back on.
The ritual begins, with Grace tied to a pentagram table as the family cult surrounds her, but Grace escapes yet again, only to be attacked by Daniel’s wife Charity (Elyse Levesque), Tony, and his wife Becky (Andie MacDowell). Each one of them misses in their attacks, only to be pummeled by Grace, who even beats Becky to death. Alex betrays his wife, leading to her being captured for the umpteenth time, but she, you guessed it, escapes once more right as the kill stab falls.The family goes to attack once more, but time has run out, and one by one, the Le Domas family explodes. Grace emerges as the sole survivor.
Horror killers have been ineffective, but the Le Domas’ take it to a new level. No one knows how to work together on their home turf, how to use their weapons, or how to catch a single unprepared victim. Worse, several of them don’t even care. They keep coming close, only to fail on the verge of success every time with bad shooting skills and the frustrating inability to properly tie someone down. Their ineptitude leads to every single one of them exploding in a pile of guts.Even Ghostface could do better than that.
Ready or Notis available to stream on Fubo in the U.S.
