The Ritual review – A revolutionary British horror

“The Ritual is a competently made film with nice chills, excellent cinematography, and a well-realised monster.”

Ever since the Brexit vote, it shouldn’t be surprising that writers are looking inwards to try identifying the elusive “Englishness” that people seemed so keen on reclaiming. It shouldn’t be a surprise that we’re seeing a resurgence of Folk Horror as a result. Fundamentally an English genre, Folk Horror has its roots in Britain’s pagan past, usually invoking superstition, religion, and isolated rural environments to create horror that feels totally removed from modern contexts. Although set in Sweden, The Ritual ticks all these boxes to try and tell a story about middle-aged British masculinity. Sadly, it quickly resorts to cliché and superficiality, failing to reach its ambitions.

Opening with a group of middle-ages mates from university discussing plans for a lads holiday, we are introduced to lad’s lad Luke, designated horror film group dickhead Dom, group bitch Phil, competent and collected Hutch, and Robert, who gets his face caved in with a machete four minutes in an off-licence robbery in an early effective shock, while Luke cowers behind an aisle.

Six months later the group reunites in Sweden for a hiking trip as a way of honouring their fallen friend. Although Hutch assures Luke that he is not to blame for Roberts death, it’s pretty clear that not everyone in the group agrees. When Dom injures his leg, Hutch leads the group through a forest in the hope of getting back to civilisation quicker. Predictably, horror ensures, beginning with the discovery of a gutted Elk left strung up in a tree. 

The Ritual has some good points which deserves to be mentioned. The cinematography is absolutely breath-taking, giving us ominous shots of beautiful but moody looking mountains and foreboding forests. The lad’s banter between the group rings true and it’s not hard to imagine the exact same words coming out of your dads’ mouth if you shut your eyes. Plus, we do get some genuinely chilling moments, such as when the group blunder out of a cabin they have spent a fear-inducing night in, only to discover nearly every tree in the vicinity marked with creepy runes.

Sadly, these points can’t quite make up for the film’s flaws. Good dialogue alone can’t make engaging characters and so it’s hard to care too much as the bland cyphers that make up the group start to drop one by one. Even Luke, our traumatised main character, struggles to make much of an impact beyond being sad about Roberts death. A heated argument between Dom and Luke doesn’t really register because it’s hard to care about an under-developed friendship between two under-developed characters. 

This shallowness applies to more than just the characters. The Ritual wants to tell a story about masculinity, maturity, and redemption, but doesn’t really take the time necessary to explore any of these themes. Luke constantly finds himself reliving Roberts death but beyond his argument with Dom it doesn’t really impact the narrative, beyond the interpretation that his refusal to kneel towards the end is his way of exercising his cowardice at the start of the film. 

Lastly, The Ritual’s final, fatal flaw is that, honestly, it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. A small, doomed group being picked off one by one as they walk through a forest far from the most original horror premise. Sitting through it felt like I was watching something I’d seen a hundred times before, pulled off much better. That’s not to say there is no originality in the film. The creature’s designed, once fully revealed is interesting and unsettling, but I still couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed by it, especially after the film does such a good job of building tension by keeping it just out of sight for the majority of the runtime.

Overall, The Ritual is a competently made film with nice chills, excellent cinematography, and a well-realised monster. Sadly, that can’t save it from being superficial, cliched, and mediocre. Your welcome to watch if you want to kill an hour and a half, but don’t expect great things.

Verdict: 3/5

OTHER STUFF

• I hope you enjoyed the first instalment of Never Anything On, my hopefully reoccurring column in which I explore the hidden gems of Netflix and Prime to see what’s worth watching if you can’t be arsed be going out on a Saturday night. Literally tons of people wrote in demanding this, but you’re getting it anyway, so I hope people are actually reading this and I’m not just shouting into the void all by myself!
• Rafe Spall is a great actor who deserves so much better than the quality of films he currently gets.
• David Bruckner also directed one of the best segments in V/H/S, a much better horror film which I highly recommend watching.