Why Netflix and David Bruckner’s The Ritual Scared the Hell Out Of Me
Mike Sprague
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Okay, I am kind of a wimp. I’ll admit it. But here’s the thing, I think too many people watch horror movies with, for lack of a better term, arms crossed daring the film to scare them. They love to finish a flick and say, “That wasn’t scary! I’m so cool.” But I like to be scared. I try to let horror movies scare me. In fact, I do everything in my power to allow them to scare me. I turn off the lights, turn up the sound, and sit close to the screen. But even then some films don’t scare me.
However, sometimes I am rewarded. Case in point: this past Friday an all-new horror film hit Netflix streaming called The Ritual. I was looking forward to checking out the movie considering it was directed by a guy named David Bruckner, who is a name some might recognize for his work in solid horror anthologies such as VHS and Southbound, and others might recognize him as the guy who almost directed the latest (abandoned) Friday the 13th film.
Either way, the man made my list of horror directors to keep an eye on long ago and so when I heard he was at the helm of this creepy looking film, I jumped at the chance to give it a watch. What did I think? Well, the title of this article should give you somewhat of a clue. But just in case you don’t grasp what I’m getting at here: David Bruckner’s The Ritual scared the everliving shit out of me – several times. In fact, I’m still freaked out as I type this the next morning. That’s some good stuff.
Let’s dive a bit deeper and uncover the actual experience of my terror watching the film.
Let’s start at the very beginning. The film opens with our group of buddies hanging out at a bar. I knew that the film was about a group of friends who venture out into the dark woods and befall an ominous evil, but as I popped the film on my TV this weekend I forgot how many friends there were that make it to the woods. Thus I was caught off guard with the opening of the flick in which one of the Wolfpack gets it good in a convenience store robbery gone wrong. This scene was real horror and it took me by surprise. I wasn’t terrified by the film (yet) but this beginning sure got my anxiety levels suitably piqued. Solid beginning.
From there it isn’t long before the film goes full Blair Witch. We get a rainstorm and a wooden house out in the middle of nowhere with strange witchcraft carvings in the trees and uber-creepy totems and statues placed here and there. I find The Blair Witch Project and (to a lesser degree) Adam Wingard’s sequel Blair Witch to be two of the scariest movies ever so I was ready to be terrified at this point. And it didn’t disappoint.
It wasn’t the headless Wicker Man statue that our main men find that scared me. Nope, I’ve seen things like that before in horror flicks. I’m good. It was when the group falls asleep that the first moment of genuine terror began for this guy. To set the scene, the dude who thought the Alien-Worm in Prometheus was cute lies down for the night while rain, lightning, and thunder pound outside. There is a flash of lightning, a crash of thunder. Rinse and repeat, until lightning strikes and…it doesn’t go out.
The bright white light shines into the windows like, well, that one quick scene in Blair Witch. But in this film, the light doesn’t move like a spaceship (or whatever). In this movie, it just stays on, and on, and on. My girlfriend’s little-ass dog is scared of lightning. And now so am I. Thanks, The Ritual.
From there I was a bit on edge but morning quickly followed and all was good I thought. The guys go off hiking and searching for safety when the injured one needs to sit down. Once firmly planted on his buttocks, the rest of the group know it’s going to be a while, so Timothy Spall’s kid decides to run up the hill to the top where it looks like the trees end and salvation begins. No such luck. Once he reaches the top he finds, you guessed it, only more trees. But then something creepy as all balls happens. He sees something on a tree trunk in the distance. It’s a hand… and it is way the holy f*ck up near the top of the tree. Another dead body? We could only be so lucky. Nope, the hand then moves around the side of the tree like the damn Wicked Witch of the West was creeping behind it. Little Spall screams and runs off. Good idea.
And speaking of nightmares hanging out in the woods, not long after that the movie springs what just might be the scariest moment from a recent horror film. To set the scene, the remaining guys are climbing up a steep hill and the camera sits far back and carelessly watches their struggle without lifting a finger. We watch them trudge up this hill for what seems like forever, and just when we think David Bruckner fell asleep at the camera, something moves. Deep in the dark woods, way in the background, something moves. Something f*cking BIG. This shot was genius. Learn your lessons, fellow filmmakers. Watch and rewatch and learn. This is how you scare people. No jump scares, please. Rip this shot off if you must. No one will fault you. It’s terrific.
From there the film became mostly a standard horror film. The guys get lost in the woods, dream sequences happen here and there, and some of the guys end up gutted and hung high up in the trees. Meh. Standard horror offerings if you ask me. But then the final two guys are captured and taken to a farmstead out in the woods. The place is run by older people (and one young blonde, of course) and there is something sinister upstairs. No, the actual ritual didn’t scare me. Big dudes getting pulled off by Jawa-Horse monsters isn’t going to send anyone running home to mama.
It was the damn church of the dead that got me good. Small Spall breaks free of his shackles and heads through the dark house. He hears muffled talking behind a door upstairs and cautiously enters. Inside he finds a congregation of dead bodies in pews facing towards the front of the room where what looks like the body from inside the walls in Deep Red holds court over the dead room. Creepy. For real. But then – ohhellnogetmethefuckoutofhere! – one of the bodies moves. Then another. Then Spall realizes they are all still alive! Nope, nope, nope. He appropriately kills them all with fire. Thank the Lords.
To touch on The Creature for a bit, no I didn’t find it that scary, but let me say that I respected the hell out of it. Most people I know are already saying, “It was scary up until the end with the Horse-Man“, and while I get that the film stops being scary once we know what was lurking in the woods, props must be given to Buckner and crew for their creature’s design. It is a shifting nightmare of horror that (evidently) is wrapped in actual Norse mythology. Got to love it.
In the end, David Bruckner’s The Ritual scared the hell out me on multiple occasions. This film will be a new (possibly mini) classic that friends recommend to friends for years to come. Sure it might not be the new The Witch or It Follows, but The Ritual is a solid horror film for 90% percent of its running time. And that other 10% is audacious, so you’ve got to give it that.
God bless David Bruckner’s The Ritual.
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What did you think of Netflix’s The Ritual? Let us know below!
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