This one was a pleasant surprise. A truly stupid setup: a strange wealthy family forces a bride-to-be, about to marry one of their sons, to play a game of hide-and-seek before the wedding, during which they try to kill her, because of some claptrap where a family curse says they have to. Ok, pretty stupid setup.
Well: turns out, if you can forgive the stupid story, for the millionth cinematic variation of “The Most Dangerous Game”… this is a pretty good movie, for what it is. Definitely a strong cut above what I expected it to be. The cast helps: Samara Weaving (in probably the best performance I’ve seen her give, by the end she’s downright feral), Adam Brody, Andie MacDowall, Melanie Scrofano, plus a bunch of unfamiliar actors, all hamming it up enough to make the eccentric, homicidal rich characters entertaining without going so far over the top that it’s too ridiculous to enjoy. It’s much better made than the trash movie I expected, and, actually manages to work in some decent black humor, something that a lot of horror movies try at and fail, but this one actually succeeds at pretty well. Turns out a few of the people behind it worked on “Scream”, which, meh, but it makes sense, and without Scream’s wink-and-a-nod irony it works alright. If you can forgive the stupid story.
Not great, but definitely a cut above the ordinary. It’s kinda good. I kinda liked it. Well-made enough that it’s probably a good date movie. I can see maybe rewatching this at some point in the future, which is high praise. If you can forgive the stupid story.