The Ritual is a 2018 thriller about a group of college friends who reunite for a trip to the forest, but encounter a menacing presence in the woods that’s stalking them.
Perhaps it’s primal, but there is something about a dark forest that taps into a baser fear in most of us. It’s something storytellers from centuries long past to now have used as home for terrible menace, from Sherwood Forest in Robin Hood to Hansel & Gretel in the German Fairy Tale and in more recent times, The Blair Witch Project and many more. In David Bruckner‘s latest The Ritual, it’s back to the woods we go, and indeed, it is the deeply creepy setting of this mostly bland chiller that works best, a place of genuinely well-crafted fear that just can’t innovate beyond the standards we’ve seen so much before.
Best of friends Dom (Sam Troughton), Hutch (Robert James-Collier), Phil (Arsher Ali), Luke (Rafe Spall), and Robert (Paul Reid) are grown men with challenges any might expect, planning a vacation hiking in Sweden. That all falls to hell though when, during a liquor store robbery, Robert is murdered while Luke looks on cowering in fear. It’s not an easy thing to get over, and yet months later, the four remaining friends decide to take the planned journey in Robert’s honor, though once on the trail, contention and silent blame brews among them, the larger problem occuring when one of them injures his knee, forcing them to slow down and find a new route out. They soon come upon a foreboding cabin deep in the trees – as one does in such stories – and it’s not long after that they discover they are not exactly alone in the woods, a demonic force emerging and the men facing their worst possible nightmare.
As mentioned, Bruckner makes the best use of the woods, he no stranger to these kinds of stories. His well-received V/H/S is a cult classic and his 2016 horror Southbound dealing with similar themes. There are several good moments in the forest that work, mostly because the unknown beyond is a haven for natural trepidation, and he finds ways to make this properly unsettling. Kudos also go to screenwriter Joe Barton, at least in some respects, adapting the novel by Adam Nevill, for keeping this an all-male cast, avoiding many of the potential trappings of the genre. The movie takes its time and allows for some development, journeying these men through the stunning landscape for nearly half the runtime before things begin to turn.
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However, there are significant flaws that ultimately keep this stuck in ruts, with the men a sort of hodge-podge of generic characters who never really get us invested. Admittedly, there is a terrific start, after the men make their vacation destination choice and Luke and Robert end up in the liquor store. It sets up nicely a life-threatening conundrum that befalls others later in the movie, the scene jarring and emotionally resonant. Yet the film never gets back on the right rails and instead meanders its way to the finale, lacking the momentum it begins with. A solid idea is left worthy perhaps for genre fans but mostly a fizzle for anyone else.