The Ritual

THE GIST: A group of friends are on a hike in the mountainous wilderness when a leg injury forces them to cut the trip short. They decide to take a shortcut through the forest instead of continuing on the established route, but they soon discover that they're not alone in the secluded woods.

The woods have often been a prime location to generate suspense by leveraging our primal fears about what could be hiding among the trees. The Ritual joins in that long tradition and doesn't disappoint.

The plot if fairly basic, but the streamlined script keeps the pacing tight and the action rolling, so the end product is quite good.

I also found the casting to be spot on. I didn't know Rafe Spall before, and found him to be a pretty good actor.

THE BOTTOM LINE: If you like horror movies, you could do a lot worse frankly, so go ahead and check it out!

Grade: 7.5