One of my favorite movies is Ready or Not, a horror/thriller with a lot of comedy thrown into the mix. The story follows newlywed Grace and her fight to survive her new family’s deadly tradition of hide-and-seek. The plot, characters, and soundtrack are all things that made me love this film, but one thing in particular really stood out to me: the costumes. More specifically, Grace’s wedding dress. Since the movie takes place right after the wedding, everyone is dressed in formal wedding attire for the entire movie. Things get very intense and physical in Grace’s fight for survival and the dress she wears (along with her hair and makeup) accurately reflects everything she’s been through.
In a video about the wedding dress, the evolution of the garment is explained to have 5 phases throughout the film that align with key plot points. The movie’s costume designer, Avery Plewes, says that the dress is “its own character in the movie” which is a great way of emphasizing how crucial the dress was to the plot. There were 24 total dresses made, each with slight variations to match the events of the movie. What starts as an elegant, long-sleeve, white, traditional lace dress ends up becoming a blood-red ripped, short, dirty shell of a dress.
With the end goal of accurately conveying a story through a garment and making the events of the movie more realistic, there were many minor details on the dress that the normal viewer would see but not take note of. One such instance is during a scene where Grace is in a barn and gets covered in dirt. They used a different dress for this scene that was slightly tinted brown to mimic the look of dirt and mud. Alongside this, the dress had to have blood splatter on it from events prior to her incident in the barn. There are many scenes similar to this one that required an entirely new dress in order to reflect her interactions with the setting she was in.
“The dress was created to be destroyed.”
Another interesting point about the dresses is that, due to Grace constantly ripping pieces off, there were many sections of the dress that were pre-cut to make it easy for the actress, Samara Weaving, to tear away to use in a scene. These pieces would be sewn back on if there needed to be a reshoot or another complication that called for the dress to be reset. Even more interesting is that the dress was not only used as a costume but also as a prop. Grace is a very determined and innovative character which is shown as the movie progresses and fights get more intense. For the most part, she has no weapons or true means of fighting back, however she uses the sash on her dress as a tool to survive. The dress reflects her journey and also serves a practical purpose to the movie and Grace’s development.
Though there is much more to explore about the background behind the 24 dresses, it’s safe to say that Plewes outdid herself. The evolution of the dress is seamless and truly immerses the audience into the film. The importance of costume design is really highlighted in this film, as an entire story can be told through a single garment.
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