Written by Rubee Mellon
Warning: There will be spoilers for this movie in this review, so if you have not seen it and would like to see it, do not read. Or read it, I don't care.
I was late to the party with regards to this movie, I had wanted to see it for a while but never had the opportunity to. It was recently added to UK Disney Plus (which is beginning to add quite a lot of horror content at the moment), so I was finally able to watch this movie!
Firstly, the premise of the movie is easy enough to understand. A movie in the horror genre does not generally need to have an overly complicated base for a storyline. Grace, a young woman who has clearly come from less desirable means, is about to marry into an insanely rich family that gained their wealth from some weird board game dynasty. She's warned several times if she is sure she wants to go through with the nuptials. Once the wedding is over the family tell her of a tradition that the new member of the family must take part in a game that is picked at random. Unfortunately for Grace, the game selected is hide and seek, which the demented family have dictated to mean that the person hides and they hunt them for MuRdEr to appease the spirt of Mr Le Bail.
Now to my thoughts and feelings. In my personal opinion, this movie did not feature enough death throughout. Yes it had the occasional death of a maid dotted throughout, but it was pretty tame for a horror flick. I definitely would have appreciated that insufferable sister of the family being killed off in some sort of brutal manner half way through the movie, as I felt the appeal and comedy of the character draining me, or perhaps her numb-nuts of a husband. Either way, someone in that family should be dead at the half way point.
A death I am on the fence about is that of the brother, Daniel. Who gets shot while protecting Grace. The reason I am on the fence about it is that with the ending the writers decided to use for the film, I would have been interested to see if Daniel would have been spared from the curse for showing that he would protect someone from the less-than-desirable parts of his family. Maybe this conundrum is why the writers opted to give him a separate death from the rest of the family.
I know I tend to harper on a lot about costuming in film, television and stage, but I think they can make or break a viewers. I ADORE the costuming in this movie. I feel as though the evolution and change of Grace's wedding dress throughout the movie could compensate for tons of dialogue alone if they were in a pinch. The dress (before it is torn apart, burnt and drenched in blood), is oddly classic and fashion forward at the same time. The conservative coverage in the dress makes sense due to Grace marrying into an old-money family steeped in pretentious traditions, but it is actual very on trend for wedding dresses in 2021/22, as they are migrating towards more conservative wedding looks of high neck lines and full length sleeves (take for example, Paris Hilton's recent wedding dress).
We have to talk about the ending. What in the world did the writers think they were doing there? I know many journalistic establishments tend to think the ending was fantastic (with one I found even calling it the best horror movie ending ever), but I'm definitely inclined to disagree. While I can appreciate the family all receiving their comeuppance at the end of the movie, the overly cartoony explosive nature of their deaths stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the movie.
I would have appreciated an ending that showed that after Grace survived the night, the family were completely fine; there tradition had no meaning to it, it was a murderous generational delusion. But then the house catches fire and they get trapped and so happen to die in ways that are as a result of their mistakes and carelessness. To me, this would be much more on par with the tone of the rest of the movie.
However, if there simply must be an explosive (or is it implosive? I'm not sure) ending, since it is more comedic, I think it would have been much better for Alex (Grace's husband) to have fully believed he was spared from Mr Le Bail and then have a giant chandelier drop on him as he was about to leave the house. I think that would have been more funny than him just slowly accepting his implosive doom.
The cast were spectacular in this movie, but Samara Weaving is fantastic and is sure to be a giant star in the coming years. I am certain the movie would not be as good if they had gone in another direction and cast someone else. She plays the final girl trope beautifully and I'm hoping I'll get to see more of her in those types of roles (without her gaining too much of a type-cast, as she is so talented she deserves to show a variety of roles).
My overall rating: 7/10.
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