After the death of their friend during a robbery in a store, four friend go on a hiking trip to Sweden to remember him. But cutting through woods, they find themselves being stalked by something living there...
I've often said it, but characters in horror films never seem to learn the lesson. Going off into the woods is never a good idea. It never ends well for anyone. Films such as Wrong Turn series, the Friday The 13th films, Deliverance, Southern Comfort and of course, The Forest have proved that. Now you can add The Ritual to the list.
The Ritual is based on a novel by Adam Nevill. I haven't read this one, but I have read a couple of other books he has written, Last Days and Banquet Of The Damned. He creates flawed, interesting characters then puts them situations where they sound find themselves out of their depths. However, not unlike Stephen King, he sometimes has an issue with his endings. I liked the Last Days one for example, but found the end of Banquet Of The Damned a little disappointing.
The film of his novel The Ritual has both aspects of his strengths and weaknesses. The four friends, ones who met at University are well developed in the opening part of the film. You can believe they would be friends, but also can believe that Rob, the one who was killed, was the glue holding them together. You could imagine them drifting apart....if not for what happens in the woods.
As we get to know them, we see how different they are. Luke feels guilty about Rob's death, as he was in the store when it happened and did nothing to help his friend or stop it. Hutch is the most practical of the four. Phil has a dry sense of humour and Dom is the one who comes along, despite not liking the hiking idea and the one they know will complain the most. But, Rob's death hangs over them all, the fact Luke was in there with Rob and survived and there is the unspoken fault he should have done something to help their friend.
The writer of the film, Joe Barton, gives the four leads, Rafe Spall (Luke), Robert James-Collier (Hutch), Arsher Ali (Phil) and Sam Troughton (Dom) good material to work with, allowing them to developing the characters well, with some moments of humour, letting the audience care for them, before events take a darker turn.
The director, David Bruckner who made the interesting film The Signal as well as working on other horror films such as Southbound, V/H/S knows that the story needs a slow build up and with some good work from his cinematographer Andrew Shulkind he does that, with slow movements of the camera, linger shots of the woods, where there may or may not be something watching them. It is clear both know what works in horror films of this kind and they develop that well, allowing a slow build up of tension. Wisely, for the most part, by focusing on Luke, a lot of violence is off scree, where we can hear screams and noises in the woods, without seeing what is happening, which puts the characters as well as the audience on edge.
When the horror does finally arrive and we find out what is stalking them in the woods, Wisely, until the final minutes we only see glimpses of what it is. When we do see it fully, it perhaps doesn't live up to what we have seen up till then, but it is an interesting creation.
But the final act is where the flaws of the film really lie. For most of the film, it is a tense atmospheric film one that works effectively. In the final act as we discover what lives in the woods and also the people who live there and their connection to it, doesn't quite work. The final confrontation with the creature doesn't fully live up to the build up to it. This brings me back to my comments at the beginning. It could be that the flaws the film has come from Adam Nevill's novel. As I said, I've not read it.
But even with final act flaws, I liked The Ritual a great deal. For most of it, there is a creepy, unsettling feel to the film, something films set deep in the woods seems to bring out very well. It's a film that owes debts to other, better films, such as The Blair Witch Project, but it has enough going on to be a film worthy of a watch.
I really enjoyed it....but yeah, it's another film that will keep me from going anywhere near the woods!
Rating 3/5
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