Ready Or Not's Production Went Through A Stunning Number Of Wedding Dresses
If you dug the elaborate kills and intricate set design on the latest "Scream" requel, you simply must check out "Ready or Not," the previous theatrical feature from the filmmaking troupe known as Radio Silence. Comprised of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella, the collective has largely been behind the camera of anthologies (including the first installment of "V/H/S" and its recent reboot "V/H/S/94"), though they also conjured up "Devil's Due," an overt homage to "Rosemary's Baby" that had Eli Roth solidly in the bag.
With "Ready or Not," the trio really flexed their filmic savvy in every conceivable way, boasting an astute eye for composition and yielding inventive, entertaining scares as a result. Even the unsung details of the film's production prove to have been rigorously mapped out and coordinated, one such detail being the wedding dress worn by Grace (Samara Weaving), the film's principal character who enters a deadly game of hide-and-seek on her wedding night. Having grown up as a foster child, she's stunned by the inherited riches of her groom Alex's (Mark O'Brien) family, who host the wedding reception at their lavish mansion. Having essentially grown up without familial ties, Grace is ready to finally accept having a family of her own — but of course, there's a catch. As part of the long-standing Le Domas family tradition, any new-comer must participate in a game, simply decided by drawing a title from a deck of cards. Unfortunately for Grace, she draws the foreboding hide-and-seek card instead of, say, Scrabble — prompting a bloody hunt for the bride as she esconds around the estate. However, ensuring her own survival will result in the death of her husband and his killer clan due to the parameters of a decades-old pact with the devil.
27 dresses? Pfft, try 51
As the Le Domas family desperately searches for Grace, her once-impeccably white wedding dress begins to act as a survival tool in itself, becoming doused with blood and periodically torn to make tourniquets for her amassing wounds. As opposed to representing a symbol of waifish femininity, the dress epitomizes the power of womanhood in the face of abusive domestic partnership. As it basically disintegrates, the dress goes from encapsulating the spoils of riches to utilitarian rags — also exemplifying Grace's disillusionment with the money and corruption she hastily married into.
During a promotional interview for the film, Weaving revealed there were 17 different variations of the glamorous wedding dress she dons in the film, each more tattered and tarnished than the last. This meant that her double also required 17 identical dresses, as well as the stunt team. In total, this added up to 51 dresses needed for the entire production — an impressive number that all but blows Katherine Heigl's bridesmaid blues out of the water. As Weaving said:
"Avery, the costume designer, was amazing. She made it look much more comfortable than it is. I love that the dress was a weapon, it was the first aid kit, and I meant it looks so great—red on a white wedding dress. We had 17 dresses just for me, and then another 17 for doubles, and then another 17 for the stunt team. Yeah, Avery and the wardrobe department had a lot of dresses."
The dress itself is inspired by women who married into royalty, most notably Grace Kelly (who simply must serve as the eponymous inspiration for Weaving's character) and Kate Middleton — though their proximity to fame and status hardly constitute the term "commoner" to describe either of them. Both of their dresses featured long lace sleeves and bodices, with a fitted waist and gorgeous cascading trains. Updated with a bit of a modern twist, the dress that Grace wears is both fashion-forward and timeless, evoking style envy from even the most wedding-averse among us. If the location for the warehouse containing all of these dresses ever drops, it's all but certain that these garments will be scooped up by a very stylish cat burglar — yes, even including the most blood-spattered and muddied of the lot. What can I say? It's a look!