I am pretty confident in assuming that we all have at least one memory of playing Hide and Seek as a kid. Your mind going a mile a minute as you consider all the hiding place options you could choose from, the surge of adrenaline as you hear the seeker approach your chosen place, the laughs and strange sense of dread combined with relief as you are discovered. A child’s game that activates one’s creativity, speed and problem-solving skills. But what happens when the stakes are raised? What happens if instead of just being discovered, having a laugh and taking another turn, you are met with he barrel of a gun or the sharp edge of an archaic medieval axe? Enter Ready Or Not? (2019).

This film takes a game so innocuous, so innocent, so joyful and transforms it into an adult’s game of serious risk and consequence. Hide and Seek is a game most people (at least in the Western world, where I grew up) are familiar with and can, therefore, relate to intimately. There’s something effectively creepy about taking something from youth and completely transcending its innocence by exposing the disturbingly sinister undertones and themes inherent in a child’s game. Think about it: we loved playing a game where we would hunt down people, whether they were “ready or not”. Lack of consent, hunting for helpless prey, desperation of that prey. These are things that are normalised throughout our childhood. It speaks to our innate animal-drive (whether that be to survive or to kill) because we are all just mammals after all. So Ready Or Not may seem silly and simple on the surface, but on a more profound level it reveals our ‘Id’, our inherent drive to hunt prey (even if just symbolically, unlike in this film where it is very literal), our base-instincts.

As a film whose theme revolves around a kids’ game, the tone of the entire piece is fittingly light-hearted and witty. Verging on outright satirical at times, Ready Or Not is a self-reflexive film that knows its place within the realm of dark horror comedy. Moments of extreme suspense as the blushing bride is hunted down through her new in-law’s grandiose estate are effectively cut with instances of ridiculous comedy, lending some levity to a film that could have gotten really dark, really fast. When one of the characters had to search for a tutorial on how to use an old-school cross-bow in the midst of the cursed family’s ‘bad-assery’ as they prepared to chase down Grace (Samara Weaving) cracked me right up. The comedic timing of this whole movie was impeccable, indicating clearly to the viewer that this is not meant to be a film that puts you on the edge of your seat for its entirety or one that keeps you up at night. You will laugh and you will scoff at its ludicrousness. But you will also find yourself biting your nails to their edge during near-escapes. You have to love a horror that doesn’t take itself too seriously, invoking a Scream vibe but with modernised cinematography and perhaps a little more nuance on the horror theme (as opposed to an outright parody of the genre itself which is the route Scream chose to take).

Grace appears on-screen as an angelic angel in white during its exposition, only to emerge from the huge mansion absolutely covered in blood (so much so that it almost looks black, like she’d been rolling around in tar) at the end. Her progression is abundantly clear – she has been through a hell of a lot and her innocence and naivety is well and truly erased. She is a woman now (do I dare read some period/menstrual maturity symbolism here… I’ll leave that to you, do with it what you will). She has seen some shit. I mean come on, she literally watched her in-laws explode into a geyser of blood and guts thanks to the fulfilment of a familial curse – that has got to do something to you. Despite its lofty humour, this film still plays with the concept of what the premise of children’s games really inculcates us with. It challenges our perception of what is just a ‘bit of fun’ and what is literally a matter of life and death. These are the kind of blurred lines that I can get on-board with.