I recently watched The Ritual by myself in an empty house, and I can say it was not the most intelligent decision on my behalf. This movie scared the wits out of me, hence why I wanted to blog about it, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys being thoroughly terrified.
This movie, released in 2017, is a British horror flick directed by David Bruckner and written by Joe Barton. It is based on the 2011 novel “The Ritual” by Adam Nevill, and the film stars Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier and Sam Troughton.
The film follows Phil, Dom, Hutch, and Luke on their hiking trip through Sarek National Park in Sweden. The four men decide to travel to Sweden to honour their friend, Rob, who was brutally murdered in a convenience store robbery six months earlier. Luke, the film’s main character, was present when the robbery occurred, and he and his friends blame Luke for failing to help Rob during the robbery and consequently allowing him to die.
On their way back from their hiking excursion, Dom slips and twists his knee quite badly, forcing the men to determine a shortcut to make it back to the city sooner. Hutch decides they are best to cut through the woods in hopes of cutting their walking time in half, and shortly after the men enter the woods they sense something is awry. They camp in an abandoned shack riddled with ancient ruins and symbols and are abruptly awoken in the middle of the night plagued by horrific nightmares. The men are deeply shaken and decide to continue on in hopes of making it back to the city, however, their hiking takes an eerie turn when they learn they have entered a world of witchcraft.
I found the acting in this film to be incredibly realistic, and the film addresses an overarching theme of internal turmoil regarding Luke’s character and his heavy guilt for what happened to Rob. This movie is seriously scary, and not in a predictable or cheesy manner. It scared the bejeebis out of me, which in my opinion means it was a solid horror flick.
ontheedgeofeverything 