Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Best movie ever!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

III: THE RITUAL is a Russian indie horror story shot on the German border. It's about a village which has been afflicted by a supernatural plague, and when the protagonist's sister falls ill, she calls in the aid of a local priest to help out. Yep, it's THE EXORCIST played out once again, albeit on a tiny scale this time around and in a period setting. The film has a dull and depressing look to it, with lone, dirty characters swamped by isolated locations; very little happens, and it's entirely drawn out.

III is a mysterious and allegoric tale about two sisters, AYIA and MIRRA, who live in a little village infected by a contagious and fatal disease. After their mother's death MIRRA also falls ill and, helpless, her sister calls for Village's priest assistance. FATHER HERMAN (played by Evgeniy Gagarin) will help them but not in a conventional way...I watched this film in a world première at FANTASPORTO (film festival from Oporto, my home town), precisely one year ago, in March 2015, and there were present the director, the producer and both actresses.Visually the film is very strong and I must say I was impressed with its cinematography. From the mysterious and allegoric sets, the contrast dark vs light, to incredible shots of landscapes, everything looks visually beautiful. The ambiance created is very dark, intense and eerie but the characters are depressive and melancholic. Death surround them as they go deep on the dark side of their souls...

In a village ravaged by an epidemic, a girl turns to the local priest for a cure for her dying sister, but the priest has a spooky suggestion.Wow - this looks damn fine! I spent the entire film trying to figure out where it was shot: Russian language, but turns out the urban scenes are in Marburg, and the camera work takes full advantage. Also the Russian landscapes are droolishly good.Anyway, a mysterious story and I'm not sure it's a horror. Certainly light on gore, with the emphasis on mild del Toro style grotesques, and the story is stuffed to the gills with oblique hints that didn't completely help me figure out whether or not I was in an allegorical world. At one stage I thought it was really about cancer or depression, but by the end something more literal was going on. The subtitles often seemed over-egged, and I guess I missed many points of significance. But it's beautiful to watch - as another reviewer noted, this feels like a low budget, grimy version of The Cell. And maybe the title can be explained by the three trips into ... not sure what you'd call it, purgatory? I could be totally wrong, but the scene with Mirra's half-buried dopplegangers reminded me of my sole viewing of the brilliant Russian war film Come And See.Acting is good, effects are good, but way too much dialogue as characters give us exposition on their own motives - odd flaw in a highly visual production. There's a cartoon montage in the middle, as Ayia flicks through the shaman book - imaginative, but a strangely hammy effect.Apart from the camera work, the outstanding element is the score by some entity called Moonbeam, with everything thrown in to create an eerie and ethereal atmosphere, with sharp elevations in tension.Overall, I dunno. One of those movies that on a second viewing might reveal more, or confirm the suspicion of style over substance. As for horror, 'tis a mild one.

III is the first film directed by Pavel Khvaleev. It was made on a very low budget with a crew of just eight people. The result this small team achieved is remarkable.The script, which was written by Aleksandra Khvaleev, focuses upon two sisters Ayia (Polina Davdova) and Mirra (Lyubov Ignatushko). A mysterious epidemic is ravaging their rural village and the girls promise their dying mother they will look after each other. The village priest, a family friend, also promises the girl's mother to take care of them once she has gone. When Mirra falls ill with the disease, Ayia realises traditional remedies are not going to assist. Looking for an alternative way to help her sister, Ayia finds a shamanistic healing ritual in the priest's home. However, the mysterious ritual requires Ayia to enter deep into her sister's subconscious. Once there, she has to confront and resolve Mirra's innermost demons in order for healing to take place. With the help of the priest, Ayia makes a number of terrifying journeys into the sickness that is the landscape of Mirra's mind.III is beautifully filmed. Great care and attention is taken to give the viewer a real sense of time and place. One becomes aware of the remoteness of the village, the bricks and mortar of the buildings, the scope and size of the settlement. This grounding in realism contrasts beautifully with the surreal landscape of Mirra's subconscious. Lighting is also used to contrast the differences between these external and internal vistas. Naturalistic lighting is used for the external world both sisters reside in, whereas a pink and/or sepia tint colours a great deal of Mirra's fear riddled subconscious.However, horror resides in both worlds. As the story progresses, the attitude, of those running the village, changes towards people suffering from the epidemic. In Mirra's mind-scape, horror resides in both physical challenges to Ayia and within the structure of the landscape itself. Here, I thought the special effects were well managed. There is no reliance on CGI, instead the viewer sees physical performances and actual body make up. These elements, combined with the lighting, manage to create some creepy and uncomfortable moments. The only criticism I would make is that Mirra's demons weren't surprising – they felt somewhat routine and the last one was a no-brainer. Yet care had been taken to ensure they fitted logically within the narrative framework of the film. Although I felt vaguely disappointed there wasn't something more shocking and horrifying about Mirra's demons, the film's ending, plus what happens to Ayia, did mediate my disappointment. Suffice to say, I like the ending. It is chilling and a nice touch to end a horror movie on.One of the reasons I liked the ending of III so much, was that it added another layer to the story. On one level there is the simple tale of a girl trying to save her sister using a shamanistic ritual. However, by the end of the film, the viewer is aware III isn't just a tale of two sisters. Clues are given to the audience throughout yet, somehow, they're almost unobtrusive - the clues blend with what is happening as the story progresses, and what is said by the characters. The reveal at the end is arguably the true horror of this piece. Without doubt III belongs in the horror genre, but it's creepy and unsettling rather than full of blood, guts and gore. The viewer is shown grotesque body horror and disease, as the result of fear upon both the psyche, and the physical body. Then, in the final scene, we're shown a different aspect to all of these terrors.Performances are solid, honest and the characters portrayed believable. No single performance blew me away, but they all did more than enough to keep me focused and involved in the story. More work on the sister's relationship before their mother died might have engaged more emotion from this viewer, but it was a small lack rather than an overwhelming one.I thoroughly enjoyed the journey Pavel Khvaleev and his crew took me on. I found their work to be gripping. I felt III was quite an unusual art house film because the narrative was linear, with a beginning, middle and end. As a first film, this is terrific and I look forward to seeing what Khvaleev and his crew do next. I highly recommend seeing III. Film making of this stature is to be encouraged and deserves support.