The Big Picture
Based on Adam Nevill’s 2011 novel, The Ritual has all the makings of a great horror film. A group of friends set out for a hiking trip in Sweden after the recent loss of a friend to a tragedy — it already sounds like a disaster in waiting. While the setup may make The Ritual seem like another low-budget survival horror film, the film presents more than it offers with its chilling atmosphere, sound effects, and ability to hold tension. Directed by David Bruckner and written by Joe Barton, The Ritual places its different elements artistically to provide a fascinating and terrifying, underrated horror movie. It also has something to offer all kinds of horror film fans as it successfully plays with the ropes of both survival films and cult horror.
Quite early into the film, it becomes clear that the group of friends is going to be hunted; the manner or the fashion of the hunt remains a mystery until one of them is found impaled by tree branches in an inside-out fashion. For most of the hunt, the hunter remains an ambiguous entity who’s only seen in silhouettes or shadows. But The Ritual still manages to send a shiver down the viewer’s spine by creating an isolating atmosphere that transports one to the endless vastness of the forest in which the friends find themselves. The Ritual is the perfect example of how minimalism sometimes works to great effect in horror films. Even when it leans more on the creative side, it becomes a satisfying experience as the balance between the different elements it explores is maintained well.
A group of old college friends reunite for a trip to a most dangerous country in Europe – Sweden, encountering a menacing presence there stalking them.
Release Date February 9, 2018
Rating TV-MA
Runtime 94 minutes
Main Genre Horror
Tagline Your Darkest Dream Awaits You
What Is Netflix’s ‘The Ritual’ About?
The Ritual sees the friends go on a hiking trip after they lose a close friend to a burglary attempt. To add to the trauma, one of them bears witness to the tragedy as a passive observer, eventually bearing the guilt of having done nothing. The hiking trip thus becomes an attempt for the group to pay homage to their friend’s memory and in return, move on from the trauma that haunts them. But The Ritual capitalizes on this trauma by elevating the inherent tension within the group as they quickly dive into the dangerous hole of the blame game as soon as the angst hits them.
The film does not merely focus on the external struggle of survival that a group of travelers confronts when they are faced with a dark entity in the middle of nowhere. Without even the need for an external evil force, the obvious divide within the group just contributes to the group’s troubles going forward. Trauma serves as a prevailing theme throughout the film, even going to the extent of becoming a more active part of the storyline near the end. Without the focus on the emotional trauma that the characters face, The Ritual may have just been another survival horror film with way lesser stakes. But by placing the trauma at the center of the experience of the protagonist played by Rafe Spall, the film elevates the stakes as the survival story becomes one of redemption. By intricately weaving the storylines together, The Ritual manages to motivate the viewer to vouch for the character in question.
‘The Ritual’ Capitalizes on Its Natural Setting
Most of the action in The Ritual takes place in the wild as the group tries to trace their way back out of a forest that wants to keep them in. Long camera shots of the vast forest deepen the eeriness extended by the Swedish forests. Ben Lovett’s background score further amplifies the atmosphere extended by the natural setting of the film. As the desperation of the central characters grows, the sense of eeriness translates through the screen. Throughout the film, the forest becomes inherent to the element of horror that it extends. Before the plot unravels completely, many of the events give the impression of a horror grounded in reality although it makes it quite clear that something supernatural is at play with the imagery of witchcraft placed early in the film. However, Bruckner does a stellar job of conjuring deception. The occasional gore and the silhouettes of a predator on the hunt all contribute to making the terror and violence more animalistic in nature. The natural setting and the idea of a hunter on the loose contribute to making the horror feel more tangible.
‘The Ritual’ Only Reveals Its Secrets When It Needs To
In The Ritual, there is limited exposition to explain the occurrence of the events. For most parts, the ambiguity prevails and even adds to the sense of horror. The myth behind the events is only detailed near the end when things start to become clearer. But even then, The Ritual only reveals what it has to as it keeps the rest open for interpretation. While keeping the myth away from the audience would have worked for a film like The Ritual, the mythology, in the end, makes the film’s storyline all the more fascinating with an adequate amount of mystery at play.
By the climax, the film delves into explaining a few of the events experienced by the characters, assigning greater meaning to the themes of trauma and soul-seeking explored earlier. Here also, the film leverages the Swedish setting by diving into Norse mythology for its world-building, evoking fascination to build curiosity before delivering a satisfying climax. The Ritual makes a great choice by not choosing to share vital information behind the myth of the film throughout but rather cumulatively at the end. This allows the film to capitalize on the initial moments that thrive on the mystery.
The Ritual is an emotionally driven horror film that knows when to shift focus and when to let it rest. It quite smartly traverses the space between realism and psychological horror, only to end up as a great work of Lovecraftian horror in the end. The Ritual is one of the horror movies that really knows how to balance the moments when the suspense shrouds the story and when it decides to revel in its myth-building. The movie leverages the Scandinavian setting and its talented cast to deliver a minimalist horror film that’s imaginative by all means. While momentarily it may leave the impression of a scattered puzzle, The Ritual combines and creates an eerie and fascinating world within the setting of the Swedish forests.
The Ritual is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
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