In the unnamed rural state in which this film is set, people have been going missing fairly regularly, for 24 years. Such a desperate situation seems to have become accepted, because there seems little effort, or counter-measures, put in place to stop this from continuing. Indeed, toward the end, when a very distressed battered young lady pounds on the door of a remote garage and begs for help, the shop assistant ignores her. So it is safe to say the town does not overly keen on helping itself.As for the victims, the usual parade of energetically screaming, manicured pretty young folk are chained up in a farm shed, this time by an old man determined to sacrifice his victims to a monster in the cellar.'Everything is going to be okay, nothing is going to happen to you,' the daughter or a millionaire is told, just as she is gagged and left in a ramshackle abandoned building. This is story strand number two. A wronged colleague decides to rob his rich employee, and with a small group, sets about kidnapping his daughter for a ransom.The resurrection of the creature 'Wormface' raises the game considerably, breathing life into what is a fairly routine, if earnest, thriller. The placing of this unspecific creature into the unfolding events adds a new urgency and makes the betrayals and counter betrayals between the characters more entertaining. Also, Wormface does the things that 'creatures' do – walks in front of the camera, appears where none of the characters can see him, and always happens to be there and only too pleased to open up a few veins. There's an element of 'Jeepers Creepers' about the scenario, but this tells its own story. As a whole, 'Rites of Spring' features a number of elements we've all seen before (including the occasional lapse of logic by the characters), but is a satisfying meeting of crime thriller and monster-on-the-loose mayhem.

Current IMDb-score on this is 4.6. Now, this is maybe not the greatest movie ever, but it is not that bad.I saw this at Frightfest Glasgow some years ago, and I thought it wasn't too shabby. Now, my score might be a little high because I saw it at a film festival, and that leaves a different impression than seeing it at home. (Maybe I'll yank it down a star, later some time)Rites of Spring is like two movies in one. Kind of. I knew very little of it beforehand, which is a good thing, and it kept me guessing for a while.I seem to remember the gore being pretty decent, not that it was that much of it, but it was good. Didn't scare me, but kept me entertained.

A ransom scheme turns into a nightmare for a group of kidnappers who become victims of a horrifying secret that must be paid every spring.Horror fans will instantly recognize AJ Bowen, the current independent horror go-to actor. Beyond that, many faces appear on screen that we may never see again. There is particularly terrible acting from the father character, which might take some viewers out of the movie.This might appeal to some people, but it never seems to quite capture what it was going for. While it starts as a kidnapping film, it turns into something like a poor man's "Jeepers Creepers". And even then, there is an undercurrent that is not far removed from "It". At no point does anything seem quite original enough to merit respect.

When I was younger, I used to love goreporn, but now slasher films are absolutely boring and too realistic and not to mention overplayed. Add Rites of Spring to the long list of slasher films that doesn't treat violence with dignity, and you have another mindless run-of- the-mill goreporn splooge Fest. The monster is cool, so it has that going for it, but the desperate reaching of the two-plot collision enhances the feebleness of this movie. The only real reason to watch it, is if you enjoy watching one friend made to suffer while her other friend dies. The positive is that wormface is a pretty excellent monster. The effects are nauseating and creepy and it's interesting how harmless he looks. I think it's far-reaching to involve a real- live missing persons with this one though. There are simply too many gimmicks for this to be a good movie. SPOILER. if you like watching beheadings so much, just watch the news.