Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

AaronCapenBanner Hal Holbrook stars as one of five friends(all doctors) who are taking their usual outdoor vacation, only this year they fly into a secluded wilderness, where their rest is disrupted by a sinister and unseen figure who first steal their boots, then escalates things with terror then murder...Well directed by Peter Carter in real Canadian locations, this film creates an effective atmosphere of suspense and fear, aided by a capable cast that really involve you in their plight, leading to a harrowing climax.Best to see this on the restored DVD, which has the best picture quality possible, since the original negative was damaged, which makes the ending quite(literally) too dark. Otherwise, this is much more than just a "Deliverance" rip-off, which isn't a fair description.Haunting final scene is memorable.

sunznc We found a DVD copy from Synergy and it is poor quality in most spots. However, there is no denying the tension in this film. The premise has been done better in Deliverance and a few others but this film does have a very bleak and hopeless atmosphere. It's a familiar theme-five doctors go into the wilderness to camp and hike and are being hunted by someone. HIs first attack is subtle but very effective; he steals all of the men's boots. After that things quickly go downhill as the men are injured or worse. The acting is good but the dialog isn't always great. The editing is poor and this almost seems as though it was transferred from a copy made specifically for television. At times the picture is too dark to see anything. Still, the film is tense and effective.

Tony Bush 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.

lost-in-limbo After reading no less than positive thoughts (mainly by horror fans), in the back of my mind I was thinking that maybe I was setting myself up for a huge letdown after finally managing to get my hands on a copy (uncut too). Gladly to say it lived up to its reputation and I was thoroughly enthralled by the slow grinding, suspense-drilling minimal 70s survival horror set-up amongst the remote, vast Canadian deep mountainous backwoods.Five doctors meet up every year, and this reunion they decide to go on a trek in a remote mountain terrain known by the local Indians as the Cauldron of the Moon. However they soon realise they're not alone, and find they'll being stalked and slowly picked off by someone who seems to hold a grudge of some sort.What I found that separated this from most backwoods survival horror (and it shares common ground with its blatant influencer 'Deliverance') is that the characters are given more emotional weight (as background mistakes and methodical differences arose from the unbearable stress) and in doing so makes their conflicts and petty bickering intensely raw and effective in the way they stretch their friendships. This is based more so on the inflicting psychological drama, than say just the nasty action (gore and violence is kept low-key, but there is still a dangerous air of sinisterness within). It's a fight for survival, reverting back to primal instincts isn't option at first, but eventually it succumbs to. Also lingering in the well-written script is the focus of being frightened by the unknown and paralysed by abandonment. Our deranged tormentor stays pretty much a shadow (we're give a brief story or explanation to why he's humiliating and torturing these doctors. Is it personal? Does someone know more than they let on? Or it is just in the wrong place at the wrong time) to only appear as an eerily ominous figure in the picturesque backdrop (that sets off some nerves), until the final closing frames we come face-to-face with the freak of nature. The material formed by Ian Sutherland is cerebral and emotionally guided, if a little grey.Director Peter Carter efficiently constructs a productively tight pace and bleak atmospherics from the alienating locations. Distinctively skin crawling imagery can leave a haunting mark. Sure the low-budget showed up some niggles (jumpy editing and dark passages), but was neatly worked around it. The tension is gained more so from the authentic character interactions and attitudes that they battle to stay one step ahead. As it's just no the killer to worry about either, but the tearing harshness of Mother Nature. Being eaten alive by bugs. Rapid moving rivers. Unstable terrain and the beaming sun. And not to forget one another. The performances are tremendously towering and strongly delivered by a dependably competent cast. An anchor-like Hal Holbrook is demandingly sharp and Lawrence Dane is suitably good. Hagood Hardy's majestically shuddery music score had that organic sense surrounding it and fitted in perfectly. Rene Verzier's camera-work is top-rate as he sharply lenses the colourful backdrop, but also the impending intensity in the character's actions.An excellently uneasy and captivating low-budget survival trek that keeps it all quite basic, but manages to also bring out the bitter blows when it counts.