Wonderful character development!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Properly creepy, grim, seventies stalk and slash film starring Hal Halbrook as one of five cantankerous old surgeons out in the Canadian wilds for a bit of recreation, only for all their boots to be stolen on the first night. One of them sets off for help, but when a deer carcass is displayed outside their camp, the other reckon that hanging around might not be a good idea, and head off themselves. They are followed (or perhaps even led on) by a mysterious figure, whose motives aren't clear, but not friendly for sure. I guess the slasher film hadn't fallen into the 'teen victims only' by this point in the genre, so instead of mouthy youngsters, you've got bitter middle aged men bickering, drinking whiskey, and having meltdowns while traps are laid for them and their friendship is tested to the limit. When I thought the film was beginning to tread water a bit (literally at one point) it actually started to get a bit nasty, what with the head on the stick bit and a nasty shotgun blast to a hand. There's an element of mystery to proceedings and the glimpses of the killer (reflected in water, standing on distant hill) was very effective. My only gripe isn't with the film but just the quality of the DVD I had, which made some parts of the finale a bit hard to see (but luckily I didn't seem to miss anything). Highly recommended.

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.

The excellent Hal Holbrook leads a fine cast of relative unknowns in a fight for survival against a deranged killer amidst the natural dangers of the Canadian wilderness.Holbrook plays Harry, one of a group of five middle-aged surgeons who take to the 'great outdoors' for a spot of fishing and hiking, but wind up being hunted by a mysterious killer with a grudge against doctors. Rather than spending a relaxing six days away from the sight of flesh and blood, the guys see just as much as ever—only this time it's their own!Featuring credible acting throughout, natural dialogue, a well developed sense of dread, great use of stunning scenery, and some disturbing scenes of visceral violence (including a particularly gruesome severed head on a stick), little known Canadian horror Rituals is one of the best that the backwoods slasher/survivalist sub-genre has to offer—not quite rivalling the brilliance of John Boorman's Deliverance perhaps, but deserving of a much wider audience than it currently has (as I type, the film has only 29 reviews on IMDb, compared with Deliverance's 283).One could reasonably complain that the film's lack of exposition leads to confusion about the precise motive of the killer, thus detracting a little from the film's overall effectiveness, but even taking this into consideration, Rituals is still a tense, gruelling, eerie, and atmospheric chiller well worth hunting down.

Often compared to John Boorman's "Deliverance" (1972), Peter Carter's "Rituals" (aka. "The Creeper") of 1977 is a creepy and effective Canadian 'backwoods' Horror film which isn't too well-known, but enjoys a certain cult-status among Horror fans. The comparisons with "Delicerance" are obvious: A bunch of civilized men take a trip into the wilderness in order to have an adventure in the beauty of nature, and have to experience unexpected terrors. In this case, five medical doctors take a trip to go hiking in a remote lakeside area in the deep Canadian woods, days' walks away from civilization. In the first night, their boots get stolen. From that time onward, the friends are getting stalked by a murderous phantom fiend...The film was obviously shot on a modest budget, and is very well-made. The beautiful but inescapable Canadian wilderness is a perfect location for a backwoods horror film, and "Rituals" maintains a truly creepy and menacing atmosphere from the beginning to the end. None of the characters is really likable, which slightly lessens the suspense, as one isn't as scared for them. The characters are thereby those one would expect in such a film: There is the heroic tough guy (Hal Holbrook), the scumbag (Lawrence Dane), the wuss (Robin Gammell), the clown (Gary Reinecke). Personally, I always lament the lack of a woman character in a Horror film, as I find it a lot easier to be scared for a woman than for a man. However, I see the point, as a trip into the wilderness is something that a bunch of guys would do together. The somewhat gonzo-style cinematography in the wilderness sometimes increases the feeling of presence (and therefore the creepiness) and reminded me of the Italian Cannibal films (such as "Cannibal Holocaust") that were shot around the time and later. The score is very good and effective, and the moments of powerful Classical music fit the film very well. The violence is not overtly gory, but quite disturbing. Especially in its second half, the film gets creepy as hell. Overall, "Rituals" is highly recommendable, especially to my fellow fans of gritty low-budget 70s Horror.