Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

GazerRise Fantastic!

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Strange but very effective "Deliverence" clone that has to do with a number big city doctors, mostly brain surgeons, taking their yearly vacation in the Canadian wilds to get in touch with nature. Headed by reform alcoholic Harry, Hal Holbrook, trouble finds them before they make their way into the what turned out to be unfriendly wilderness with someone stealing their expensive, costing as much as $50.00 a pair, hiking boots! With only D.J, Gary Reineke, holding on , by hiding them in the brush, to his own. Using rags and plastic garbage bags as boots the rest of the adventures including Harry went out on their own to see and experience the wonders, in the hills woods and streams, of nature not quite realizing what was waiting for them.If you thought that "Deliverence" was a terrifying film "Ritules" or "The Creeper" made it look like a picnic in the park. With the doctors not only dealing with the terrors not wonders of nature going haywire but this deformed and scary looking mountain man, Michael Zenon, out to do them in for past deeds. It turns out that some 30 ago after WWII he, the mountain man, was operated on by the doctors for war injuries he received in the South Pacific. Their operations changes his striking and handsome good looks from looking like Cary Grant to the Phantom of the Opera! Hiding from humanity all that time in the Canadian woods like Big Foot "Big BoBo"-as he's known by those in the area-now sees his chance to get even with those that ruined his both professional life, in no one wanting to hire him, as well as social life, in that no woman wanting to go out on a date with him!****SPOILERS**** With the exception of D.J the only one of the crew with a pair of boots who checked out to civilization trying to get help as well as new pairs of boots for his fellow hikers the rest of the doctors are put through the ringer by the trials of nature as well as "Big BoBo" the mountain man until Harry is the only one left alive. It's then that Harry in a last desperate attempt to save both his sanity as well as life confronts in a life and death struggle the crazed mountain man in, with the movies not being able to pay its electricity bills, total darkness! Pretty good final if you have cat wolf or owl-like night vision to be able to see it but for most of us watching, who don't, you have to use you imagination to get an idea in how the movie actually ended!

gavin6942 Five doctors on a wilderness outing are stalked by disfigured, crazed killers.The only purpose of my writing this review is to stress the importance of watching a quality copy of a film. While this movie sits at 6 out of 10 (a decent rating, especially by horror standards), I cannot commit to anything more than a 5 because I simply was not able to see the film. I would probably have only given it a 4 if it was not for Hal Holbrook in a starring role.I watched this on CrypticTV, which is an incredible service for catching horror movies free on the internet or through devices like the Roku. Unfortunately, the version they used (presumably public domain) was so blurry that more often than not the screen was filled with green or brown splotches.

Tony Bush Taking its cue from Boorman's Deliverance, Rituals features a group of middle-aged city doctors heading off for a yearly holiday, this time a hiking trip in the Canadian wilderness. They are systematically terrorised, tortured and killed by a disfigured redneck. As (bad) luck would have it, this one has an axe to grind with the medical profession. So, they really picked the wrong craphole in the middle of nowhere to tramp through.Visually, this looks like your typically grainy, low budget seventies exploitation flick. What sets it apart is the quality of the writing, the performances by real actors with some pedigree to recommend them and a lack of gratuitous on screen violence. The damage inflicted to human flesh and bone is not sensationalised nor lingered upon, rather the effects and outcomes of that damage becomes the focus and defines how the story arc is affected.Rituals starts out sedately enough, and slowly cranks up the tension, as the good natured banter and leg-pulling between the "friends" (some of which is quite witty and amusing) quickly spirals into accusatory bile and recrimination as events spiral out of their control. Hal Holbrook gives a fine performance as Harry, the most moral and principled member of the group, nicely counterbalanced by Lawrence Danes' Mitzi, a cynical, self-serving and duplicitous flip-side. This gives some indication early on of who stands the best chance of survival at the end of the day.The location scenery shots are carefully rendered and provide that faint and haunting sense of "being there." The events, as the protagonists attempt to escape, are suitably gruelling and the final confrontation is escalated nicely to a satisfying climax that avoids the usual clichéd frills, shock double endings, killers who aren't really dead, and the like. The closing image of Holbrook sat in the middle of a deserted, barren highway as the sun slowly rises in a slow burn of muted golden shades lingers longest in the memory.It is pleasing to see the profile of this unassuming "lost" genre piece now being deservedly raised in a re-mastered release on DVD. Fans of Deliverance, its eerie imagery and unnerving ambiance, could do far worse than give this a spin. Hardcore slasher jockeys will most likely be disappointed by the lack of blood, guts, gore and naked teen breasts.By today's standards, Rituals is a very tame beast indeed that hasn't really maintained much power to shock the system. It does, however, engage as a fairly gripping story of human endurance in an alien environment and a depiction of civilised man's inhumanity to man. I wouldn't call it essential viewing, but it's certainly worth a look. Especially as the grotesque Stadtler and Waldorf of film critique, Siskel and Ebert, apparently didn't rate it. To me that's usually a sign of some quality, worth and meaning.

Scott LeBrun "Rituals", written by Ian Sutherland and directed by Peter Carter, may owe a fair bit, like others of its ilk, to the now legendary survival-of-the-fittest yarn "Deliverance", but is still generally well done. It does accomplish one thing that any movie of its kind should: portraying the wilderness as a place of both beauty and danger. It has the kind of atmosphere one can only get from shooting in the real wilderness, as it was filmed on breathtaking Ontario locations. The story involves five middle aged doctors at the mercy of a determined stalker who creates one setback after another for them. So, as befitting this particular genre, we get such tried and true story elements as Man Against Nature, and Man Against Man - in regards to the latter, the victimized doctors are at odds with each other, as well, sometimes sniping at each other like children, and "Rituals" is believable in the way it shows how people can crack under pressure and can bring their own baggage to any given situation. The movie certainly begins in an interesting way, with some beautiful shots accompanied by equally beautiful music by Hagood Hardy, and if one didn't know better, they might not think there were a horror movie in store for them. Some of the best moments include some deliciously nasty severed head gags and the sight of the mysterious antagonist watching from a far away hilltop. However, there are equally impressive moments that illustrate the humanity of our main characters; for example, Hal Holbrook's character Harry having to come to terms with the legacy of his father (Holbrook, the big name in this cast, is as solid as he's ever been). Another of the men, Martin (Robin Gammell), turns out to be gay, but no big deal is ever made about this little detail. Co-star Lawrence Dane, playing Mitzi, also served as producer, and he, Gammell, Ken James as Abel and Gary Reineke as D.J. all do fine work. One of the testaments to the effectiveness of this movie is the way it shoots in continuity and we can see the toll taken on the victims evolve naturally as they struggle to survive. The finale is awfully murky, yet still fairly creepy and harrowing. The movie may be a little rough throughout, but this reviewer feels it actually adds to the experience; what with the lack of any slickness, it feels more real. Decent makeup effects by Carl Fullerton ("Friday the 13th" parts 2 and 3, "Wolfen", "F/X", "The Silence of the Lambs", etc.) are a plus. Incidentally, when I think of the "Unpleasant, to say the least!" condemnation from the annual Maltin paperback guide to movies, I can't help but think what was he expecting? Such a movie should never be a "walk in the park", and "Rituals" is convincingly, compellingly spooky stuff. Eight out of 10.