If there’s one thing we’ve learned it’s that every horror movie, no matter what it’s about, can lead to a sequel if it’s popular enough. And given the critical acclaim getting heaped on Ready or Not (read my review), starring Samara Weaving as a woman who marries into a rich family, only for her in-laws to hunt her for sport on her wedding night, it seems very possible that the new film from Radio Silence could yield a follow-up or two.
In a new interview with Bloody-Disgusting, the filmmaking team – Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Chad Villella and Tyler Gillett – revealed some of their ideas for expanding the mythology of Ready or Not as well as directly sequelizing the events of the first film.
Needless to say… SPOILER ALERT.
In Ready or Not we learn that the Le Domas family owes their fortune to “Mr. Le Bail,” a mysterious supernatural figure who may also be responsible for the wealth of other powerful families all over the world. In order to keep their fortune, and in order to not die horribly themselves, the Le Domas family has to play “Hide and Seek” and sacrifice the newest member of the family, who is “it”, whenever a magical “Choosing Box” tells them to.
One of the keys to the sequel possibilities for Ready or Not stems from an ending that never made it into the film, confirming that rich people all over the world owed their wealth to the mysterious Mr. Le Bail, and implying that they all have to make their own human sacrifices to keep their fortunes.
But although they owe their financial success to Le Bail, the Le Domas family technically made their money by selling games. As such, their human sacrifice ritual takes the form of a board game.
According to Radio Silence, different wealthy Le Bail acolytes would probably have to make their sacrifices in different ways.
“The way we always sort of imagined it is, you know when Tony is spinning the yarn about the history this box and how it came into their family, that whatever it was in that instance, in that deal between Victor and Mr. Le Bail, that sets off that family’s specific trajectory of wealth, and maybe that’s different for every other family that’s made a deal with Mr. Le Bail,” Gillett explains. “But that it [the ‘Hide and Seek’ sacrifice] is specific to the Le Domas family, we kind of loved.”
“We also just loved this off-screen story of what are these other families? What are these other titans of industry, how does this game manifested in their lives?” Gillett asks.
But what about Grace, who survived the human sacrifice and even earned a seemingly respectful nod from Mr. Le Bail at the end of Ready or Not. Has her story concluded?
“We’ve talked a lot about what happens to Grace after the fact,” Gillett adds. She’s the only surviving member of the Le Domas family. She obviously has a marriage certificate. Does she inherit the wealth of this [family], and what does she do with that wealth and how does she get past…”
Gillett trailed off, but the questions his unfinished sentence raises are many. How does she get past the curse of Le Bail? Does she have to make sacrifices to keep the Le Domas fortune? Does she represent a threat to the other rich Le Domas acolytes?
“We’ve talked a lot about what that could be, and does the choosing box survive the fire?” Gillett wonders aloud, before confirming that, like a black box on an airplane, it would indeed stay intact no matter what.
Then, of course, there’s at least one prequel possibility that Radio Silence has pondered, if only playfully.
“We’d do the prequel with Fitch and Emilie and they’re just partying in Ibiza and having a good time and random death is occurring all around them,” Matt Bettinelli-Olpin laughs, referring to the scene-stealing, comically inept couple played by Kristian Bruun and Melanie Scrofano.
Of course, we’ll only find out for certain where a Ready or Not sequel will go if the first film is successful enough to justify making a follow-up. If you’re interested, go out and see Ready or Not in theaters now!
