The Ritual (10/10)

    "The Ritual" is a 2017 British supernatural psychological folk horror film directed by David Bruckner. Based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Adam Nevill, the film follows four friends on a hiking trip through a Swedish old-growth forest where an Old God is alerted to the intruders in its realm. 

    I've rewatched this film multiple times, seeing as it's one of my favorite horror movies on Netflix. The atmosphere and artistry of it is just so all-encompassing and the progression of the story is so smooth and makes so much sense. The characters have substance to them and I honestly cared about each of them, rather than how I feel about the characters that serve merely as useless fodder for other horror movies. The music and cinematography is excellent and it contains one of the most unique and incredible monster designs I've ever seen.

    The aura of danger and menace comes out swinging in the first few minutes, disappears for a time, and then sinks in it's teeth for the last two-thirds of the film, building and building as the darkness becomes inescapable. Doesn't exactly end as one might expect, given how other films of this nature tend to finish, but that honestly kind of drew me into it even more. 

    If the question is whether or not I would recommend this film, the answer is a resounding YES. I'd own it on DVD if I could but it's in the dumb European region that American DVD players can't play. 

    I'm gonna get into some specifics so

***

SPOILER 

WARNING

***

The beginning is so simple, so normal, so unfortunate. The 5 friends are hanging out and Luke wants someone to go with him to grab some more booze and he and Rob accidentally get caught up in the middle of a robbery. Luke hides, not sure what to do to help, and in his hesitations, Rob is beaten and killed. I think about that a lot, what I would do if in such a situation as those seen on TV. I hope I would be brave and at least TRY to fight back. I'd hate to go out a coward, but of course I have no idea if I'm actually capable of keeping my wits about me in such a dangerous moment. 

    It's like the Twenty One Pilots lyrics from their 2015 song, "Ride." 

    "I'd die for you," that's easy to say. We have a list of people that we would take a bullet for them. A bullet for you. A bullet for everybody in this room but I don't seem to see many bullets comin' through..."

    

The death of their friend is such an average and realistic thing. It happens everyday around the world. It is far from mythical or fantastic. People often lose loved ones, and there are many opportunities where they might have actually been able to do something about it and yet they just froze. Self-preservation is a core value of human nature and has been their since life's inception. 

    Having such a simple and painfully real moment at the start of the film makes all of the supernatural and mythological horrors that come later feel that much more stark and shaking. 

    I loved how it felt like they really inserted as much Pagan cult paraphernalia as they could without it being overdone. How the witchy signs got worse and worse the further they went into the forest. Started with a gutted deer and some scratched sigils in the trees, went further into a dilapidated old cabin with a horrid forest effigy in the attic and runic stick bundles everywhere, all the way to a remote village full of people that worship a monstrous old god in exchange for immortality. 

    The way the 4 friends got more and more tired and afraid as they hiked, seemingly no closer to their destination. The way they got worn down so that truths they rather would've kept to themselves were blurted out with malice and desperation. 

    (Ex: The way Dom resents Luke for leaving the convenience store unscathed while their mutual friend was dead on the floor inside. 

"We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you!" "No, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for YOU!")

    The hideous dreams they had in the empty cabin and the way those dreams stayed with them even after they had left the haunted little building. The plot progressions is just SO GOOD.

    The characters were just so real and human to me. The way they would bicker, the way they knew each other's faults and personality flaws. The way their history intertwined with their present state of being lost in ancient witchy woods with no guarantee of ever getting out again. Needless to say, I thought the acting was splendid across the main cast and their performances.

    The wide shots of the forest were so artistic and beautiful. The lighting streaming through the trees, the shadows that were cast upon the ground. The way it was basically the 7 nearest trees and then NOTHING once night fell. I loved the setting and the scenery so much. 

** Gotta visit Romania some day - and stay out of the woods, of course. 

    Another fantastic element is the way the same scene of the liquor section in the convenience store keeps coming up in Luke's dreams right in the middle of the forest. Sometimes he even seems to hallucinate it in real-time, fully conscious - effectively blurring the lines between reality and supernatural. The way the modern building and its cold fluorescent lights contrasts with the rugged vastness of the wilderness is just so cool. 

    It's so painfully out of place, all the more jarring when it appears to Luke multiple times throughout the film. That is his moment of his greatest pain, his greatest regret. And the beast that stalks the forest seems to have chosen him to for that reason. For that pain. It has chosen him to join the ranks of its cult and live forever in blissful servitude to such an ancient and incredible creature. 

    Strange how it seems to select those people who... might have LESS of a reason to want to live forever than your average person. It's a curious choice on the beast's part, seeing as it certainly wants followers to serve it. It seems like it would choose people who don't WANT to dwell on their failures and regrets that they obviously can't forgive themselves for for an eternity. 

    But what do I know, I'm not a god.

    Okay so onto the god, the creature Moeder. 

    One of the coolest monster designs I've ever SEEN oh my gosh I love it so much. 

    It seems at first to be some sort of nightmarish moose with a protruding spinal column and a unnaturally warped face. But then it comes closer and you can see the hideousness of its head, a composite of some sort of shadowed human figure hanging downward and attached to a naked male torso with impressive racks of antlers stretching upward passed its headless neck.

        

                  

    Truly a wretched creature, so natural and organic so that it seems plausible to be the lord of such an ancient forest and yet it is uncomfortably human, disturbingly mirroring the people it stalks in the dark. Gleaming golden eyes shine out from the hidden face beneath the hood where the moose's snout should be, piercing and expressionless. It gently cups your face in its hands as it searches to see if its victim is worthy of its gift of eternal life or not. Should they fail its test, they are lifted easily and skewered high up in the branches of the ancient trees without a second thought, a testament to its glory and strength.

    

    The headless male torso with the antler'd arms is a flesh and blood version of the disturbing effigy made of sticks located in the abandoned cabin miles away. An unexpectedly perfect resemblance to something so familiar and yet inhuman at the same time. 

    

    I love how Moeder seems to appear to Dom as his beloved wife while it cups his face, searching to see if he is worthy to serve as its cultist. But I imagine Dom is far from willing to submit to such a horror and winds up skewered in the trees just like his two other friends. The creature extends the same offer to Luke, though it seems to hardly be an offer at all - more of a command. The creature shoves Luke to the ground, forcing him to kneel. Luke rises and the creature does so again, even more roughly this time.

    

    The whole story is basically a mirror to that night in the convenience store, where Luke did nothing. He hid like a coward, remaining silent, even as his friend Rob looked over at him for help, for a distraction, for anything. Throughout the whole story contained within this film, Luke has been passive, tagging along, never making choices for himself. Never standing up for himself. Never actively asserting what HE wants and HOW he wants it to be.

    And in the face of all this passivity - in the face of a nightmarish Old God that demands his service or his life - he finally refuses to go down without a fight. He finally gathers the strength to take the risk and hit back for once.
 

    And by "hit back" I mean swing an axe right into Moeder's face.

    This fails to kill the creature, but gives Luke just enough time to flee passed the edge of the ancient forest - passed the edge of where the beast's kingdom comes to an end. Passed the trees, Luke is safe. Luke is out of Moeder's reach, making the old god howl with rage. 

    And Luke howls right back.

    He has finally taken a stand and refused to be pushed around by others any longer. 

    I just love how the whole film stands as a mirror to him holding back, staying hidden, staying quiet, until he finally gathers the strength to say "No more, not again" even at the risk to his life. 

    Really just a stunning film. I read that some people thought the ending was anticlimactic and I disagree. It wasn't exactly the finale that one would expect from a horror film but I thought it was quite fitting given how the camera - the focus - seemed to linger on Luke and his journey most of all out of the 4 unfortunate men that tried to take a shortcut into the old forest. 

    So yeah, that's mostly how I feel about "The Ritual" overall. 

    The acting, the scenery, the plot, the music, the monster - all very solid, in my opinion. 

    10/10

    

    

    Thanks for stopping by. 

    More reviews to come.