Ritual
Ritual
| 26 April 2012 (USA)
Ritual Trailers

A father on vacation wakes up separated from his family and races through the woods to find them.

Reviews
GL84

Awakening in the middle of the jungle, a man with no memory to his identity tries to piece together the disturbing events that lead to his condition and finds a far darker and more sinister secret at the root of the actions throughout his trip.While there's not a whole lot to like here, it does have some pleasing parts to it when it tried, Among the more impressive parts here is the fact that there's an actually suspenseful job here getting to the main set-up, as the wandering through the jungle and stumbling upon the abandoned cabin with the tape of his wife being held hostage and then finding the blood on the floor creates a really strong opening here as well as the later scenes of him being out in the wilderness alone with the sounds of the animals chirping away furthering this nicely. As well, his search through another cabin later on while trying to stay out-of-sight of a group of attackers outside lends itself to some really creepy moments especially once they light the casket on fire to deter him. The final half, though, where this one runs through an incredibly impressive and truly enjoyable twist ending that takes this on a much darker and far more chilling concept than what had been previously utilized, makes for a really fitting end to this one. Outside of these elements, though, there's not a whole lot worthwhile about this one. The main problem is the fact that far too much time is spent here doing absolutely nothing but simply enhancing the running time focusing on utterly bland and utterly uninteresting passages throughout here with the main parts of the film featuring him just simply wandering around the forest doing absolutely nothing. All we get are panicked shots of him trying to stay out of sight as he tries to piece everything together. There's very little dialog in here as well to help bring things along as the first half plays more like a silent effort without letting anything come out to help this one make more sense with the ability to help let it be known what's going on. With so little information to go on and rather little of interest here in terms of what's happening, this one takes quite a while to get interesting and makes for a challenging watch as it struggles to get it's footing under itself with the way this takes to get to it's good parts and really lowers this one significantly. As well, for as much good as the positives unleashed with it's fine twist does amount to, this one still undoes a lot of good by employing it which really renders far too much of what transpired earlier moot due to not being able to make it gel cohesively with the actions throughout the rest of the film, effectively making it seem more like the finale was written first and then reworked into the rest of film, making it seemingly obvious and sticks out quite readily. Still, this one does have some solid points to it.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and children-in-jeopardy.

... View More
Charlie X (kerli2600)

Just because people gave this film a low score doesn't mean they are incompetent. This film received a low score for a reason. I finished this film and I give it as such for couple of reasons. One is the story. it started off well where the main character with no memory is stuck in the forest. The tension in the first 30 minutes of the film was superb. Not knowing what's going to happen adds a great deal of mystery and suspense. I wish the writer or director would maintain the atmosphere throughout the movie. It died down as soon as the two kids were introduced. As the story progresses somewhere in the hour mark made it looked like it was ending when there was 20 minutes left in the film. I don't want to give too much off the story away but overall it didn't make any sense and the twist at the end was a cop out. No payoff whatsoever and I bet people who praised this film only because of the twist ending. I have to disagree because when your story does not have a definitive explanation as to why the events are happening or for what purpose then there's no reason why it shouldn't sense. I don't expect the film to spoon feed the audience but at least have a reasonable script. That goes double with the twist ending. In addition to this, there was a lot of plot holes. The acting was terrible. Even though the actors' native language is not English, there is no excuse for that. At least give some effort to the characters. On top of that the dialog was terrible as well. The special effects on the blood was decent nothing special. A negative point was the vomiting scene which was poorly made. The cgi was awful even for a low budget film. I've seen low budget films that didn't have poorly done special effects.The music was pretty good. There was ominous music though I wish they didn't overplay during the chase scenes. The first 30 minutes proved this by having silent moments to add the tension. Camera work was wonky at times. it didn't really bother me. Overall this film was a massive letdown. I was into the story for about 30 minutes of it. Although it went downhill after that I was still interested on how is it that the rest of the story turn out. About the hour mark is when I was disappointed and kind of mad. The twist would have worked if it makes sense but even if it did then what was the purpose of the events unfolding. I give this film a two out of five simply because I enjoyed the tension and mystery part of the film and I wasn't entirely bored throughout the film.

... View More
J. Davis

This tale begins with a man waking up in a shallow grave with amnesia. Not knowing exactly what to do, he begins to wander aimlessly through this remote Indonesian forest, eventually finding a cabin with a car parked outside. Inside he's horrified to find the cabin empty except for the bloody corpse of what he believes to be his wife as he discovers a wedding ring on his finger. Then, after watching a video of a faceless attacker killing her, he ventures back into the forest, scared & confused, with only a lantern to guide his way. The atmosphere in the first thirty minutes was creepy & unpredictable as the viewer watches and waits to get a handle on what exactly is going on in the film. As more information is introduced, the level of suspense does come down a little and at times I found myself scratching my head a bit. Certain things happen that seem at the time a bit absurd, but if you stay patient and continue into the final act, there is a nice twist on things that IMO made it a very original worthwhile watch. Some camera work was a bit shaky, but for the budget the production value was just fine for the duration of the film. The acting wasn't a problem, there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue for it even to become an issue. It is an English speaking film despite it's locality & ethnicity of the cast. In all, it wasn't a highly suspenseful thriller or a gory horror flick, although it did contain some elements of each. If horror fans are looking for something different than the same old clichéd plot line than I do recommend taking a look, it's originality & clever end make for a solid 6/10.

... View More
doctor who

first, i know Joko Anwar. He makes such Noir movies like Kala (Time) or Pintu Terlarang (Forbidden door). and he did it again. Modus Anomali is just like a ride in a haunted house, such a thrill and black surrounding if you watch this movie.i'm not gonna write long review or whatsoever. but really, if you love this kind of movies (thriller, horror, etc) you're gonna love this.oh, and i forgot to mention the mid-end twist ending.. amazes me how Joko able and love to makes the audiences twist their brain and logic even when you walked out the cinema, you will still debating various aspects of this movie.well done Mr Joko Anwar!!

... View More