By
Matt Pascarella
I’m
anxiously awaiting the arrival of ‘A Quiet Place Part II,’ so I was looking for
a thriller that would keep me guessing and in some suspense. This was – well,
I’ll get to that.
Grace
(Samara Weaving) has just married Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien), part of the Le
Domas Gaming Dominion. But before she is accepted into the family, at midnight,
the night of the wedding, she and the other family members must play a game.
This seems simple enough. As she sits around the table, some of the other
spouses recount what games they played and they’re board games, nothing too
complex. However, when Grace draws the ‘Hide and Seek’ card, it’s clear this
isn’t going to be a simple as a game of checkers.
After
Alex’s wedding ceremony, the Le Domas family is fairly unwelcoming right from
the start. It’s very important to the father, Tony, (Henry Czerny) that the
gaming tradition be kept going as the family is more than a little
superstitious. They believe terrible things will happen if they don’t keep up
this ritual.
After
Grace draws her card, she asks Tony if there is any way she can win. He says,
‘stay hidden until dawn.’ It’s obvious this is not a friendly game of hide and
seek. Alex does not play and does what he can to help Grace outsmart his
relatives.
Right
off the bat some unexpected things happen that I definitely did not see coming.
Grace
does all she can to survive. And not everyone in the family is out to get her.
She gets discovered several times, but each time is able to escape. She even
steals a car at one point. Not to give too much away, but eventually Grace is
captured. And here, a twist or two occurs. It gets gorier toward the end – kind
of to excess. But maybe that was the point.
What
happens to Grace and Alex?
What
about the game of hide and seek?
Are
the superstitions valid?
I’ll
admit I was a little confused by the ending. I feel there are two possible
routes that would have explained why what happened did happen. I had high hopes
for this movie as the trailer made it look like a decent thriller.
The first
act is very good – I was drawn in by this weird ritual and this strange, cold
family. But by the second and third act it dragged a little and I found it less
captivating.
The conclusion, while ok, isn’t as satisfying as I would have hoped
for. A warning to the viewer: this is for some reason billed as a comedy/horror/mystery
(on imdb.com) but I did not find it overly funny, aside from a few offhanded
actions or comments. It is more violent and gruesome, with quite a bit of
blood.
There were a couple parts that were hard to watch. There’s also language
and drug use. If you’re looking for an edge-of-your-seat thriller, I didn’t
think this was it.
But
try it for yourself, what do you have to lose? <
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