Story Recapped here. Today, I'm going to explain an action and horror film called "Ready or Not. " Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care. One stormy night, two frightened boys run inside a candle-lit Victorian mansion. The older boy, Daniel, tells his brother, Alex, to hide in a closet.
As soon as he closes the door, a wounded man named Charles begs Daniel for help, telling the boy that someone is trying to kill him. Panic in his eyes, Daniel alerts his pursuers instead. Immediately, a group of masked people clad in formal wear corner him.
Charles' bride, Helene, begs for his life before someone shoots a speargun at him. Daniel keeps his back to the closet, protecting his younger brother. A woman tells Daniel that she's proud of him.
Charles is taken away by the group. Helene gives up the fight, taking a deep breath before joining the people who've taken her husband. Thirty years later, Grace practices her wedding vows in front of the mirror.
She enjoys a smoke to calm her nerves about marrying into the Le Domas family. Her fiance, Alex, joins her, watching his family outside and joking about them. Alex believes his family is horrible, but Grace wants them to accept her.
Alex's brother, Daniel, walks in to collect him. Alex sincerely tells Grace that she can still escape their family but drops the idea and leaves. While alone, Alex offers her a chance to leave as well.
She thinks it's a joke and assures him that she's committed to marrying him. While taking wedding photos, Alex's father, Tony, expresses disapproval over Grace and Alex's two-year disappearance. Their aunt, Helene, glares at Grace, and Daniel's wife, Charity, disapproves of her.
Alex's mother, Becky, sees Grace's unease and tries to lighten up her mood, saying that she got the same disapproval when she married into the family. The rest of the wedding continues without a hitch. The bride and groom walk down the aisle with bright smiles.
That evening, Grace and Alex fool around in his old bedroom. The mood is interrupted by Helene watching the couple by the servant's door in the room. Helene announces that the family is waiting for them.
Once alone, Alex reveals the family's tradition. Due to the family's fortune coming from board games and playing cards, they play a game at midnight every time someone joins the Le Domas family. The game is chosen by drawing a card.
Grace finds it odd but is determined to win the game. In the dining room, Alex reveals to his father that he intends to take Grace away from the family the following day and never tell her about their secrets. Grace explores the mansion on the way to the music room.
Becky welcomes her warmly. They talk about Grace's foster family and how she had always wanted to have a permanent family. Grace reveals that Alex didn't want them to go through the wedding initially but saw how important it was to Grace.
Becky thanks Grace, seeing the good she brings out on Alex. Then, she begs Grace to convince Alex to stay with them. Concerned about what his mother might say, Alex pulls Grace away.
Grace notices Alex's nervousness, making her worried. Alex's sister Emilie, her husband, Fitch, and their sons, Georgie and Gabe, arrive. Emillie is ecstatic to meet Grace, but Helene interrupts the girls, showing disappointment in her niece.
The family enters the game room, which is full of hunting weapons and animal displays. Here, Tony tells the story of the Le Domas' gaming empire. Their great-grandfather, a merchant seaman named Victor, was dared to solve a puzzle box by an antique collector named Mr Le Bail.
Mr Le Bail promised to finance any business he wanted if he won. Victor solved the box and used the money to build his gaming business. Thus, the family holds the tradition of letting the box from the story choose a game to welcome new members to the family.
Tony hands the box to Grace, telling her to draw a card from it. Grace takes a card and announces the game "Hide and Seek. " The room falls silent, and Alex looks horrified.
To play the game, Grace must hide from the family until dawn. But Alex whispers for her to meet him in their room. Grace says no; she wants to play for real.
The cameras are turned off, and the windows and doors are locked. The family butler, Stevens, plays a record while Grace finds a place to hide. Unbeknownst to her, the family arms themselves with hunting weapons while waiting for the record to countdown.
Grace finds a dumbwaiter and hides inside. Becky advises her son to stay behind, knowing his worry for his new wife. They leave Alex in the game room with Charity guarding the door.
But Alex goes into the servant's corridors to find Grace. Charity finds the game room empty. As they search for Grace, Fitch struggles with his crossbow.
He excuses himself to the bathroom, feeling nervous about their task. Quickly bored of the game, Grace crawls out of the dumbwaiter, ripping her dress when it gets caught. Grace hears the maid, Clara, looking for Georgie and hides from her.
A hand grabs Grace from behind. It's Alex, pulling her to hide behind the bed. Clara walks inside, thinking that Georgie is hiding there.
She hears a crash and peeks out the door. Grace watches as a bullet hits Clara. Emilie excitedly goes into the room, thinking she got Grace.
Tony, Daniel, Becky, and Helene walk in, scolding Emilie for her mistake. Grace overhears them talk about a ritual where they need the bride alive. When they leave with Clara's body, Alex hurries Grace to pack up and leave.
Grace is still in shock, confused at what happened. Alex pulls Grace into the servant's corridors just as Emilie comes back for her gun. Away from danger, Grace is shaken with fear as she puts her shoes on.
Alex reveals that, since she pulled the only bad card, tradition says that something terrible will happen to them if they don't sacrifice Grace. Grace is furious, thinking that he knew she'd be in danger, but he insists that he didn't. Inside the bathroom, Fitch hears their voices from the vent but focuses on watching a video on using a crossbow.
Alex tells her that they would've both died like his uncle and cousin if they didn't play a game after getting married. Alex thought he'd lose her if he told her about the curse earlier. After expressing his love, Alex instructs Grace to wait for him in the service kitchen while he unlocks the doors from the security room.
To move easier, Grace rips the bottom of her dress. She finds herself between two doors, not knowing which one leads to the kitchen. Tony and Daniel carry Clara's body when Grace walks into the hallway behind them.
She runs to the other side, where Emilie frantically fires at her, missing entirely. Grace escapes to the study room. She tries the phone, but it doesn't work.
She hears a sound nearby and hides, only for Daniel to walk in from her door. Grace is frozen in fear. But Daniel pours himself a drink.
He gives her a 10-second head start before calling for his family. Grace runs as Daniel counts down. Daniel finally announces her location.
Charity is disappointed that he lost Grace. Daniel questions his wife's morality, but Charity reminds him of her past, saying she'd rather die than lose what she has now. The rest of the family joins them.
Daniel despises how they act as if what they're doing was normal. When Emilie notices her gun missing, Fitch offers his crossbow. Another maid, Tina, tells the family she saw Grace, but Emilie pulls the trigger on the crossbow, hitting her.
Tina moans in pain, interrupting Helene's speech. Frustrated, Helene swings her ax on the maid, ending her misery. Becky suggests using the cameras.
The others agree, but Helene wants to stick to tradition. The family argues before finally deciding to use the cameras to find Grace and Alex. Grace goes into the game room and takes a shotgun and ammunition.
Seeing herself in the mirror, she's disturbed at what she's become. Alex reaches the security room just as Grace enters the service kitchen. Seeing that the door is still locked, she attempts to shoot at the lock, but the gun isn't loaded.
She hears whistling nearby and hides. In a hallway, Daniel notices the cameras are back on, suspecting that Alex turned them on. Back in the kitchen, Stevens is preparing tea.
Grace crawls quietly, avoiding him. She loads the shotgun as quietly as she can. She locks the gun with a click as Stevens starts singing and the kettle whistles.
The lock on the door is disabled, alerting the two. Grace aims her gun at the butler, demanding him to let her go. She pulls the trigger, but the ammunition is fake.
Grace slams the teapot on Stevens' face. He swings a kitchen knife to block her, prompting Grace to find another way. In the security room, Alex destroys the controls with a fire extinguisher just as his father enters.
Alex chokes Tony, threatening him to let Grace go. Daniel calms his brother down, allowing Tony to knock Alex out. Grace hears Tony and Daniel from afar.
She opens the dumbwaiter to hide but finds the last maid, Dora, inside. Grace assures her that the family is looking for her, not Dora. Instead of letting her hide, Dora yells for the family to get Grace.
Her hands accidentally press on the dumbwaiter's button, starting it. Dora gets crushed inside, despite Grace's attempts to save her. In the bedroom, Tony handcuffs Alex to the bed.
Stevens announces that the windows and doors are unlocked and that Dora is also dead. Tony goes ballistic at the news. Grace listens from outside the window with the others gone as Helene claims that it's Tony's fault that Alex lost his way.
Tony argues that Alex always hated the family, but Helene believes that Alex is just afraid of who he truly is. Helene recounts how she regrets trying to save her husband, and she should've done the deed herself. Alex is the only one who'd seen Mr Le Bail when he was a child, leading Helene to believe that he would lead their family and would betray Grace in the end.
Downstairs, Fitch chats with a friend on his phone. Grace drops, appearing on the window behind him, but he doesn't notice. Finally, out of the house, Grace runs down what was her wedding aisle.
She heads for the gate but stops when she sees someone with a flashlight outside. She hides in the barn just as the other person enters. Grace waits for the person, only to find that it's Georgie.
She is relieved to see the boy, she walks up to him, but he shoots her on the hand. Grace stifles a scream before knocking the boy unconscious. A goat startles her, causing her to fall into a pit where the dead bodies of the previous sacrifices are disposed of.
Grace struggles to climb up a ladder with an injured hand, hurting her hand further with a nail. Smoking outside, Charity spots Grace running. She shoots her but misses.
Charity goes inside and informs Stevens where Grace is. Grace reaches the fence but can't climb due to her injuries. A car drives nearby.
Grace desperately squeezes between the fence and asks the driver for help, but he ignores her and drives away. She sees another car coming from the Le Domas estate, and she hides in the woods. Stevens reports that Grace has gotten out.
Daniel jokes about the situation, angering his father. Tony reminds him that if Grace lives by morning, they will all die, as another family did after failing a deal with Mr Le Bail. Back in the bedroom, Alex uses his handcuffs to grind himself free.
Emilie and Daniel dispose of the maids in the pit. Tired of their deeds, Daniel thinks that their family deserves to die. Emilie argues that her kids don't deserve that.
They find Georgie, who tells them that he shot Grace because that's what everyone was doing. Emilie tells her son she's proud of him, strengthening Daniel's belief. Stevens chases Grace on a clearing, tackling her down.
Grace refuses to give up, choking him until he collapses. She takes the car to escape, not noticing that Stevens is still alive. In the car, Grace calls the vehicle assistance company for help.
But the vehicle has been reported stolen, and the agent shuts it down remotely. The car stops in the middle of the road, allowing Stevens to catch up and shoot her with a tranquilizer. Grace wakes up in the car with Stevens driving.
In a video call with the butler, the Le Domas family is glad that Grace is being brought back. Stevens turns up the radio's music in celebration, not hearing the family's warnings. Grace kicks him in the face, causing the car to crash.
Grace climbs out of the overturned car, but Daniel finds her. He admits that he likes Grace, but he can't let his entire family die for her. He knocks her out with a gun, then tells his father to come out from hiding.
In the bedroom, Alex is still handcuffed when his mother joins him. She informs him that they got Grace. Becky laments that she doesn't want to hurt Grace, but her family comes first.
Alex says the curse is not real, and Becky chuckles -- he wouldn't have let Grace pull a card if he didn't believe in the curse. Alex tells his mother that he left them because he was tired of the family's sadistic traditions. He expresses his love for Grace, saying that he chooses her over his family.
Becky doubts this, however. Grace wakes up on a sacrificial table with Tony chanting above her head. Daniel hands his father the ritual wine, which the family passes down to drink.
Grace screams under her mufflers, watching as Tony lifts a blade over her. Before he could stab her, however, Tony and the rest start vomiting blood. Daniel frees Grace just as Alex is finally off his handcuffs.
Daniel hides with Grace, but Charity holds them at gunpoint. She shoots her husband, angering Grace, who steals the gun and smacks her on the head. Grace goes to comfort Daniel, but he insists that she leaves.
Tony finds Grace, but she is no longer scared. She grabs a lantern and knocks him down. The lantern falls and burns a curtain.
Becky shoots an arrow at Grace but misses. Alex finds Daniel dying on the floor, begging that he still needs his brother. He sits next to Daniel's body in grief.
Becky chokes Grace. Grace grabs the table cloth, letting the puzzle box fall. Crazed, Grace fights back, hitting Becky repeatedly with the puzzle box.
She stops when Alex calls her, seeing his mother's body. Now uncertain if he's still on her side, Grace backs away from her husband. Alex cries, mentioning that his brother is dead.
He asks Grace if she'd stay with him after all that happened, but she doesn't answer. Alex touches her face, and Grace finds comfort in him. Then he holds her head tight, finally coming to a decision.
Alex grabs Grace and calls for his family. The remaining members of the family come. Emilie and Tony mourn for Becky, but Helene pushes them to continue the ritual.
With the two boys watching, the adults hold Grace down. Alex looks down on his wife with a knife in hand. Grace looks up at him, pleading, but he made his choice.
Alex plunges the knife down. But Grace pulls her arm, letting him stab her shoulder instead. The confusion forces the rest to release her.
She wails, aiming the knife at them. Helene draws out the curtains. The sun has risen, causing Fitch and Tony to flinch.
Helene begs for forgiveness from Mr Le Bail from his empty chair. They wait for the worst, but nothing happens. Fitch laughs while the others are confused.
Helene thinks that Mr Le Bail has given them a second chance. She goes to attack Grace, but she explodes in front of everyone. The record starts playing as the house burns down.
Fitch, Charity, Emilie, and the boys die. Tony challenges Mr Le Bail, arguing that he'd been loyal his whole life. This still doesn't save him.
Grace laughs at the family's demise. With Alex the only one left, he apologizes to her, but Grace denies him. She removes her ring and throws it at him.
Alex explodes. Grace, tired and fed up, wipes the blood away. She looks at the chair and sees a glimpse of Mr Le Bail saluting her.
Grace leaves the burning mansion and sits on the steps. She smokes a cigarette she took from Becky's body. Sirens approach the estate.
Help finally arrived. An officer asks her what happened. Taking in a puff, she answers, "In-laws.
