Review of The Ritual (2017) by Allan C — 18 Mar 2018

Terrific horror film is a scary supernatural tinged survival tale. The film combines the best elements of everything from "The Wicker Man" to "Dreamcatcher" to "Southern Comfort" to "The Descent.

" A group of friends reeling off of the death of a friend go hiking in the Scandinavian wildness only to find themselves being stalked by someone or something. The group becomes lost and stumbles across an abandoned cabin, finding themselves all haunted by terrifying nightmares the next day.

From there, tension builds as more unexplained events begin to engulf the group as they try to find a way out of the woods. "The Ritual" would have been scary enough with it's lost-in-the-woods storyline, but when you add in the supernatural elements it's even better! Without spoiling too much (but SPOILER ALERT!) the slow build-up to gory murders, pagan cults, and a very creepy monster add up to what is probably the best horror film I've seen in the last year (okay, I haven't seen "Get Out" yet).

Besides the reptile brain visceral reaction to the film's effective horror elements, what makes this film a cut above most horror films is that it has an interesting subtext around facing down past fears and forgiving oneself.

I'll also give credit to director David Bruckner for effectively building suspense and earning scares with close ups, sound effects, dark shows, and surreal glimpses (particularly the early glimpses of the monster and images of their friend's liquor store murder recreated in the woods), rather than relying on standard horror film gore and jump-scares.

However, I will fault the film for indulging in about a dozen too many horror film cliches (lost in the woods, and-then-there-were-none, Blair Witch paganism, etc.). At least they didn't bill the film as "Based on True Events.

" Still, even though the film dives deep into horror film cliches, it's does them very well. It's the lack of originality I have to ding the film for. Still, it's such a well done horror story that "The Ritual" is an absolute must-see for horror film fans.