“I woke up stark bollock naked in front of that thing, praying to it, and I’d love someone to explain it to me.”
I was in the Boy Scouts as a kid, and one of the regular activities we engaged in was camping. In a terrible confluence of circumstances, every single camping trip I ever went on with the scouts always ended (and often started) with rain. (To be fair, it’s also possible that the Universe is just out to get me, which would explain some things.) It got to the point that we started referring to individual trips by names like The Swamparee or The Diaperee (referring to the Boy Scout Jamboree and, well, wetness). Those trips are where I learned that I sometimes sleepwalk and that I have a very specific species of claustrophobia.
Tight spaces in general don’t bother me, but a dense, mossy forest with dripping water, low, gray sky and lots of trees always makes me a little buggy. Not at first, no – it’s a gradual process. It usually takes at least 24 hours to manifest in the racing heart, panicked jumping at strange noises and the overwhelming desire to get the hell out of Dodge or Mattawamkeag or T2R9 (Township 2, Region 9) or wherever the hell I am.
At one particularly damp outing, I got up during a midnight rainstorm, in a tent that was full of water because we’d put it at the bottom of a damn hill, walked out, and threw my Scout leader into the fire pit. Then I walked away muttering “gotta get home, gotta get home.” I apparently got all the way to a road before they tracked me down and dragged me back to learn how to shave a bear, or whatever merit badge I was going for. I have no memory of it, but I realize that this makes me the guy that gets a bunch of people killed in whatever horror movie I get stuck in.
So there are huge swaths of The Ritual that have extremely effective spooky locations for me, is all I’m saying.
The Medium
The Ritual remains a Netflix exclusive. There is apparently a Blu-ray release in Brazil, but I have no information on what – if anything – is included in that release. (Other than the film itself, I assume.)
The Movie
The Ritual starts off with a tragedy. Five old friends meet up in a pub to discuss plans for a reunion trip. Two of their number – Luke (Rafe Spall) and Rob (Paul Reid) – go into a shop so Luke can buy some booze. Rob is murdered while Luke hides behind one of the shelves, unable to act quick enough to do anything.
Six months later the group, Luke, Dom (Sam Troughton), Hutch (Robert James-Collier) and Phil (Arsher Ali), head off on a hiking trip in Sweden. This was Rob’s idea for a boys trip, and the guys are going as a way of honoring his memory.
When I first saw The Ritual the only thing I knew about director David Bruckner was that he gave us one of my least favorite segments of V/H/S (“Stag Night”), so I was not expecting a lot with the film. At this early point I started to be impressed, though. The acting is generally good, the characters are likeable, there’s plenty of inter-party tension and with Luke suffering extremely realistic nightmares of that night there’s also a sense of impending conflict, a simmering undercurrent of resentment that’s just looking for a reason to surface.
When Dom injures his knee the group decides to take a shortcut back to the lodge. Through the thick forest. “Are we sure this is a good idea?” says Dom.
Well, fucking no, Dom, it’s not a good idea.
The freshly killed and gutted deer hanging in the trees and the weird symbols carved into various tree trunks around a spooky ass cabin are also indicators. Bad. Idea.
Still better than any Boy Scout trip I’ve been on, though.
The Ritual feels a little familiar – group goes into a trackless wilderness, stumbles across weird stuff, bad things happen. It’s handled pretty well, though – the film uses the pine forest to isolate the characters and break up our site lines. Movement is sometimes seen through vertical openings in between tree trunks, cutting what we’re seeing into ambiguous shapes – making even shots of the group walking difficult to decipher until they’re close to the camera. The rain and terrain serve to limit the scope of the shots as well – making the outdoors a claustrophobic maze – especially once darkness falls and the torrential rain starts.
The guys are forced to take shelter in the aforementioned spooky-ass cabin, and things go distinctly pear shaped from that point on. There’s a horrifying effigy of sticks in the upper room, shaped like a headless man with antlers for hands. The walls are strung with necklaces in the shape of the symbols carved in the tree trunks. Anyone would have nightmares in such a space, and so the guys do. Luke once again dreams of that night in the shop, only to awake outside with strange puncture wounds on his chest. Phil is found in the attic, naked and genuflecting in front of the horrible effigy.
Okay, NOW it’s officially worse than any Boy Scout trip I ever went on. But only just.
Things get worse from there, however. There’s something in the woods with them, and it does NOT want them to leave. There are also people who are similarly keen. The last third of the film goes from wilderness monster horror to something more like a backwoods Wicker Man, except one of the old gods actually bothers to show up. This section, despite both evil backwoods society and a giant freakin’ monster, isn’t quite as effective. The increasing tension and terror of the middle of the film gives way to a slower sort of terror. It’s not bad, not at all, it’s just… not the same level. At least until the monster arrives.
The monster design is fairly unique and disturbing, even in closeup or clarity. Despite that, it still feels like a mistake to show it in full. The glimpses through trees and doorways, the closeups and quick glimpses all contribute to a feeling of dread that a clear view can never match. “Well, that’s bad,” to paraphrase Stephen King, “but it could have been worse!”
The ending is a little bit of a letdown, but I’m not sure what they could have done that wouldn’t have been. You either go full nihilistic and have all the characters either die or submit, or you go for redemption/escape and maybe puncture the entire mood of the film. I won’t say which direction they went for, but I do wish they’d figured out a slightly different option. (I understand the book by Adam Neville has a very different ending, so I should probably dig it out of my ‘to be read’ pile and get to it.)
The Bottom Line
I really enjoyed The Ritual, though I freely admit that a good chunk of that will be down to it being full of the sort of atmosphere that I already find creepy. It’s got decent acting, a great monster, and some excellent cinematography. The story is a basic one, but handled well, and it makes for a creepy, effective horror movie that doesn’t quite stick the landing.
If you’d like to read more about The Ritual, you should check out Kane’s excellent take on the film from 2020!
