This tart satirical horror from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, two thirds of the film-making collective Radio Silence who masterminded 2012’s cult horror anthology V/H/S, borrows its title from the children’s game hide and seek (or else the 1996 Fugees track of the same name).
On her wedding night, Grace (Samara Weaving) should be climbing into bed with her blue-blooded groom Alex (Mark O’Brien), but his “moderately fucked-up family”, the Le Domases, have a different marital ritual in mind. New additions to the family must choose a game for the entire clan to play by picking a card. Grace chooses hide and seek – or at least a version of it in which her pursuers must find and kill her before sunrise.
Among them is brother Daniel (Adam Brody, debonair, laconic and sadly underused), coke-snorting sister Emilie (Melanie Scrofano) and creepy Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni), who has painted eyebrows and a permanent furrowed scowl. Better still is a purring Andie MacDowell, deploying a snooty southern drawl as Alex’s mother. “Rich people really are different,” deadpans Grace.
The film-makers cut their teeth making low-budget horror; that impulse towards economy is apparent here, despite the film’s opulent setting. There is an elegance to the premise – an otherwise straightforward cat-and-mouse chase around a gothic mansion – and a satisfying clip to the rewardingly gory action. Weaving tears down the institution of marriage with scrappy determination and a cheeky, foul-mouthed wit; her battle uniform (yellow Converse sneakers, ripped lace train, rifle and a sash full of ammunition) will surely become its own cult Halloween costume.
