What a fun movie this is. For a joyous hour and a half, you can step into a simpler world. There's a likable hero (Samara Weaving) facing off against an unlikable villain family of psychotic satanic kooks.
Psychotic satanic kooks, you say? Right, so what happens is the hero marries into a rich family who has amassed its fortune in games (think Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley). When the family insists that the wedding night end with a game, the hero views it as a quirky but harmless escapade. Oh, how wrong she is. Because of her misfortune of randomly drawing the card to play Hide and Seek, the entire family now believes they must kill her before dawn or suffer the wrath of a gamesman spirit that is responsible for their family fortune, or something like that. The details of the plotdon't matter a great deal other than to understand that the family is trying to kill her, so she runs around in a wedding dress trying to survive.
Tonally, the movie is much more funny and exciting than it is scary. Even if you frighten easily, you should be able to tolerate this one. Though, a fair warning is needed about the violence. There's a lot of that. Much of it is comic violence, but a queasy stomach might act up anyway. Again, I'm just giving a fair warning.
In a world where everything is politicized, you might have seen some people doing so with this movie. To me, that's a bit of a reach. At most, I would admit there is some fairly obvious social commentary, as the rich family members ridicule and look down their noses at this woman who isn't wealthy and is marrying into their world. The groom's aunt takes particularly aim at the bride, attacking her with her eyes and then later on literally attacking her with an axe.
The message is clear, but I didn't bother exploring it too deeply because the movie doesn't appear to be asking for that from viewers. What I would encourage viewers to do instead is to enjoy the marvelous work of Weaving as she fights for her life in the most charming way possible. She's an absolute star, and the movie does not succeed if she is not able to balance being equal parts tough, cunning, and amused by the absurdity of her situation.
Psychotic satanic kooks, you say? Right, so what happens is the hero marries into a rich family who has amassed its fortune in games (think Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley). When the family insists that the wedding night end with a game, the hero views it as a quirky but harmless escapade. Oh, how wrong she is. Because of her misfortune of randomly drawing the card to play Hide and Seek, the entire family now believes they must kill her before dawn or suffer the wrath of a gamesman spirit that is responsible for their family fortune, or something like that. The details of the plotdon't matter a great deal other than to understand that the family is trying to kill her, so she runs around in a wedding dress trying to survive.
Tonally, the movie is much more funny and exciting than it is scary. Even if you frighten easily, you should be able to tolerate this one. Though, a fair warning is needed about the violence. There's a lot of that. Much of it is comic violence, but a queasy stomach might act up anyway. Again, I'm just giving a fair warning.
In a world where everything is politicized, you might have seen some people doing so with this movie. To me, that's a bit of a reach. At most, I would admit there is some fairly obvious social commentary, as the rich family members ridicule and look down their noses at this woman who isn't wealthy and is marrying into their world. The groom's aunt takes particularly aim at the bride, attacking her with her eyes and then later on literally attacking her with an axe.
The message is clear, but I didn't bother exploring it too deeply because the movie doesn't appear to be asking for that from viewers. What I would encourage viewers to do instead is to enjoy the marvelous work of Weaving as she fights for her life in the most charming way possible. She's an absolute star, and the movie does not succeed if she is not able to balance being equal parts tough, cunning, and amused by the absurdity of her situation.