Just one more day until Halloween. We’re almost done. For today I chose two movies I feel actually kind off fit together into the dysfunctional family horror. The family unit can be a horror to live through in real life too. Maternity and the mother figure has often been used as a horror trope to portray the evil in the guise of nurturing and loving figure. In these two movies it’s the entire family that I screwed up and the outsider female who survives and outsmarts everyone else. The two final girls here are both looking to find family due to their unusual upbringing where they didn’t have the normal family life they crave so much. But their dream of a family does not come true either way. They have to fight for their life either because greed got the better of one family member or because of some satanic ritual that has to be fulfilled.
Erin and Grace, the two female protagonists of the movies are sort of tragic figures in a sense, as all they wanted was to belong and that wish is destroyed within one night. The distinction between the women and the movies is that Ready or Not incorporates humor in its plot and the nonchalance Grace often presents during her gruesome night is just amazing to see. Especially the closing scene highlights how done she is with the whole situation and how jaded the night, that was supposed to be the happiest of her life, left her. Erin on the other hand is a bit more jaded from the beginning. adapting to the situation she is presented it quickly due to her upbringing with her survivalist father who taught her to stay calm in dangerous situations.
Another reason why I chose these movies, is again that I’m thinking of including them in my master’s thesis. I recently read a text about the final girls, where the author compared Laurie Strode against Nancy Thompson in terms of who is the more true feminist ideal of a final girls. The author concluded that it is Nancy Thompson as she uses her mind rather than violence to defeat Freddy in the end, whereas Laurie relied on men to safe her and used stabbing (which can be seen as penetrating and therefore phallic and masculine) to defend herself against Michael Myers. For Erin and Grace I want to take up part of the argument and use it to show that they’re also feminist final girls as they use both their minds to trick the opponents and violence to survive in a situation where it is needed. The difference is that Freddy is a supernatural being that cannot be defeated through sheer violence. His turf is the dream world and through believing in him and his power over you, he gains even more power. Getting him into the real world and stopping him by taking his greatest source of power away from him, fear, she is able to defeat him. Grace and Erin, however, fight against humans and just turning their backs on the won’t work.
But let’s get to the plot for a while since not everyone probably knows these movies. Let’s start with You’re Next as it was released in 2011 and is therefore the older movie.
You’re Next
The movie starts with the brutal murder of an unknown couple, who later turn out to be a neighbor and his younger girlfriend.
The Davison family is having a family reunion in the parents vacation home in Missouri. Erin accompanies her boyfriend Crispin. The parents Aubrey and Paul arrive first to clean up and prepare the house. Aubrey hears noises from upstairs, making her skittish. Part of the reunion are also Crispin’s older brother Drake and his wife, his younger brother Felix with his girlfriend Zee, and his younger sister Aimee and her boyfriend. During dinner tensions arise when Drake makes fun of his siblings and their choices and partners, when someone shoots a crossbow bolt through a window, hitting Aimee’s boyfriend and killing him. Drake is also wounded. Soon after the family realizes that their mobile phones have no connection. The perpetrators are wearing masks and have booby trapped the house, which become apparent when Aimee wants to sprint out and run for help, but is garroted and her throat is slit. Aubrey is so traumatized from seeing her daughter die, that she has to lie down, only for one of the killers waiting for her underneath her bed. One by one the family is killed with the perpetrators being professionals who know what they’re doing. Erin is the only one keeping a clear head as she grew up on a survivalist compound and is trained for these kind of situations. She manages to kill Tiger mask with a meat cleaver. Crispin leaves the house to look for help and Kelly, Drake’s wife flees the house out of panic but is killed by Lamb Mask at the neighbors house.
Paul finds sleeping bags, indicating that the killers have been in the house for a while. Felix and Zee arrive, when Paul shows them the sleeping bags but he is killed by Fox mask in front of Felix and Zee. It is revealed that they’ve hired the killers to kill his family so that he can get the inheritance. Erin meanwhile sets booby traps as well and manages to injure Lamb mask with a screw driver. Drake is killed by Felix in the basement. Erin overhears Felix, Zee, Lamb Mask, and Fox Mask arguing. So she now knows that they’re behind it. Her phone makes a noise, making them aware that she’s listened. Erin flees and injures her leg. Back at the house she makes trap for the last two killers. She manages to ambush Lamb Mask and stabs him in the head. After her trap for Fox Mask fails, she lures him into the basement and killing him with a log. Zee and Felix try to kill Erin, however, Erin outsmarts them and manages to kill them in return. Felix’s phone rings and she answers it without saying anything. Crispin is on the line, making Erin realize he was in on the plan. He comes back to the house explaining to her that she was never a target. Erin, thoroughly disgusted with her boyfriend, kills him.
The movie ends with the police arriving, and seeing Erin kill Crispin. She’s shot in the shoulder and upon entering through the front door, the cop falls victim to Erin’s trap.
Ready or Not
This movie also starts with murder, however it tries to mislead the viewer a bit. Two children are running away and seemingly fleeing an attacker. When Daniel hides his little brother Alex away, a men with an arrow sticking in his side asks him for help. He alerts the other’s of his location when he is hit with another arrow. People wearing masks and a weeping bride arrive. It now becomes clear that the victim is the new husband and he is being sacrificed in a ritual.
Thirty years later, we are introduced to Grace who is about to marry Alex, the young child who was hidden away by his brother during the sacrifice. She is about to marry into the Le Domas family, who made their fortune with family games After the ceremony it is revealed to Grace that every new family member must play a game, and that if the family fails to win the game, they die at dawn. The ancestor of the family made a pact with a man named Le Bail once upon a time. Le Bail is actually the devil. The pact was that Le Bail helps build the family fortune and in return the family has to observe the tradition that every new family member must play a game. Grace has to draw a card from Le Bail’s puzzle box, which decided the game that is played. She draws hide and seek, which is the worst card of all. It was also the card that was drawn thirty years ago. Meaning she has to die for the family to survive. Only Grace does not know this yet. While she hides the family arms themselves with all kinds of weapons. Alex goes out to find Grace to save her, but the house is being on lockdown so she cannot get out without Alex unlocking it. He tries to explain everything to her but she doesn’t believe him, until his sister Emilie accidentally kills one of the maids, mistaking her for Grace. She also accidentally kills another maid as well, in her coked out state.
Daniel has become and alcoholic and is disillusioned with the family and the tradition and also helps Grace throughout the movie. First by giving her a head start after finding her in the study. Though her escape is further thwarted by the butler, Stevens. She flings hot water into his face and escapes the kitchen only to be seen by the third maid. She calls out for the family but is accidentally crushed by the dumbwaiter she is hiding in (Karma I would say). Grace escapes to the stables, where Gerorgie, Emilies young son, is. In a sort of deja vu scene, instead of helping her, he shoots her in the hand. Grace knocks him out cold but falls into a pit where the other sacrifices have been put. She manages to pull herself up. She manages to squeeze herself through the gate, but is soon picked up by the butler. She throttles him until he’s unconscious and takes his car, only for it to be turned off remotely for being reported stolen. Steven’s is already awake again and shoots her with a tranquilizer gun. She wakes up and knocks him out and the car crashes. She is then captured by Daniel, because he knew his father was there as well. During the sacrificial ceremony the family drink wine from a chalice, but then puke blood because Daniel has poisoned the blood. It is not deadly but incapacitates the family for a while.
Daniel is then being shot by his own wife because she doesn’t want to die and was eager to sell her soul to Le Bail upon marrying into the family. Charity is then pistol whipped by Grace. In the study, she is attacked by Tony but she beats him with the lantern and sets the house on fire. Becky arrives and attacks Grace, but she manages to kill her with Le Bail’s puzzle box. Alex, who in the meantime manage to free himself from his restraints, finds Grace and realized that she doesn’t trust him anymore and won’t want to be with him anymore. He restraints her and calls the rest of his family to complete the ritual. They have to hurry though, as it’s almost dawn. The ritual fails as Grace manages to free herself. The sun has risen, and at first nothing happens. But then one by one, the members of the family explode. Grace keeps her cool and even sees Le Bail in his chair nodding at her.
The movie ends with Grace sitting outside the burning house when police arrive and ask her what happened to which she only replies “In-laws“.
That’s the rough plot outline for these two movies taken care of.
I already wrote quite a bit at the beginning about my feelings on these two characters and the movies. I just want to further mention that there are some similarities but also differences. In You’re Next it all comes down to human vices such as greed and jealousy. Felix and Zee are simply greedy and want the inheritance for themselves. They don’t care that they have to kill their family for that. they only want the money. With Crispin it is part greed, as he wants to start a life with Erin and is not successful enough to do it on his own, but also part jealousy. He is jealous that his brother Drake is the golden child and nothing he does is good enough for his father. He always feels that he has to compete with his older brother. So he has no qualms in getting them out of the way. But he is also a cowards. He flees as soon as things get too gruesome, even leaving Erin, the supposed love of his life behind to fend for herself. There is no real loyalty and family unit here, even though it seemed to at first. The parents have a set of children they prefer and they show it. And the other set of children are sick of it and want to have everything for themselves. But this is a strictly human situation. Everything is done by humans hands.
In Ready or Not there is the happy couple wanting to marry. Even though the family seemed a bit dysfunctional from the beginning. As Grace practices her vows she says that her future brother in law is an alcoholic who hits on her and her future father in law can’t stand her. They’re a rich and snobbish family and Alex is the golden child, with his father hoping he’d pick a woman more to his liking. Grace has no family. She was in the foster system all throughout her childhood and she longs to belong to a family, that’s why she wanted to marry Alex. The difference here is that the plot of Ready or Not is not purely driven by humans and their vices, but by satanism and a pact with the devil. The family is very driven by a sense of survival and also tradition. But they also put family very high on the list with the outsider marrying into the family not being a true part of it just yet and therefore disposable if need by. Even the love between Alex and Grace is not enough to safe the relationship. As his mother predicted, he chose hid family over Grace once he realizes that she won’t stay with him when this is all over. I mean, did he really think she would forgive and forget that his entire family just wanted to kill and sacrifice her? Delusional!
Both Erin and Grace, though, adapt super fast to their circumstances. Especially Grace is admirable. Erin had previous training. But Grace is driven purely by a sense of survival and wanting to beat the opponent and not give in to their games. Both manage to come out on top even though they’re by far outnumbered and their opponents are better equipped. They use their brains to outsmart their attackers but also resort to violence as a form of revenge. For me it is not to seem masculine, because Grace for example is wearing her wedding gown the entire time, but more of an equalizing factor.
Before this gets even longer and I’ll start writing my thesis here, I’m gonna stop. Just one more entry tomorrow for the big finale. And you can probably guess which movie, or actually movies I have planned for Halloween, right? It’s of course Halloween (2018) and its sequel Halloween Kills. So if you haven’t seen the second one, don’t read tomorrow because there will be spoilers.
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