The Ritual (2017) Review
4:06 PM
They should have gone to Ibiza.
This review contains SPOILERS.
This review contains SPOILERS.
It's October 13th 2017 in the UK, the perfect night to see a horror film; Two new releases were perfectly poised to thrive from this release date - "The Snowman" and "The Ritual". It was a tough choice to make but "The Ritual" seemed to have better reviews so came out on top. I'm really struggling to work out how this film is getting mostly positive reviews? I found it slow paced, anticlimactic, thinly written and just not very compelling. Yes, it has some jumpy moments but they do not leave a lingering sense of fear. There's very little to like about "The Ritual".
Beginning on a more positive note (like the film itself), I thought the first act was the strongest. It does feel a little rushed and I would have liked some more character and story development before the guys embarked on their trip - even a montage of still photos showing past memories during the opening credits would have helped to establish the bond between the four friends; At times I questioned how Dom (Troughton) was friends with the other guys because he just seemed so different. The unfortunate night that led to Robert's (Paul Reid) death worked well as a motivation and plot device for the characters and story to move forward. It was a convincing reason for why they ended up going to the Swedish mountains and added some heart and rare depth to the story and successfully got the audience to back these characters. The film did a nice job of setting Dom up as quite a clumsy character so it didn't feel too convenient when he fell over and hurt his leg leading to the group taking a shortcut through the forest.
After this though, "The Ritual" becomes a formulaic, dull and boring film with brief scary moments. The characters start to make dumb decisions- who would sleep in a spooky, abandoned cabin because it's raining outside? All of the characters agreed they didn't like it but all of them had the mindset that there was no other option. There's also no explanation for the things that happen in the film and until the end, all of the scary stuff happens off-camera- is that because of budgetary limitations or because the filmmakers really don't have an explanation for what is going on? As it went on, "The Ritual" started to remind me of last year's "Blair Witch" which found itself on my worst of 2016 list- running around in the woods with random, crazy things occurring minus the feeling of suspense, fear or tension. Sometimes, films can really thrive from not showing too much and building to a big reveal at the end but "The Ritual" felt so low-budget that there was no excitement for the big reveal as it's obvious the scary creature is either going to look cheap and unrealistic or not be revealed at all. In the third act, the film finally lives up to its title of "The Ritual" but shows the audience nothing. If only the film spent some more time developing the 'cult', it would have been scarier, more memorable and more effective.
"The Ritual" has a few good jump scares but they aren't long-lasting and there isn't enough of them for this to be a crowd-pleaser. The worst part is most of the time, the film is 'falsely scary'- what makes the audience jump is not what is scaring the rest of the characters. The film lacked a tense atmosphere and I think that was because it spent more time having the characters argue (which is realistic in such a situation) than focusing on how scared they feel. As soon as Dom and Luke (Spall) had their argument where Luke states that he is no longer friends with Dom, it became very obvious that they were going to be the last two alive and have to work past their differences. The actual monster or 'god' looks ridiculous- it's one of the weirdest visual effects I've ever seen; part goat, deer and tree with human arms. It wasn't scary, it was a visual mess. The main way director David Bruckner and cinematographer Andrew Shulkind attempt to build tension and mystery is through wide shots of tree trunks. The film probably spends just as much time looking at trees as it does the actual characters. I suppose Shulkind deserves some praise as the imagery of the forest certainly doesn't look attractive or appealing. The rest of the film moves at such a slow pace and builds to nothing, the boredom sucks out any fear you're supposed to be feeling.
None of the actors in this film appear to have an established filmography: Robert James-Collier is probably the most experienced, with credits in both "Downton Abbey" and UK soap "Coronation Street". It definitely shows that James-Collier is the most experienced as his performance is the strongest- it's a shame he is the first to get torn apart by the walking tree. I found Sam Troughton's character very annoying and hard to like; I know that was probably a directorial choice but it made every moment of Troughton's screen time very grating to get through. As for the lead, Rafe Spall does a nice job, the only role I've seen Spall in before was in "Black Mirror" and I thought his performance was very similar- Spall doesn't have much range and seems to only be able to play a middle-aged everyday British man. Arsher Ali really didn't make much of an impression on me at all. What really exploited the weaknesses of all four actors was when they had to express fear- it came off very exaggerated at times and was unconvincing...laughable at times. They do all seem to have good comedic timing, if only the comedy was supposed to be at the core of this film. Finally, do they work well as a group of friends? Well other than them all being extremely underdeveloped, I still wasn't convinced that these guys would be friends in real life. They didn't seem to have a bond or special connection. No performance in this film was memorable and I don't think this film is going to be a stepping stone to boost their careers.
Everything in "The Ritual" ranges from 'meh' to bad- it's never actually that good. The script is not compelling enough to engage the audience and the film itself is just not very exciting. A horror should have a lingering tone of fear and suspense, "The Ritual" lacks that. There are way too many shots of trees and not enough genuinely scary moments. Typically, independent films explore unconventional ideas and can be quite interesting, this is an independent film that has tried to use genre cliches but fails miserably. The biggest issues come from the script and the direction- the two core components needed for a good film. I am not surprised to find out that this film is written by Joe Barton, the guy behind the awful "iBoy". Barton's other credits are mainly TV-based and he has one upcoming project, "My Days of Mercy"- I am going to try my best to avoid that one. Barton has adapted a book by Adam Nevill, a book I haven't read but I am almost certain (and giving this story the benefit of the doubt) that Barton just did an awful job translating it to the big screen. As for director David Bruckner, it really shows that he isn't that experienced in this field as there is major room for improvement. Looking at Bruckner's IMDb profile, it looks like he isn't sure himself what he wants to be doing in the film industry- he has credits as a director, writer, editor, cinematographer and actor! This isn't sloppy filmmaking, it's inexperienced filmmaking that could have been a lot better if in better hands (in all areas).
Usually I would urge you to support independent cinema but "The Ritual" is anything but a good independent film. It's not trying to do anything different or creative and I feel for author, Adam Nevill whose book has been adapted in such a poor way. The acting feels real- is that a good thing? or are these actors just not trying hard at all? This isn't one of those psychological horrors that lacks jump scares but has a really intense feel to it...it has jump scares that are short-term effective and it lacks any tension, mystery or suspense. Boring is probably the best word to describe this one. They should have gone to Ibiza and I should have gone to see "The Snowman".
33
/100
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