The Ritual | Rafe Spall and chums find something nasty in the woods

The Ritual Robert James-Collier Rafe Spall Arsher Ali Sam Troughton

Don't take the shortcut.

Atmospheric horror thriller The Ritual sends four ex-university friends – including Rafe Spall’s guilt-wracked everyman and Robert James-Collier’s macho alpha male – on a hiking trip in northern Sweden. When they attempt a short cut through a forest, they inevitably get more than they bargained for. In the hands of director David Bruckner, the deep, dark woods are scary enough on their own, but hallucinatory psychological terrors and grisly physical dangers also lie in wait for the ill-fated quartet. When one of the hikers jeers to his more timid fellows, ‘Are you scared of the woods,’ you just know something nasty lies in store.

Certificate 15. Runtime 94 mins. Director David Bruckner

The Ritual is available on DVD & Digital from Entertainment One.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G3N0-6-YpA

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.