The Ritual
Rafe Spall (Life of Pi) and Robert James-Collier (TV's Downton Abbey) are among a group of friends who find themselves being stalked in the woods in this British horror.
College friends Luke (Spall), Hutch (James-Collier), Phil (Arsher Ali) and Dom (Sam Troughton) decide to take a hiking trip in the Swedish wilderness to reminisce about old times. But the inexperienced hikers soon find themselves hopelessly lost and as night closes in, tempers start to fray and they take shelter in an abandoned shack. Inside they discover the macabre artefacts of some unknown ritual and, during the night, each of the group suffers vivid, terrifying nightmares. As their friendships begin to crack and old resentments surface they become increasingly desperate to escape the woods. But they are not alone. Someone, or something, malevolent is watching them, intent on making them face their deepest fears and ensuring they never leave.
- Director:
- David Bruckner ('Southbound', 'The Signal')
- Writer:
- Joe Barton
- Cast:
- Rafe SpallRobert James-CollierArsher AliSam TroughtonMaria ErwolterKerri McLeanPaul Reid
Reviews & comments
Ceremonial ambiguity
The Geets (greats): The beginning of this movie sets the mood with a common friend (Rob) accidentally killed by armed robbers, while Luke could have saved Rob. The rest of the movie is his guilt over Rob's death and his self-blame as well as his friend's self-held anger towards Luke. The compelling storytelling helps drive the first half of this movie as...
Faithful adaptation
The Ritual, with some recognisable faces, takes Adam Neville's excellent horror novel and conceptualises it for a broader audience, and in a rare moment of cinematographic history actually improves the ending of the book (which I feel becomes somewhat contrived towards the end). The film sets a quick-march pace early on, and manages to maintain this pace...
Variety
pressSurely the best Yank-directed horror movie about English blokes terrorized by monsters in Romania-posing-as-Sweden that you'll see this year.
Total Film
pressEntertaining, engrossing and at times genuinely unnerving, Bruckner's bad trip is one for horror fans to relish.
Time Out
pressIf it lacks the originality and sheer muscle of the best horror fare, this does offer an astute take on fragile thirty-something machismo.
The Guardian
pressThe Ritual is an efficient, well-made if programmatic Brit horror, with good effects and a big monstrous reveal intelligently withheld.
FilmInk
pressStarting off in Blair Witch country before detouring into The Wicker Man, the film impresses with the way it deftly weaves together different horror tropes to excellent effect.
Empire Magazine
pressIt may not rise above skilfully delivering horror tropes, but connoisseurs will eat up its refusal to wink at them.
Variety
pressSurely the best Yank-directed horror movie about English blokes terrorized by monsters in Romania-posing-as-Sweden that you'll see this year.
Total Film
pressEntertaining, engrossing and at times genuinely unnerving, Bruckner's bad trip is one for horror fans to relish.
Time Out
pressIf it lacks the originality and sheer muscle of the best horror fare, this does offer an astute take on fragile thirty-something machismo.
The Guardian
pressThe Ritual is an efficient, well-made if programmatic Brit horror, with good effects and a big monstrous reveal intelligently withheld.
FilmInk
pressStarting off in Blair Witch country before detouring into The Wicker Man, the film impresses with the way it deftly weaves together different horror tropes to excellent effect.
Empire Magazine
pressIt may not rise above skilfully delivering horror tropes, but connoisseurs will eat up its refusal to wink at them.
Ceremonial ambiguity
The Geets (greats): The beginning of this movie sets the mood with a common friend (Rob) accidentally killed by armed robbers, while Luke could have saved Rob. The rest of the movie is his guilt over Rob's death and his self-blame as well as his friend's self-held anger towards Luke. The compelling storytelling helps drive the first half of this movie...
Faithful adaptation
The Ritual, with some recognisable faces, takes Adam Neville's excellent horror novel and conceptualises it for a broader audience, and in a rare moment of cinematographic history actually improves the ending of the book (which I feel becomes somewhat contrived towards the end). The film sets a quick-march pace early on, and manages to maintain this...
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