Rituals is a Canadian horror film about five doctors who decide to go camping in the wilderness. What could possibly go wrong?

The obvious reference point for this film is Deliverance. I think of Rituals as ‘Sufferance’ instead.

A great cast (Hal Holbrook would go on to star in John Carpenter’s masterpiece The Fog, Lawrence Dane, who also produced Rituals, would star in Cronenberg’s similarly iconic Scanners) in a dire, slow and very boring movie.

This film outstays its welcome by its entire running time. The characters aren’t likeable in the slightest, and so it’s hard to care what happens to them.

When I looked at the comments for this film on YouTube, most commentators stated how grateful they were that a decent copy of the film had been uploaded and that this was a film that hadn’t received the acclaim it so rightfully deserved. Excuse me?! Rituals is about as welcome as a toothache. It reminded me of one of those really boring and average B-movies that would be shown as part of a double bill at the cinema when it was fashionable for two films to be shown together back in the day.

Dullsville.

1 out of 5 stars