The Ritual

"Your darkest dream awaits you."

2017 1h 34m EN

😐

6.3

MID

🍅

74%

FRESH

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.4

IMDB

★6.3TMDB · 3,611🍅74%Rotten Tomatoes●57Metacritic★6.4IMDB · 148,901

HorrorMystery

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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

“Your darkest dream awaits you.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Rafe Spall
Luke
Arsher Ali
Phil
Robert James-Collier
Hutch
Sam Troughton
Dom
Paul Reid
Robert
Matthew Needham
Junkie
Jacob James Beswick
Fiend
Maria Erwolter
The Host

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: David Bruckner
Writers: Joe Barton
Languages: English, Swedish
Countries: Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 9 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Swedish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by David Bruckner, shot by Andrew Shulkind. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Ben Lovett. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Mark Towns shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Rafe Spall and Arsher Ali and Robert James-Collier carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

David Bruckner directs. Andrew Shulkind behind the camera. Ben Lovett scores. Mark Towns cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English, Swedish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Released 9 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Swedish.
4International production across 3 countries: Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America.
5Directed by David Bruckner, shot by Andrew Shulkind. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Ben Lovett. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Mark Towns shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Rafe Spall and Arsher Ali and Robert James-Collier carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Your darkest dream awaits you.".
10IMDB entry: tt5638642 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 20 themes, including "robbery", "monster", "based on novel or book", "nightmare".

The technical file

Cinematography: Andrew Shulkind
Original score: Ben Lovett
Editing: Mark Towns
Production design: Adrian Curelea
Costume design: Ana Ioneci
Makeup / hair: Zoe Cooper
Sound: Ben Meechan
Stunt coordinator: Ciprian Dumitrașcu
Runtime: 94 min · 1h 34m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,000,000
Box office: $1,786,396
Return: 179% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Ritual (2017)
Rotten Tomatoes: 74% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 57/100
IMDB rating: 6.4/10 · 148,901 votes
MPAA: TV-MA

Awards

4 wins & 5 nominations total

Sitges Film Festival Best Actor award

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

David Bruckner

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2018-02-14
★ 7/10
I'm sorry, but who the fuck, with no promotional material, and with a name as generic as The fuckin' Ritual, told this movie, it was allowed to be so good? Final rating:★★★½ - I really liked it. Would strongly recommend you give it your time.
Wuchak2018-02-14
★ 7/10
RELEASED IN 2017 and directed by David Bruckner, "The Ritual" is a psychological adventure/horror about four British dudes in their 30s who embark on a hike in remote northern Sweden wherein it slowly becomes evident that some THING is stalking them in the dark woods. Will any of them make it out alive? This is basically a meshing of “The Blair Witch Project” (1999) and “Ogre” (2008), but without the tongue-in-cheekiness of the latter. There’s also a little bit of “The Wicker Man” (1973/2006). Like “Blair Witch” the foul-mouthed protagonists become increasingly horrified in the foreboding forest and eventually turn on one another. But the sylvan cinematography is leagues superior due to the spectacular Romanian locations as opposed to the pedestrian film-work of “Blair Witch” in Maryland (which is understandable since the latter is a “found-footage” flick). I’m not going to give-away the creature, which isn’t fully revealed until the last fifteen minutes, but it’s basically a hybrid of the monsters in “The Relic” (1997) and “Wendigo” (2001), albeit bigger, and superior to both. The second half deviates from the book and people complain about it, but it’s superior to the lame black metal cult of the book IMHO and you can’t beat one potent sequence that smacks of hell-on-earth. There’s also an intriguing element about achieving nigh-immortality at the price of submissive veneration. Despite these positives, the movie’s a little uneventful and humdrum, plus it's lacking in the female department. The movie runs 1 hour 34 minutes and was shot entirely in Romania. WRITERS: Joe Barton wrote the script based on Adam Nevill’s 2012 novel. CAST: The four protagonists are played by Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier and Sam Troughton. GRADE: B/B- (6.5/10)
Walruse2018-02-23
★ 4/10
The Ritual is a monster movie with psychological ambitions and seemingly a decent budget. The jötunn monster is actually quite good and so are the cyclic re-enactments of the early on liquor store trauma. Unfortunately the rest of the movie is as bland as the title and relies too much on exotism of the deep Swedish forests. Sadly even that component gets watered out and the endgame cultists seem to be some recycled wiccans from Scotland rather than pre-christians of northern Scandinavia.