'The Ritual' follows a group of friends - Phil, Dom, Hutch, Luke, and Rob on a night out as they plan a trip abroad. That same night Luke and Rob enter a liquor store, interrupt a robbery in progress and Rob is murdered. Six months later, the remaining four travel to hike in Sweden, as Rob had suggested earlier and honouring his memory. After Dom injures his knee, the group decide to take a shortcut through a forest. The group come across a gutted elk hung in a tree, but decide to push forward. As night settles, the group find and decide to hold over in an abandoned shack, adorned with ritualistic symbols and containing a headless effigy. After experiencing disturbing nightmares, the group move through the forest and Hutch and Phil are captured by an unseen entity and hung from trees as they had seen the elk earlier. With only Dom and Luke left, they are captured by a group of forest dwellers who worship the unseen entity. Later Dom is sacrificed to the entity, revealed to be a Jötunn and Luke breaks free, runs from the entity, refusing to submit and worship it, eventually reaching the edge of the forest where it cannot follow him.
The story of the film speaks to loyalty and cowardice, - centring on exploring no-win situations relating to making decisions based on instinct and engrossed in fear and danger. Our main character - Luke, is faced with a fight-or-flight situation where he fails to act in order to save Rob. This feeling of guilt and regret reverberates throughout the film and is explored on multiple occasions as the group face a number of dangerous situations. As the story progresses, it is revealed that other members of the group harbour resentment towards Luke, as they believe his inaction was cowardly and perhaps unforgivable. It is clearly presented to us that Luke feels remorse, blaming himself and feeling shame for not being able to intervene and help Rob with the assailants. The feeling of inadequacy Luke feels is present throughout the film, never easing up, relentlessly tormenting him and not allowing the audience to forget what he feels.
'The Ritual' beautifully combines the scenes set in the store where the robbery took place with the location of the forest, melding the two distinct worlds during the hazy nightmare scenes that is Luke's subconscious torturing himself. Every expression of the nightmares Luke has is presented in a unique way, showing the same incident, but in different forms, leaving the viewer entertained whilst driving home the same message - that Luke cannot escape what he did, and has to live with it, - remembering it without being able to change it. The true horror of his guilt is revealed in showing how deeply ingrained his feeling of guilt is, with the situation exacerbated once Dom openly confronts Luke and blames him for Rob's death.
The visual style of the film further established a sense of dread as the group wander though the seemingly never ending maze that is the forest. The dreary monotone locations and the optical illusions created by the forest setting are effective in instilling fear in the viewer. As a horror movie, 'The Ritual' derives a lot of its scares from scenes set in the dark, yet the more fear-inducing sequences are delivered through focusing on the forestry, in long shots where the viewer is invited to explore the forest along with the characters, to see what may or may not lie beyond their own perception.
'The Ritual' also explores religion, presenting belief as a fear based practice, as Luke is invited to submit to and worship the Jötunn or die as sacrifice to it. The third act of the film focuses on Luke overcoming his fear and refusing to submit to the entity, serving as his personal character development arc in that he has overcome his fear and is able to stand up to someone in the face of fear. However, the act of rejecting the entity implies a rejection of religion, muddling the delivery of the message that Luke has faced-off with the representation of ultimate fear and rather stating that belief should be rejected. Additionally, the journey of redemption for Luke leaves him by himself as the credits roll at the end, implying that his personal character growth is the only thing he can take away with him, as the journey has taken everything else.
Rafe Spall plays Luke and excels at representing the tormented character as he journeys to his redemption. Spalls delivery of a man lost in his own guilt and battling cowardice add another level to the film, further providing a layer of negative emotion to accompany the fear and dread set by the story. The accompanying group of friends, comprised of Arsher Ali as Phil, Robert James-Collier as Hutch and Sam Troughton as Dom, create an inviting atmosphere, proving great chemistry as the friends interact and live through the nightmare that has become of their hike.
Directed by David Bruckner, and based on the novel written by Adam Nevill, 'The Ritual' is a visually striking and effective horror feature. The film is clear in using the horror genre to discuss fear and overcoming it, yet at times it seems to lose its focus and becomes repetitive in delivering the same message, as Luke has multiple chances to overcome cowardice, yet is unable to do so. Additionally, the pacing of the film seems to work against itself at times, as the introduction of the story is straight-forward, not overly complicated or dragged out, yet the second half of the film feels unclear at times. Overall the movie feels innovative in its visual style and entertaining in its suspenseful sequences, but fails to deliver on a satisfying conclusive final thought.
Score: 2/4
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