**** Minor Spoilers **** Tonight I'm reviewing the 2018 Netflix Horror film, The Ritual, directed by David Brackner and stars Rob James-Collier, Rafe Spall, and Maria Erwolter. Reuniting after the death of their friend, four college pals set out to hike through the Scandinavian wilderness. A wrong turn leads them into a mysterious Forest, where an ancient evil exists and stalks them at every turn. I just saw the trailer to this film a couple days ago and just noticed they released the film on Netflix tonight so I decided to give it a shot. I thought it was decent, but suffers some flaws. Starting with my pros. The acting is pretty decent; nothing that really stands out for me, but typical for a straight-to-video release. One of my favorite things about this film is the cinematography. The visuals of the mountains and the wilderness are absolutely beautiful. It does have an M. Night Shyamalan meets The Blair Witch Project feel, which I enjoyed. The score does remind me of something you'd hear in a M. Night Shyamalan film. It gets pretty brutal in parts with some bloody gore which was pretty cool to see. I'm really happy that they used a lot of practical effects in this film, which is a huge plus for me and they were done pretty well. I thought it had great atmosphere and tension. Now onto my cons. I like this film, but the two things that really hurts this movie were the pacing and lack of explanation on what's unfolding. Slow-burner plots can be subjective depending on the movie and the material they're bringing to you. Unfortunately with this, I don't think the slow burning parts flowed well with the film. Other than the very beginning, I was bored every once in awhile. It takes a small bit of time for things to take off. One of my biggest problems is the lack of information. We don't know anything about this creature other than one teeny weenie info, which still didn't answer anything. Its not explained why some people get these markings on their chest and why some don't get it. Nothing is explained about the hillbillies in the third-act and how they got there to begin with. The ending was also a bit anti-climatic. I don't want to say anymore for spoiler reasons since I've already spoiled some minor parts, but there's so many questions that weren't answered. I will say that it was better than what I expected it to be, but it was still standard. What were your thoughts on this film? Leave me a comment below and I'll see you in the next review.
Final Score:
