The Ritual
(2017) 94 Min.
Rated: R (gore)
Country: UK
Director: David Bruckner
Starring: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★★☆
A group of friends embark on a hiking trip in Sweden and decide to take a shortcut through a foreboding large forest.
Synopsis:
Five old friends from university meet at a pub to discuss plans for a trip. Rob suggests hiking Sweden’s Kungsleden (King’s Trail). He and Luke (Spall) stop into a nearby shop to purchase a bottle of vodka. They unwittingly walk into a robbery going on in the shop. Luke instantly cowers behind a shelf while Rob is left to be robbed. After giving the robbers his wallet and watch he refuses to give them his wedding ring and is struck down dead as Luke watches from his hiding spot.
Luke awakens to find himself on King’s Trail with his friends as they pay tribute to Rob 6 months after his death.
The four remaining friends gather around a pile of rocks on a mountain. Dom (Troughton) remarks that “it should never have happened”. Much to Luke’s guilt stricken gaze. Hutch (James-Collier) replies that “it should never have happened, but it did”. The group drink in honor of Rob and then end up camping for the night.
The next day it is raining hard on the mountain. The rain passes as the men hike and it becomes cold. As they are hiking, Dom walks into a big hole and twists his ankle hard. Hutch tries to calm Dom, but he knows that it will be a few hours of walking before they camp again. They also conclude that there is no cell reception in the area. Hutch pulls Luke aside and suggests that they take a shortcut through the mountains and go off the trail.
The group decide to go through the dense forest with Hutch leading the way using a map and compass. Phil (Ali) finds that his shoes were not well broken in prior to the trip and his feet hurt as a result.
As they travel further into the woods, they come across the body of a large elk hanging in the branches of a tree with it’s entrails out. The four press on and it begins to rain heavily as it gets dark. The group finds runes carved into trees and a nearby cabin.
They push the door in and enter the cabin. The cabin is seemingly abandoned. Hutch sends Phil to check out the upstairs area for wood to burn in a small stove downstairs. What Phil finds instead is a strange headless wooden figure with antlers where it’s hands should be standing in a room. The group discuss it and feel that it’s a pagan offering with possible Nordic roots.
They all sleep. Luke wakes during the night and goes into the woods that look like the store that was robbed. Luke snaps out of it and finds himself with a bleeding chest wound in the forest. Back in the cabin, Hutch has peed himself, Dom is half-naked and Phil is naked sitting in prayer to the wooden statue upstairs. They leave the cabin and see more runes in the trees.
Dom decides to follow a path he finds in the forest and the rest of the group follows along. They see another small cabin, but refuse to look at it. Luke checks out the ridge of their path and sees a hand high on a trunk in the distance and hears a large creature approach. He runs off to tell the others. Dom doesn’t believe him and accuses Luke of being a coward when Rob was murdered.
The group find a buried old campsite of someone named Anna Erikson with credit cards that expired in 1984. It is getting dark and they decide to set up camp.
During the night Luke dreams of the store robbery. One of the thieves looks at him and calls him a coward. He awakens to hear Phil screaming that something took Hutch. Hutch’s screams can be heard in the distance along with roaring noises. Luke runs after the noises with Dom and Phil following. The trio find Hutch the next day in the branches of a tree, dead with his entrails hanging out.
Luke retrieves the compass from Hutch’s body and Dom buries the body under some sticks. The trio now travel without any camping gear. The group find human footprints, but decide to follow the compass instead. As they reach the top of a large hill, Luke sees that they are quite a ways away from where the lodge is. He also sees small fires glowing from lower in the forest, hints that there are others around. When Luke returns to Dom and Phil. Phil is grabbed by a creature.
Dom and Luke make a run from it through the dark forest. They land along a fire-lit path and see Phil hanging in a tree dead. The duo follow the path into a small village and enter into a large wooden cabin. Once inside the cabin, they are attacked and knocked out.
When Luke wakes up he finds that he and Dom are chained up underneath the house. An old woman comes down and gives Luke water. She shows that like him, she has a mark made upon her chest by the creature. Dom does not and she refuses to give him water. Her helpers come and take Dom upstairs and beat him. A younger woman comes down and explains to Luke that they are preparing for the sacrifice. Dom is returned, bloodied but alive. Dom explains to Luke he had a dream he was sacrificed to the creature and that he saw his wife, Gayle. Dom asks Luke to escape and burn the village down behind him.
Dom is taken outside and tied to a post. He can see the rotting bodies of sacrifices before him lining the branches of the trees surrounding them. Night falls and the creature can be heard drawing near. The villagers bow down. Gayle appears out of the forest and walks up to Dom. She holds his face in her hands, but we see that it is two glowing eyes in an orifice within the creature. The creature pulls Dom off the post and impales him on a tree branch.
Luke has managed to pull off his ropes, but waits. The young woman returns and leaves food for Luke. She explains that the creature is a Scandinavian god, a Jötunn. It keeps the villagers there and they worship it and in return they live unnaturally long lives. She says that his Ritual begins tonight. He must kneel before the god or it will hang him from the trees.
When the woman leaves, Luke makes an escape. He tries to hide upstairs in the cabin and finds a congregation of skeletal, mummified people who are still alive, groaning and screaming. Luke burns them with a torch. This fire attracts the Jötunn. It approaches the bowing villagers and growls angrily at the young woman, she tries to mollify him, but he grabs her and gouges out her eyes in a fit of rage.
Luke finds a gun and shoots one of the villagers as he escapes the burning house. He also manages to grab a short ax. The Jötunn is holding the body of the woman as Luke tries to fire a shot at the creature, but it only attracts his attention. The Jötunn then chases Luke through the forest. It tries to force Luke to bow to it by shoving him into the ground repeatedly. Luke strikes the creature with an ax and runs towards the end of the treeline. He rushes out of the forest and turns to find that the Jötunn will not cross into the fields. Luke roars at the Jötunn which also roars back. Luke sees the stretch of grasslands and heads towards a road with a car driving by.
Review:
So many predictably bad choices send this group of friends into Death’s arms and yet because of the unique setting and beautiful woodland, it becomes a recommended film.
Poor Sam Troughton is playing an obnoxious character, Dom, who blames Luke for the death of his friend, but in reality causes the death of himself and his other friends. Though when he is sacrificed we see his human side and his unending love and loyalty to his wife Gayle. I feel like if a film can make even the most obnoxious character have some redeeming value, then it’s well written.
The desperation and frustration felt by the group adds to the overall horror. Not only are they trying to merely survive, they are being hunted and toyed with by an unseen force. The Scandinavian setting adds a unique flavor to the lost in the woods theme.
Luke’s guilt at the start of the film marks him mentally and later he is physically marked by the Jötunn. He is chosen because of his pain. This is an interesting theme and I really liked how the film would blend forest elements with store lights and stands full of liquor during Luke’s visions and dreams.
Unfortunately there’s less character development for Hutch and Phil, unless you consider what foods they like and the fact that Hutch is more of a leader and Phil is more fashion-minded with his bad hiking shoes.
The Jötunn itself is very well used. We only hear it’s roar and see the aftermath at first. Slowly we are given small glimpses at the size of the thing and finally we are shown the true form of it against the backdrop of a village on fire. It’s a disturbing looking creature and yet very familiar, since it’s pieced together of human, elk and other forest beings. It definitely looks like it is an ancient forest dweller.
I recommend this film to any horror fan, as it’s overall a well done horror film.