 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: The Ritual • Year: 2017 • Country: UK • Director: David Bruckner • Main cast: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier • Runtime: 94 minutes • Production company: Entertainment One, Imaginarium Productions • TRAILER
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This film was a good surprise, an example of a well built horror film, without too big pretensions, and very well driven until the end. The plot: a group of college friends that reunite and want to do a trip together, and due to special circumstances they end up in the Swedish woods for a trekking around the mountains. A very healthy choice, indeed, although it doesn’t come with all the easy fun that the city can provide. But it’s hard enough, at a certain point in life, to reunite with your friends, so better not be too peaky about it. They take the chance to get together, and it’s well known that the mountains help to lighten up the spirit and offer new goals in your life. So all set for the adventure to begin.
Every one with his character and background, the protagonists conform one of those heterogeneous groups that do not precisely share the same point of view in what taking decisions may concern. And what normally would be unimportant disagreements, in a hostile environment may escalate to issues that can lead to dangerous outcomes. The group will be confronted to an unpredicted series of events, and as a menacing presence grows, they seem to be driven to the core of the woods, while their way out and back home seems more and more out of their hands.
Based on a novel written by Adam Nevill and adapted to the big screen by Joe Barton (also author of the screenplay for iBoy (2017)), the consistency of the script is definitely one of the highlights of the film, along with a careful choice of well-composed images, and an escalating tension, H.P. Lovecraft style, which holds until the very last second.
The director, David Bruckner, also did write and direct segments in V/H/S (Amateur Night, 2012) and in Southbound (2015), both films being sums of different stories in the horror genre. Here in The Ritual (2017) he delivers a feature with a perfect mix of humor and terror, worth much more than many other known films of this genre. And you can enjoy it on Netflix, available on most of the countries.
RATE: 6,5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5638642
