With ‘Ready or Not 2’ arriving in theaters, we look back at the first film & how it transformed Samara Weaving into a horror icon.
Ready or Not 2 storms down the aisle and into theaters this weekend, with directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Radio Silence) returning behind the camera. Star Samara Weaving also reprises her role as Grace. A whole seven years after that original film rolled the dice and transformed the Australian-born actress into the horror icon she is today.
The Radio Silence horror comedy wasn’t Weaving’s first film. Not in the slightest. Before slipping on the wedding dress, she appeared in several genre outings. Her soul got swallowed in bloody fashion towards the end of “Ash vs. Evil Dead” season 1 (where she claims she discovered her epic scream). She took a hammer to corporate chuds in Mayhem. And she became a true villain in the flipped on its head slasher, The Babysitter. I personally first took notice of her during the latter, entranced by her fiendish yet somehow endearing portrayal of satanist, Bee. Ironic, in a sense, that it would be the actress taking down satanists that would become the role she was best known for.
Ready or Not introduces us to bride to be, Grace (Weaving), just minutes away from marrying into the Le Domas Family. Her fiancé, Alex (Mark O’Brien) offers one last chance to walk away from becoming a part of the family’s board game empire, but she loves him and happily refuses. Officially wed, Grace learns that Le Domas tradition requires she plays a randomly chosen game. The unfortunate bride happens to draw the least fortunate card, Hide and Seek. Now, she must hide from a family that believes that if they don’t hunt Grace down and kill her by dawn, they’ll lose everything. But this bride isn’t going down without a fight.
When we first meet Grace, she’s practically glowing. Nervous, yes, but out of her mind excited. Dress, stunning. Braided hair, perfect. Big blue eyes full of joy. More importantly, she’s atypical to what we’d expect from your average “final girl”. Grace smokes. She drops F-bombs as often as she breathes. And despite her shy anxiety, we get the sense that she’s no innocent angel as the trope was defined in the 80s. But she is a good person. That we can see. Much too good for the Le Domas family, though she doesn’t quite know it yet despite every warning.
“You don’t belong in this family. I mean that as a compliment,” says Alex’s brother, Daniel (Adam Brody). He’s right. She doesn’t. But Grace has no idea how true that statement is…nor does she recognize the arbiter of doom routine that Daniel engages in. He might as well be an old man at a gas station, declaring that the family has a death curse. Which…accurate.
Alex also makes a half-hearted attempt at steering Grace away, telling her that he’s giving her “an out”. One last chance to leave a whole thirty minutes before the wedding. As if Grace ever had much of a choice. The first of many instances in which Alex manipulates her; Takes advantage of her situation.
Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
The Scream that Raged Against the Machine
We learn later that Grace grew up in foster homes. She’s never known her real parents. And in the eyes of the “richer than God” Le Domas family, she’s the bottom of the pit lower class. A woman who Alex’s father, Tony (Henry Czerny), deems an unworthy addition to their clan hoarding wealth like The Hobbit‘s Smaug. Now, put yourself in Grace’s shoes. Never had money. Never had a family. Perhaps never felt what she believes is true love. Why would she give any of that up, without knowing what was coming? Alex only presents himself as a nice, considerate guy. He believes he’s faultless, at another point telling his bride, “You wanted to get married”, as if she should’ve known better. By not telling the truth from the get go, he’s trapped her. His offer to leave is a false option. They both know full well that won’t happen.
Released just a couple of years after the height of the MeToo movement, Grace captures a profound female rage bubbling in the blood of women around the world. Weaving’s guttural, iconic scream that she lets loose throughout echoes the screams of everyone everywhere who had grown tired of the bullshit of privileged men. Alex represents that sort of man in a nutshell. Wealthy though seemingly respectable on the outside. Maybe even appearing as a decent person from time to time. But underneath, a user without any respect for anyone but himself and his money. He chooses his wealth over Grace in the end. Radio Silence’s way of saying that guys like Alex…they’re all the same.
Grace, though? She’s anything but typical.
Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
A Warrior for the Lower Class
A personal favorite visual element comes in the form of Grace’s dress. At the beginning, it’s bright. Perfect. As pearly white as Weaving’s sparkling teeth. Upon deciding to leave the dumbwaiter she’s chosen to hide in and refuse to play what she still thinks is an innocent game, her dress rips a little. After Alex reveals the true “game” at hand, she rips her dress a little more. And a little more. Until we reach the final frame, Grace covered in blood and dirt. She doesn’t just become a warrior for women and the lower class. She embodies the image of what we all suffer through every day. Fighting and scraping to get by. Crawling through the mud if we must. But doing it on our own. Without insurmountable wealth to carry us through. She needs no man. And she sure as hell isn’t your motherfucking bride. She’s just Grace.
Once that card is drawn, the Le Domas family views Grace as nothing more than a sacrificial goat to prolong their legacy. That’s exactly how the one percent sees most of us…meat for the capitalism grinder. Worker bees serving a queen. The “help”. The furious bride must climb out of a pit of dead goats like a game of Chutes and Ladders, rise from what they see her as to who she truly is, before her final confrontation with them. How’s that for symbolism?
“The rich really are different,” utters Daniel at one point. You can say that again, my man.
Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fucking Rich People
Like female rage films, we’ve since seen an explosion of “eat the rich” movies, as well. Death of a Unicorn, The Menu, Send Help to an extent. But Ready or Not and Grace came at a time when we were collectively starting to feel an anger toward the wealthy shaking in our bones. Beginning to end, the Radio Silence film skewers the one percent, using Grace to express our un-bride-led rage.
Listen to finance bros discuss the stock market for even two minutes, and you’ll realize the wealthiest of us see it all as a game. Those at the bottom—you, me, Grace—we’re unwilling players on the board. Pawns, really. That’s why Grace refusing to play feels so cathartic. Why her frustrated scream of “fucking rich people” echoes something stirring in the pits of our stomachs. We’re not chess pieces lined up for the wealthy to use however they want. We didn’t sign up for this shit. Grace metaphorically flips the board off the table. She’s through playing. Who among us hasn’t wanted to do the same?
Fucking rich people and their games, indeed.
Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
Laughing in the Face of Nepotism
Not that any of them play by the rules, either. Tony applies half-hearted ideals of tradition to the game—outdated weapons, no security cameras, etc.—perhaps to feel as if they earn their “victories”. But all it takes is Grace flipping the tables on the Le Domas family for them to toss the rules away like they toss bodies in that pit. They’re not honorable. Not talented. They’re cheaters. Their wealth is generational, granted to them through a pact with the Devil. And if you’re alive in the year 2026 and you still think billionaires have earned every buck they’ve ever made…well, you need to watch this film a few more times.
As if breaking the rules weren’t enough, Radio Silence includes the character of Emilie (Melanie Scorfano) to make sure you fully snort what they’re laying down. Alex’s sister, Emilie spends the majority of Ready or Not more coked out than Tony Montana at the end of Scarface. She’s the epitome of nepotism, a talentless brat child who has everything she could possibly ask for because she was born into it. Some of the biggest laughs come from Emilie’s repeated accidental killings of the maids because they highlight the incapability of nepo babies. But whereas you or I would certainly face consequences, Emilie won’t. Nor will her kill-happy kids, who have already decided that this is all totally normal. They’ll throw the bodies in the pit and money will make it all go away.
At least, that’s what would’ve happened, if not for Grace.
Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
The Image of the Decade
The first sound we hear in Ready or Not is that of rumbling thunder. Not an ominous warning of the coming game, but of the angry storm that is Grace about to come down on the Le Domas jerks. In that opening scene, Grace wants desperately to be accepted by the family. The rich have a way of making the rest of us feel like we must earn their respect. They constantly paint things as “us” vs “them” (aka, the poor, aka, Grace). But by the end, it’s Alex begging for Grace’s respect as death creeps on the doorstep. She makes it to dawn. She survives the Le Domas family. They all pop like the over-stuffed, blood-sucking leeches they are. And in one final, delicious “fuck you,” Grace tosses her ring at Alex and declares, “I want a divorce”, just as he explodes into a million pieces.
Grace proves she doesn’t need a man to survive. She doesn’t need their blood money. Instead, she burns it all down to the ground. Sits down on the steps outside. And smokes a much-needed cigarette in an image that has become the meme of all memes to symbolize how so many of us feel these days when it comes to the state of the world, and the billionaires ruining it for the rest of us.
Ready or Not remains a proud middle finger to the one percent. Grace, our arbiter of justice. Of rage. And most importantly, of fight. You could view that final image of her as one of exhaustion. Ambivalence. Whatever. But me? I see it as one of defiance. Alex took her cigarette from her in that first scene. Now, she’s going to smoke all the cigarettes she damn well pleases. It’s a visual that says I’m still here, motherfuckers. You thought I didn’t deserve your family, but you were wrong. You all didn’t deserve me.
For Samara Weaving, 2019 marked the year she became a horror icon. Her character, Grace, a woman of the people. An emblematic warrior standing proud and declaring she’s not going to take it anymore. And seven years later, her unforgettable scream continues to echo across time, ensuring we never forget the power that resides in each of us.
See Grace kick some more billionaire ass now that Ready or Not 2 is in theaters.
