"Hide and Seek, or is it Search and Destroy?"

I caught Ready or Not yesterday. The film was a stone-cold gas*. It ended up being the Monday review at ScriptShadow, where a number of commenters (and Carson** himself) were unimpressed, stating that the choice of making the murderous family members bumbling morons is what killed the film. Meanwhile, I'm thinking, 'you're sure the family members are the morons and not you guys?'. I liken the film to the Road Runner having (unexpectedly) married into a family of Wile E. Coyotes (and I defy you to tell me that this pitch wasn't bandied about by someone in the development process).

Commenter Barky had my back on this, stating,

I also strongly disagree that making the family skilled killers would have added to the proceedings. Maybe they would have become more threatening, but then this movie would not have had a strong case to argue for it's own existence. There are a ton of movies out there featuring a victim running from skilled killers. That's not new or fun. The bumbling family dynamic IS the pitch for this movie, it's not just about her getting out alive.

The title, "Ready or Not", refers not just to the heroine, but also to the family hunting her. NONE of them are ready for this, and that's the game the movie is playing. That's the concept, and that's what made it interesting to buyers, full stop. Without that element, there is no movie to make.

This brings me back to what I said last year about making horror fun again. Most people may like horror movies where the characters have to deal with some strange, arcane, all-powerful force, only to find after a while that there's absolutely no way to stop it and the characters were pretty much ass-fucked from before the first studio logo and they best stay the fuck away from me.

I go to movies to enjoy myself and I couldn't imagine what fun I'd have with a group of ice-cold professionals hunting down a helpless woman.

* - About a month ago, I wouldn't have thought this way. In the FSM thread about Brian Tyler's score (just as engaging as the film), I noted how odd it was that "even with his A-list status, [Tyler is] still offered (and, moreover, accepts!) schlock like this and Escape Room". You never know until you take a chance.

** - I don't know if I want to continue with Scriptshadow as frequently as I have. Granted, Carson has some neat tips about the craft, but (not being picked for Amateur Offerings aside), his opinions on film grow more and more untenable. That he's a Last Jedi hater should've been a sign that maybe I've outgrown him. Still, as long as whining about "what they should be doing with Star Wars" every now and then keeps him from posting 'Why Brie Larson Sucks' videos on YouTube (and you know he goddamn wants to), I suppose I can live with it.

Well, I learned something very important today (confirmed by looking it up online...yes, while I was supposed to be working): putting batteries in the same pocket as loose change can cause them to get really warm and potentially explode.

Thankfully, unlike most things, this wasn’t a lesson I had to learn the hard way.

P.S. After the batteries cooled, they were still effective for my CD player.