The Ritual (2017)

Sex :
Violence :
Director David Bruckner
Writers Joe Barton
Starring Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton
Genre Monster
Tagline They Should Have Gone to Vegas
Country
The Ritual (2017)

Review

"My old scoutmaster used to say 'If the shortcut was a shortcut, it wouldn't be called a shortcut, it would be called a route'" - Dom

Four friends, Luke, Dom, Hutch, and Phil are hiking through the wilderness of Sweden, paying homage to a fifth member of their group who was killed during a robbery of an off licence back in England. Luke was also in the off licence but hid behind a display when his friend was killed. This is all told in flashback, the friends wake in the backwoods of Sweden and continue their hike to Valhalla or wherever. Unfortunately Dom twists an ankle putting paid to the plan to hike around the surrounding mountains. Seems the best option is to take a direct route back to civilisation through a nearby primordial forest. Thankfully Hutch has a compass and seems to know what he is doing, but horror movie and forest!

Once in the forest the four friends find things are a tad on the spooky side, and it becomes apparent they are not alone, there's something big and heavy moving through the trees. They eventually run across what appears to be an abandoned hut, an abandoned hut with what appears to be some pagan decorations including a pretty sizable statute made of twigs and what have you. Everyone freaks out overnight, having apparently nightmares and such, so next morning its high tailing it out of Dodge time. That's when things get really freaky and the lads discover they are in the midst of pagans and an old time woodland God.

Is it just me or has director David Bruckner been kicking some very solid goals recently making him a name to remember. The Signal (2007), V/H/S (2012) segment Amateur Night, and Southbound (2015). Okay so we might not have reviewed any of those but have pretty much seem them all, and guess I don't need to tell you Bruckner is kicking goals. The Ritual is his latest full length and continues the Director's reputation of making high level horror movies. Surprisingly the movie got a cinema release in the U.K but didn't hit the other major Western Markets till this year when it arrived via Netflix, so calling this one a 2018 release.

The Ritual is a slow burn, so if you don't like movies like The VVitch or It Follows then this one isn't going to appeal to you. While the first scene involving the off licence gets things rocking, it devolves from there into a slowly developing moody tale that is more about atmosphere and less about jump scares and gore. Even more worrisome for our pretend horror crowd the movie delves into the human condition, asks what you would do in a given situation, and oh the horror talks about redemption! So yes we are talking more psychological than blood and guts, which is fine by me if the movie can carry it off without boring us into a catatonic state. I'm saying this flick achieves what it sets out to do and nails the requirements, drop your linen and start your grinning, a serious dark genre flick for the grownups. Oh and I will address the surreal aspects of the movie that seem to have a few people scratching their heads, metaphoric anyone.

Immediate comparisons are being made to The Blair Witch Project, I guess due to carvings in trees, occultists, and uhmm the setting is a forest, but this would be your lazy reviewing. This is a monster movie through and through with some occult trappings to add some meat to the bone, but the main difference is the movie is all about one man's personal journey to redemption whereas Blair Witch is all about over indulged yank college kids whinging. The movies couldn't be any further apart to be honest. I found the woods the four university friends find themselves lost in to be far more intimidating and foreboding than anything in the Maryland hinterland.

Since we are speaking of backwoods inbreed occultists we don't have too bad a crew here. They are your Scandinavian variety but seem a little less savage than one might expect, given they live in a small isolated community and keep it all in the family. Luke seems to be one of the family due to a mark on his chest that matches the same mark this old lady demon worshipper has. Oh and we get an explanation for the forest creature, thanks to one chick who can speak English, seems the woodland deity is the bastard off spring of the Norse god Loki, which could explain his playing with tour dudes lost in the woods. And I guess everyone is waiting for word on the creature aspects, well envisaged and kept in the shadows till toward the end of movie. Got to admit this is the most original creature design I have seen in quite some time, two thumbs up to the design team. Though surprisingly I did kind of make a connection to another monster, all in the faces, and for no apparent reason that connection was the big brain bug from Starship Troopers (1997).

On the bright side of the wood shed we get a movie dripping in atmosphere that just keeps coming at us with dark, moody, almost a depressing feeling to things. The lighting is dim throughout, don't worry works and adds to things, and it's almost constant twilight under the trees. The dudes know they are being tracked, but apart from branches breaking and the usual heavy footsteps we see nothing. Once again like the Blair Witch things are implied through sound and static images, but this time round the effects are actually effective as its all low key without making this approach the only thing working for the movie.

Interestingly during the first couple of blocks of the movie there isn't much in the way of scares beyond the general atmosphere and tension, however director Bruckner does deliver one hell of an effective shock tactic. Static view of the forest from the viewpoint of one of our characters, nothing there, then soundly something moves, something that was always there. Look for one chilling shock involving a hand halfway up a tree; it's quite the chilling image and comes out of nowhere with no attempt at preamble. Having said there isn't much in the way of scares; Bruckner keeps our interest with his loaded atmosphere and changes in scenery. The cabin in the woods was rocking for mine, talk about a house of horrors.

And then of course we get the showdown at the backwoods village of the damned. There's a real oppressive atmosphere happening there, and having graduated viewing a number of backwoods massacre movies I was expecting the worse. But don't worry Bruckner isn't falling into the pit of gorenography, though there might be a hint of something worrying happening off screen. I was digging the village, but hey not planning on taking my summer vacation there any time soon.

If you want to draw comparisons with other movies then look no further than Dog Soldiers, both movies set in the deep forest, both movies dealing with backwoods society, and both movies are dealing with evil that percolates below the fabric of modern society. The Ritual follows a fine tradition of English horror movie making stretching back to The Wickerman, Amicus output, and of course Hammer horror.

As mentioned above there is this surreal streak running through The Ritual that has a number of people dazed and confused. Luke seemingly keeps returning to the off licence at different stages of the movie, and in particular when he is under pressure. This is simply metaphor, the off licence was a defining moment in Luke's life, he froze when his friend was murder, something he could have maybe prevented. Besides being an awesome juxtaposition with the dark of the forest the artificially bright off licence shows Luke coming to terms with his moment in time and more importantly talks to character development.

There is something special about dialling into an English movie that takes horror seriously, the grounding is in the everyday and deals with average people who through no fault of their own end up prey to dark forces. The Ritual is quintessentially British and for mine is the best horror movie thus far released Downunder in 2018. If you don't mind your horror dripping with drama, spending time with the human condition, and offering the Hero's journey then you are in the right place. Full recommendation, I was rocking out to this one and digging what I was seeing on my screen. Mark this movie's name down; it's one you are going to want to catch up with sooner rather than later. Something about going down to the woods today, make your own joke, I'm out.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  Just when you thought it wa safe to go back to the woods David Bruckner puts the fear into the trees.