Ritual
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Ritual |
| Original title | Rituals / The Creeper |
| Country of production |
USA Canada |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1977 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Peter Carter |
| script | Ian Sutherland |
| production |
Lawrence Dane Harry H. Novak |
| music | Hagood Harry |
| camera | René Verzier |
| cut | George Appleby |
| occupation | |
| |
Rituals (also: Das Ritual , OT: Rituals in the USA, The Creeper in Canada) is an American / Canadian co-production by Peter Carter . The film, shot in 1977, belongs to the Backwoods genre and has a story similar to When Everyone is First to Die .
action
Harry, Mitzi, Abel as well as the two brothers Martin and DJ, all former classmates and some highly paid doctors, meet up like every year for their adventure holiday together. This time it goes to a remote and impassable crater lake , which is cut off from the rest of civilization by a dam . The five men are dropped off with a light machine and now want to fight their way through the wilderness for seven days. The first stage succeeds without major problems, at the night camp there is partying, arguing and jokes. But the next morning the hiking boots are gone. Despite DJ's instructions, nobody but him has a replacement pair with them and so DJ sets out on his own to the dam for help. The rest of the men are left alone in the camp.
The next morning, however, someone turned an animal carcass into a staff of Aesculapius . The men decide to follow DJ when suddenly a wasp's nest falls from the tree and drives the men to the river. When the danger is over, Abel is dead. All attempts at resuscitation fail, his neck is broken. The men suspect outside interference and accuse each other, but then go on together. On a river they discover DJ's rope and try to shimmy across the river. This is made more difficult by the constantly drunk Martin, who then also steps into a bear trap hidden in the river , which seriously injures him. Mitzy and Harry decide to take him with them and transport him across the river. When Harry and Mitzy get into an argument, Martin drifts and is driven down the river. The two can catch him again, but Martin now suffers from a severe fever, triggered by the fear of death and the advancing infection. Other strange things happen, for example the unconscious Martin is given a military order of merit and x-rays from 1945 appear. It is becoming increasingly clear to the two men that a former soldier is seeking revenge on them for medical errors made by others. With Martin in tow, progress is difficult. Mitzy and Harry get into arguments again and again, with Harry not wanting to give up the unconscious friend.
You finally reach the dam, but it seems deserted. On a hill, DJ was severely injured and tied to a chair. Harry sees no option but to kill his friend to save him further suffering. Meanwhile, Mitzy disappears. Exhausted and powerless, Martin lies to rest in an abandoned building when he suddenly sees someone entering the building. He attacks him with an ax, but finds that he has fatally struck a blind, helpless man named Jesse. As he dies, he tells him about his brother Matthew, who looks after him but has not been the same since the war. Matthew actually comes, but Harry is able to fight him off, but is seriously injured in an artery himself and threatens to bleed to death. While he tries to stop the bleeding, Mitzy begs him, who was captured by Matthew and is now tied up over a fire. Harry fails to stop the bleeding in time and his friend burns. When Matthew comes into the building to murder him too, Harry can kill him with a shotgun.
background
The crater images are from Batchawana Bay in Ontario , Canada. The film was completed in 1976, but did not appear until a year later.
Rituals is obviously based on the film When Dying, which was released five years earlier, everyone is first . The film was not distributed sufficiently and was considered lost for a long time. In 1982 the film was released on video in an abridged television version in the United States, while the Canadian release was at least unabridged.
A German-language dubbed version only appeared in 2006 via X-Gabu-Video, was then reissued by X-Rated in 2007 and is now distributed via KNM.
Reviews
The 1977 film was named by horror writer Stephen King in the non-fiction book Danse Macabre as his favorite B-movie . The reviews, however, were rather meager. When the film was released on video in Canada in 1982, it was attacked by film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who dubbed it the Dog of the Week twice in a row .
Web links
- Rituals in the Internet Movie Database (English)