Rituals (1978)

Touches You

That was an excellent one.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

I've always had a special affinity for backwoods slashers. Films like Friday the 13th and THE BURNING were among the first horror films I saw, and I love them to this day. On the other hand, I also really enjoy the low budget lost-in-the-woods type films, of which THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is undoubtedly the most popular. The late '70s/early '80s seemed to be a really good period for gritty, real-looking wilderness horror yarns, and this one makes fantastic use of the Canadian wastes and forests as an isolated setting. RITUALS combines elements of both films, presenting a POV stalker a year before HALLOWEEN, and it also happens to be one of the best darned films I've ever seen! British director Peter Carter is a man who knows what he's doing. I have no idea where he got his inspiration from, but he turns this film into a truly frightening experience by relying on the atmosphere throughout. There are false scares or jump scenes; instead, just eerie shots of a distant figure watching on the horizon or a deer's head mounted on a tree. Suspense and tension escalate throughout the movie and by the end I could hardly breathe, wanting to watch and find out what happened, and at the same time wanting to switch off, wanting NOT to know. I can't believe just how atmospheric this film is: the bleak locales are a character themselves. This film reminded me of the creepy fiction of Algernon Blackwood, who utilised the same surroundings to the same effect in The Willows and The Wendigo.The film is even more affecting thanks to the realism and believability surrounding the characters. There's no show-off acting here, just five men trapped together, gradually fraying each other's nerves until they're barely alive, dehydrated, almost dead in the hostile surrounding. Holbrook takes acting honours; before, he was just that guy with the cockroaches in CREEPSHOW; now he's an actor I'll watch out for in every film I see. He's that good, and the other guys are too. Dialogue is written with an ear for how it really sounds, so it has that documentary feel to it.As for the horror...sure, it's slow paced, but when it comes, it's real. The head-on-a-stick scene is one of the most horrifying I've witnessed and in this single moment, RITUALS is more disturbing than the whole of something like WOLF CREEK. The river scene made me cringe, and the whole set-piece of the climax is also particularly gruelling, reminding me of a similar moment in Craven's THE HILLS HAVE EYES – which ironically came out at exactly the same time as this film. Speaking of other movies, I think the producers of the Rambo trilogy got a few ideas from this flick, with Holbrook's red bandanna and the bit where he cauterises a wound with gunpowder. All in all, RITUALS is that rarity: a cheap, low budget, entirely affecting and truly scary horror yarn. One for the collection.

The Creeper aka Rituals is a surprisingly good slash adventure-horror film. The movie is easily comparable to the 1972 movie "Deliverance". And really would make a great double feature together.Five men on a simple fishing and relaxation trip turns into a deadly game of survival. Although the film has a basic and typical plot, the way the movie plays out is actually makes for a really good thriller.The Creeper does have quite few thrilling and chilling moments to keep the viewer engrossed. It does have some gore in the film but it is done a way that it's not a total blood-and-gore-fest. As I mentioned, the film is more like "Deliverance" - it's less like Friday the 13th or similar slasher flicks.9/10

The excellent Hal Holbrook leads a fine cast of relative unknowns in a fight for survival against a deranged killer amidst the natural dangers of the Canadian wilderness.Holbrook plays Harry, one of a group of five middle-aged surgeons who take to the 'great outdoors' for a spot of fishing and hiking, but wind up being hunted by a mysterious killer with a grudge against doctors. Rather than spending a relaxing six days away from the sight of flesh and blood, the guys see just as much as ever—only this time it's their own!Featuring credible acting throughout, natural dialogue, a well developed sense of dread, great use of stunning scenery, and some disturbing scenes of visceral violence (including a particularly gruesome severed head on a stick), little known Canadian horror Rituals is one of the best that the backwoods slasher/survivalist sub-genre has to offer—not quite rivalling the brilliance of John Boorman's Deliverance perhaps, but deserving of a much wider audience than it currently has (as I type, the film has only 29 reviews on IMDb, compared with Deliverance's 283).One could reasonably complain that the film's lack of exposition leads to confusion about the precise motive of the killer, thus detracting a little from the film's overall effectiveness, but even taking this into consideration, Rituals is still a tense, gruelling, eerie, and atmospheric chiller well worth hunting down.

After being absolutely stunned by how good "Hunter's Blood", another "Deliverance" clone was, I had great expectations for "Rituals". It is however, almost a total misfire. The character development is nonexistent, there is way too much meaningless chattering between the five doctors, and all of the night scenes are so dark due to a lab error, that it is impossible to tell what is going on. If you like watching bad acting, tedious dialog, frequent blackouts of the screen, and an unseen menace, then this is the movie for you. I rate "Deliverance" 7.5, "Hunter's Blood" 6.0, and "Rituals" 4.0, for all of the above reasons. - MERK