The Ritual (2017 film)

Promotional image for The Ritual (2017 film)...

Summary

"They should have gone to Ibiza." A group of college friends reunite for a trip to the forest, but encounter a menacing presence in the woods that's stalking them.

Details

• Release Date: 2017
• Country/Language: UK, English, Swedish
• Genres/Technical: Horror
• Setting: Modern backwoods Sweden
• Runtime: 1 hr 34 min
• Starring: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton, Paul Reid
• Director: David Bruckner
• Writer: Joe Barton, Adam Nevill (novel)
• Producer/Production Co: Andy Serkis, Entertainment One, Imaginarium Productions
• View Trailer: (link) (NSFW)
• TVTropes: (link)
• IMDB Page: (link)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: TV-MA (Violence, Language)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• Ss___ (One and a Half Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; vaguely similar in tone, could be a very loose adaptation)

The monster is vaguely Lovecraftian, the setting is bleak and isolated, and the film's tone can be somewhat cosmic and hopeless in tone.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

Review Links:

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Synopsis (SPOILERS)

 Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
A group of college friends reunite for a trip to the forest in Sweden as a memorial to a friend who was killed in a liquor store robbery gone wrong, but encounter an ancient, menacing presence in the woods that's stalking them: the monstrous offspring of Loki, a creature that torments its victims with hallucinations and offers immortality to its cultists in exchange for their worship.

Notes

Comments, Trivia, Dedication

• The cultists are worshiping "Moder" - "mother", in English.
• Some of runes in the woods surrounding the cabin say: "property".
• The stone image a cultist is briefly seen praying before is a reproduction of the Kirkby Stephen Stone, which is believed to be a representation of Loki.

Associated Mythos Elements

• fiction: Ritual (fiction)
• race: Ghouls (or, at least, mummified immortal cultists)
• language: Wiccan and Futhark Runes
• deity: "Moder", daughter of Loki
• cult: effectively a Cult of Nyarlathotep

Keeper Notes

• A party of investigators travels through a remote corner of the Scandinavian wilderness to find what happened to a group of backpackers who have disappeared, and discover that they have fallen victim to a cult worshiping an ancient horror, sacrificing travelers and offering their own desperate terror in exchange for immortality.